Rob Van Dam’s favorite opponent:
Throughout my whole career that’s going to be Jerry Lynn. When I first wrestled him in ECW I could have bowled right over him and I could have been yesterday’s challenger. But, I thought there was something special about him. And so the first time I wrestled him we went 25 minutes and by the end pf the match my hair was pulled out all over the place, I had a bloody nose, my outfit was ripped, we had splinters we we were pulling out of our ass and when I finally beat him I felt like I had earned that victory and that for me was something I enjoyed about that time period in ECW being the whole F’N Show I had enough control to do my part to do what I could to make sure that anyone that bought a ticket to come to see me got their money’s worth. Later in lofe that’s take. Away because what can you rely do when you’re only out there for 2 minutes. And that’s going to include two ring entrances, a run in and a finisher. At that point you can’t be the Whole F’N show every night so that’s where some of the compromising was happening. Jerry Lynn and also Sabu because he’s so like minded. When we have a match we both have similar ideas what would make it a killer match. So that’s what’s important.
Is there a Fan difference between organizations?
Yes. Absolutely. ECW fans were original. They were part of the show. They were a bigpart of the show and other fans in other towns in other countries would imitate the fans that were on ECW television. Now with WWE there’s a mixture because it’s such a big crowd. You have the Middle America crowd that they target. It’s children and families and it’s family entertainment. The hardcore fans also go to those shows so you’re going to feel their energy too. But the wide majority of that vibration and energy from the crowd is more a family fin kind of thing. Now the fans in TNA that would come out to Universal Studios when I was there were shuttled in from the park where they were riding roller oasters and got to go to a free show. Then there were other fans that were there to support the product, that believed in the product and really wanted to see TNA move ahead. But at the same time, those fans wanted to do their part to help the company move ahead.
The ECW One Night Stand Atmosphere:
I think everybody watching that could feel the atmosphere watching that. The fans were screaming and there’s always been this feud between Philly and New York. And they would argue about whoch fans were the better ECW fans and we would travel back and forth and they both wanted us to consider them a home. The Manhattan Ballroom was the perfect environment to capture that energy that had fans pouring over top of us. Just the fact that those fans that night were 100% behind me and my passion and my vision which brought that night to fruition because it was me alone that said hey let’s have a PPV that’s ECW.
Thoughts on His TNA Run:
When I first got there they were trying to do Monday nights up against Raw and I thought that sounded exciting. I didn’t know much about them but they were trying to hire some former WWE guys. During my time there, they were still trying to do the right thing. Moving nights and moving out of the studios and doing TV on the road. But at that time, that was the same week I had left them after doing 3 years with them. It was cool. It was an easy gig. I would work for two days and then I would have two weeks off. So that was the easiest gig of my career until they started adding more house shows. More events. I had a cap on how many shows I would do in a year. So, when they would use up all my dates then they’d injure me and I’d be off for a couple months. There were some times they were doing things right, other times not so right. When they turned Jeff Hardy into a heel I thought that was the stupidest thing ever. It was hard to take alot of what they were doing seriously. I was there for them trying to do my part to help spread the word do what I could do help draw attention to TNA. When they moved to Destination America I wasn’t surprised. I was always hearing their deal with Spike was over. While I was there, I was always hearing TNA’s gonna fold and they’ve still been going strong against all these rumours so I’m not going to rule them out. As long as there’s a reason to believe they’ll be around, I think they can do it. Destination America’s a new channel. Nobody knows about it so their viewership went way down and plummeted. But hopefully that’s just temporary growth pain. In the meantime, I don’t think any ody’s touching WWE’s position as number 1. I think it is a good year for independent to step up.
What’s Next for Rob Van Dam?
There’s a lot in the writing world. It’s very important to me I get my autobiography out before I die and someone else writes it and screws up my life. But I have other writing projects I’m still working on but in the future I see myself using my brain more and my body less.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
