Rob Van Dam recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam about his new documentary ‘Headstrong’ which is available on iTunes and other digital retailers now.
Rob Van Dam will team with Sabu at IMPACT Wrestling’s United We Stand against The Lucha Brothers, and he said he’s looking forward to the matchup of different styles:
“I feel like it’s going to be okay to lay it in. It’s going to be okay for me and Sabu to watch each others’ backs and bring it up a notch honestly. I’ve wrestled Pentagon a couple of times in California and some of the things he does isn’t really consistent with my old school thought process so he kinda represents more like a new school. And I know Sabu and I we have each others’ backs, we don’t have to worry about adapting or changing anything, we’re going to be ourselves, so I’m looking forward to just bringing it and seeing how much silly new age stuff they wanna do when we’re making them eat chairs, so to speak.
When I watch wrestlers nowadays, I see two people grab each other, they both jump up, they both fall down, I’m like dude wait, who did the move to who, and like who did that hurt, I don’t know. I don’t know if you notice it or not, or if regular fans notice it, maybe I’m guilty for inspiring a lot of these guys with my out of the box moves, but I had to get that shit it, like if you’re doing something with Stan Hansen in Japan, you’re not going to be able to say “so you’re really doing the move, I’m going to act like I’m.. you have to do a flip over..” It wasn’t like that, you had to get your shit in. So if you’re on the mat, and I’m going to leg drop you, you don’t need to know if I’m doing a 360 before I drop the leg or not. That is how I learned to get my stuff in in the real world of the competitive, All Japan Wrestling. And I mean everything has to evolve, and I get that, but I don’t have to accept it because I’m on the fringes, I’m not trying to.. I already proved myself, I’m not looking to do anything except for what I wanna do, and that’s for every aspect of my life, that’s what comes from steady life. But when I watch wrestling, that happens a lot. I’ve seen incredible moves that I’ve never seen before, y’know, some of them.. Fit within the realms of what Sheik would’ve approved of, let’s say, perhaps. Or not, Sheik didn’t really when you were going off the top rope. But if you can get it in, cool, if it’s like ‘here you pick me up, then you jump up and jump around, and then land and it’s you doing everything, then it’s like.. that stuff is.. and you’re hearing this from a guy who would throw a chair in from of them and catch it, I gotta point that out. But if you don’t catch the chair I’m going to kick you in the face anyway so I’d rather hope it’s there.”
Read More: Rob Van Dam On Considering Himself ‘Semi-Retired’, Working And Training With Sabu (Exclusive)
Rob Van Dam also talked about All Elite Wrestling’s potential, and said while he’s excited for the promotion to succeed, they do still have to prove history wrong:
“I think that it’s great. I was just doing interviews 4 or 5 years ago explaining how this is going to happen because of the monopolized industry with WWE. I was seeing all the different organizations around the world with their own cult following where the fans felt like they were a big part of the product and wanted to see it succeed. And so they had that support, and I was seeing that. First time I really got it was, I was in Manchester, over at Preston City Wrestling over there, and I couldn’t believe it, it was like a soccer crowd hybrid with a ECW crowd. And every wrestler, that I didn’t know, they were chanting chants for everything. The guy I wrestler when I was over there, we didn’t lock up for 10 minutes, because they kept, he had all these things he did over there, like he grabbed the turnbuckles and he played them like bongos and I was like “what? Keep going, I’ll take a nap!” and then I saw it in Baltimore and I realized it was going to happen, it was gonna be like the territory days in a way where the guys will have opportunities for places to work.
I couldn’t have predicted that Cody Rhodes was going to be as successful and everything that they have going on, but with something that big, I wish them all the luck, and at the same time they’re going to have to prove history wrong. Because there’s always a group coming up that all the boys get excited about with big money “this one’s got Major League Baseball behind it, they have health insurance” and they sign all the boys up. And usually when they have a lot of money, it’s because they’re good with money, so if they don’t make money, or they start losing after a while, they usually stop funding. And I’m just saying that I’m looking forward to and I hope that All Elite Wrestling can finally beat that. I don’t see anybody really taking WWE off the no. 1 spot but who knows, with certain markets and stuff I’m sure it can be done.
I’m not looking to do anything with wrestling, but money talks. I’m always interested in considering good business, that’s really how I feel about it.”
Read More: Rob Van Dam On Sharing His Personal Life In On ‘Headstrong’, Feeling Energized By Comedy
