As with many environments, professional wrestling has its fair share of unspoken rules that you fall foul of at your peril.

As an empire with mega egos, bustling physiques and overloads of adrenaline, WWE is never short of drama both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

Maven spent four years wrestling with WWE after winning Tough Enough

One-time starlet Maven, who was the first ever male winner of the Tough Enough reality competition to find the next rising star of the grappling world, knows this all too well.

With his in-ring days now behind him, the enterprising 47-year-old is busy sharing the many secrets of his wrestling career on a YouTube channel that dishes the dirt in a fairly tongue-in-cheek way.

One instalment sees the athlete run down WWE’s top ‘unwritten rules’, from not discussing your pay in the locker room to offering up your seat backstage to more seasoned pros.

The star went as far as to admit that he’d breached one such golden rule, believing that it played a major part in his eventual WWE departure in 2005.

Revealing that he’d simply failed to put in enough pre-show ring time during his years with the company, he explained: “[This rule] was the rule that, ultimately, in my opinion led to me being fired.

“A lot of people don’t realise this, but at a WWE show, the ring is set up hours before any of the patrons get to the building.

“It gives the guys an opportunity to get down to the ring and maybe work on their match for later that night, and work on moves they’re trying to perfect, and they aren’t comfortable trying to do on the show.

“That ring is set up so you can work on your craft.”

Maven once defended a championship at WWE WrestleMania, but says he fell foul of an unwritten company rule

WWE, Maven says, even gave him fair warning that more fine tuning was required, but he accepts he thought he knew better.

He added: “To his credit, Johnny Ace [former executive John Laurinaitis] told me multiple times that it was in my best interests to get down to the ring and work with guys like Fit Finaly, who is a wealth of knowledge.

“What can I say? I was a 25, 26-year-old kid who didn’t listen to good advice.

“I thought it was probably a better idea to go off to the gym and get a workout in once I had my match down.

“Had I [gone] down and tried to get better and learned from guys like Fit Finlay, Stevie Richards, The Hurricane, Arn Anderson and Terry Taylor, all of those guys who had an abundance of knowledge and were trying to give it, I might have been able to stay in the WWE a little longer.

“I definitely would’ve become a better worker, that goes without saying but, hey, I was a kid.”

The Tennessee native enjoyed a memorable four-year stint in WWE, racking up some incredible moments along the way.

He was involved in a storyline feud with legend The Undertaker after once eliminating the Deadman from the Royal Rumble, and once wrestled Chris Jericho for the company’s Undisputed Championship.

Now a YouTube star, Maven claims he was a bundle of nerves backstage at WrestleMania in 2002

He was arguably his most nervous before achieving the ultimate dream of many a young wrestling fan, though – appearing at WrestleMania.

The equivalent to the NFL Super Bowl or England’s FA Cup Final, WrestleMania represents the pinnacle of the wrestling business.

Maven was involved in tomfoolery surrounding the Hardcore Championship at ‘Mania 18 in 2002 on the night that saw Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson square-up to Hulk Hogan in one of the most iconic matches of all time.

The relative rookie has since revealed that The Rock incredibly stepped in to ease his nerves before he stepped out in front of the massive, sell-out crowd.

“I was nervous and it’s probably an hour before I go out,” he recalled, in an interview with Chris Van Vliet.

“I literally used to think it before every match… ‘I hate this… why did you pick this as a career?!’

“This was WrestleMania so I’m obviously terrified, and Rocky sees me.

“He comes and he’s like the epitome of cool, he’s like ‘Mave’, and I’m [thinking] he’s gonna give me the secret, he’s gonna give me the special sauce.

The Rock gave some cheeky advice to Maven before going out to have one of the most iconic wrestling matches ever against Hulk Hogan

“As deadpan as you can imagine, he goes: ‘…No one’s expecting much out of you, just do the best you can.’

“He turned around and I’m like ‘what?!’

“He turned and you know that smile, and he gave me a wink. That was levity that was needed at that moment.”