Rob Van Dam Interview

How did you first get into the sport of professional wrestling?
"I started watching wrestling through WrestleMania and for WrestleMania II I actually watched in an arena and paid to watch it on a screen. Hulk Hogan was the man, but I was a big Ultimate Warrior fan. Some of the guys that caught my attention weren’t necessarily the main focus, I liked ‘Leaping’ Lenny Poffo a lot because he would do flying headbutts and moonsults, when other guys wouldn’t even leave their feet and that caught my imagination. Owen Hart as the Blue Blazer, was the first time I had seen anybody do that sort of stuff because when I was growing up the average wrestler was 275 lbs and they weren’t really doing a lot of athletic moves. It wasn’t until some time later in life that I would be exposed to Japanese and Mexican wrestling and when everybody saw that the standards changed forever, and I would like to think that I had a part to play in that."

Many people draw comparisons between WCW and TNA, do you feel there will ever be another company like ECW?
"No I don’t because there are too many factors and one of those factors was that time period. We were pioneers and it was so cool because none of the stuff we were doing had ever been seen before. That type of wrestling has now been done to death and a lot of indy wrestlers do that style of wrestling but they don’t know why they’re doing it. To make another ECW you would have to not only capture the same spirit , toughness and the same willingness of all the performers we had to really give everything for that company but also it will need to be cool and cutting edge for 2012 not for what it was then and I can’t imagine in my mind what that would take, and I don’t think we will ever see anything like the original ECW again."

What did you make of TNA’s reincarnation of ECW, Hardcore Justice?
"I enjoyed it, Sabu and I had an awesome match and to be honest I thought he would still be in TNA today because on that night he proved he can still go. 2 Cool Scorpio had an awesome match with Kid Kash. It was a great night all in all and all of the guys had a great time and we were really thankful to Dixie Carter for letting us do that but we didn’t want to carry it on just to milk it. I guess there are certain people that will always look to make money on the back of ECW, Shane Douglas recently held a Hardcore Reunion event also."

You are currently under contract with TNA, and two guys that have a similar career path to you are Bully Ray and Devon, what have you made of their singles pushes?
"I think that it has been a good move for both of them, they obviously like the spotlight and when you’re a tag-team then you share that spotlight. They have been partners for a long time and achieved so much during their time together, and I’m sure like most partnerships they just needed some time apart from each other and they can now grow on their own. I wrestled Bully Ray recently in singles competition and he’s in the best shape of his career and he’s built kind of like his action figure now. Devon is also the current Television championship and is defending the title on a regular basis, so things are going well for the Dudley Boys."

When will we next see you with gold around your waist?
"It will only be a matter of time, I’ve held more titles than any other World Champion, so gold always finds its way around RVD’s waist, well my shoulder, I hardly wear the titles around my waist."

Are there any dream matches that you would like to have?
"I’ve been in the ring and had matches with a lot of guys, someone did recently mention John Morrison and I think that would be a great match, it’s not a big dream of mine or anything but I was hanging out with him recently and we got talking about having a match and some of the things we came up with sounded pretty awesome."

Having worked with Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon and Dixie Carter how would you compare your three bosses in terms of their similarities and differences?
"I would say that Dixie rules with love, Vince rules with fear and Paul rules by letting you think your ruling."

What have you made of the way wrestlers are using the internet and social networking sites?
"I actually first started watching Hardy Boy’s TV, and that is what gave me the idea to do RVD TV and radio. Lots of wrestlers have their own YouTube channels and podcasts, and I think it is a great idea because when we’re wrestling we’re only able to show one side of ourselves, which are the characters we portray but we actually have other sides to us that are the real us."