page_title: Maximum Destruction
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Maximum Destruction / History
context_page_description: Maximum Destruction, also known as Max-D, is a monster truck team owned by Tom Meents that runs as part of the Monster Jam circuit.
context_section_description: In 1999, Clear Channel (now Feld Entertainment) signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling to create monster trucks based on popular professional wrestlers. In order to ensure the success of the truck of Goldberg, Clear Channel contracted the team of Tom Meents (who was already popular from driving Monster Patrol and Bulldozer) to build and campaign the "Goldberg" truck. Meents debuted in the truck in January 2000 at the Georgia Dome, where he won racing and finished third in freestyle. As the year progressed, and as Dennis Anderson struggled in Grave Digger, Meents dominated and capped the year by winning the first Monster Jam World Finals Racing Championship. The following year saw a continuation of the dominance, when Meents won the world racing and freestyle championships.
  In 2001, WCW was bought out by the World Wrestling Federation and the deal with Clear Channel was dropped. For 2002, Meents kept the same truck and body but renamed the truck Team Meents, even retaining much of Goldberg's color scheme and graphics. Once again, Meents swept both the racing and freestyle at World Finals 3.
  In 2003, saw the truck change both name and image to become Maximum Destruction, a name which Meents had intended to run the year before until he delayed those plans out of respect for the September 11 attacks. Neil Elliot began driving a second truck for the team that year as well. The team has remained significantly popular, and is now generally introduced as the chief rival of Grave Digger, the tours' most popular team.
  In 2005 Meents jumped Maximum Destruction over his old house, before destroying the house with the truck.
  In 2013, Maximum Destruction celebrated 10 years. The trucks were painted in a new livery featuring spikes around the body, and the truck began to be known as "Max-D". At World Finals 14, Meents won freestyle in Max-D, earning his 11th World Finals Championship.
  In 2016, Meents's two stepsons, Colton and Jared Eichelberger, joined the team. At World Finals 17, both Meents and Colton competed in the main events while Jared competed in the Young Guns Shootout. During the racing encore, Meents jumped his truck over five monster trucks. In an attempt to break this record, he tried to jump over six trucks in April at Levis Stadium, though the trucks were positioned to either side of the area Meents was jumping, thus not breaking the record. This was mainly because of the conditions of the muddy track. He later reattempted this, successfully jumping over six trucks later in the same month at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
  In 2017, Meents sustained an injury and was unable to compete. Due to his injury, Meents did not compete in World Finals 18. Dennis Anderson also sustained an injury, making this the first time where Meents and Anderson both did not compete in the World Finals; Anderson would retire after that season.
  In 2018, at World Finals 19, the Max-D team celebrated their 15-year anniversary of the truck with a special encore after competition ended, featuring all the Max-D trucks throughout the past years, including the original Maximum Destruction truck.
caption: Tom Meents signing autographs in front of Maximum Destruction
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