WRESTLING: An interview with Rob Van Dam (Part Two)

Part two of a two-part feature

By eWrestling.com Feature Editor, Scott Williams Special to eWC from www.TFHWrestling.com

Ken Tuccio - A lot of the ECW guys have gone into the WWF recently to some success. Jerry Lynn was given the Light Heavyweight Championship, Rhyno the Hardcore Champion. Have you had a chance to watch the WWF product with the ECW guys in it and do you have an opinion on it?

Rob Van Dam - I've watched some of it, I did see Rhyno on Wrestlemania and I thought he was very good and he was being used the exact same way he was being used in ECW. He was the big heel monster who would come in and gore everybody, deliver some vicious, vicious, bumps. He would take the Sandman's wife and piledrive her off the apron through a table to the floor. It looks as if they are taking that, and from what I've seen, it doesn't look like it has been taken to another level which is probably their plan. It's being brought to a wider market but it looks like whoever's in charge there in the WWF liked a lot of the storylines and a lot of the angles going on there in ECW. Now with Paul Heyman there in the WWF it is my understanding that he has quite a bit of pull there as well, and that's apparent through seeing what's going on with the ECW guys.

Ken Tuccio - ECW had their last show in, I believe, Arkansas which is not an "ECW City" . It was not a normal crowd that ECW catered to. Would you be all for it if someone put together all the ECW guys and brought them to either the Viking Hall or the Madhouse of Extreme and just put on one last show for the core fans of ECW.

Rob Van Dam - That would probably be one of the coolest things I can imagine happening in my wrestling career. When I did the Pay Per View in January it almost felt like that to me because I had quit ECW at that time. When I left to go to Thailand to shoot the movie Black Mask 2, I left in October and was gone for like 5 weeks and during that time my lawyer was getting me released from my contract. I had already reached a point of no return where I knew I was on my way out, Paul knew I was on my way out, none of the issues I had were possibly gonna' be solved and it just had to go that way.

So in January when ECW did their Pay Per View Paul and I talked about setting our issues aside just for the one night, and we just came to an agreement to just work that one night. It felt just like that to me, I felt that this might possibly be my last ECW match. One last time to get in the ring before who knows what was gonna happen at that time. At that time I thought I may just be jumping into negotiations with someone, I didn't know. But I did figure if I was gonna' get one more chance to wrestle in my favorite ring, in my favorite dressing room, with my favorite set of the boys, with my favorite commentator Joey Styles announcing my stuff, with my favorite crowd.the hardcore ECW crowd, showing their appreciation for me. I was all about that. For me it was a lot like what you're mentioning and if that were to happen in the future, a reunion, you better count me in.

Ken Tuccio - That would be great. Now since you left ECW you have been doing a lot of independent stuff, you worked for UPW in California right.

Rob Van Dam - I've been doing a few, not a whole lot. I'm selective about independents. I really don't like working independents a lot. So what I end up doing is either working with promoters whom I'm friends with, or who I have worked with in the past before, or someone who I might be impressed with their product. I came up on the independents, and I no longer like to wrestle in front of really small crowds. I've had the rings break several times while I'm in them, you never know what to expect. I've even been stiffed on money, of course that was a long time ago, and now I have ways to try and protect myself from all that. Since I came back in November from Thailand, and I did the ECW show in January, I went to Japan. had 10 matches in two weeks over there.

I feel like I can go full time in All Japan whenever I wanted to , they have always appreciated me , but I have never wanted to, I feel two weeks is enough for me in Japan. We're on the road when we're over there. Different arena every night, different town. Terrible bus rides, horrible food, checking in and out of these cubicle hotel rooms that are 200 degrees, and it gets frustrating for me. I appreciate the competition over there but I can't see going full time over there. I've done UPW in California, GCW in St. Louis, The Wrestling Zone I think it's called in Virginia and Maryland, last week I was in the Carolinas, North Carolina and South Carolina doing Rob Van Dam Appreciation Days . Those are very cool cause I can go to a designated area like a mall even when wrestling's not in town and have a few hundred fans come out to meet and greet me, I've always enjoyed that. I'm gonna be wrestling in Chicago for Windy City Wrestling on May 26th, which is the next actual wrestling date I've got coming up.

Ken Tuccio - You've been talking about Thailand, of course for Black Mask 2. I've also heard rumors of you opening up your own wrestling school.is there anything else going on for you not associated with actually being inside the ring wrestling?

Rob Van Dam - I've got so many balls in the air right now that I'm juggling, and that's the way I like it, but I have a lot of things that I'd really like to jump on right now but can't because I have to wait and see what else happens. The wrestling school is one of quite a few ideas I have that I'm putting on hold because I'm talking with Jim Ross about the possibility of working with them. We are just starting to negotiate, officially we have not started negotiating yet, but we're in that stage right now where they are speaking with my management.

Right now I think I have to concern myself with how much time I'll have in the future. If I'm out on the road four days a week there's no way I'm gonna want to train people here 3 days a week too, I would go nuts. I've gotta' have time for everything else. So the school and some other wrestling promotions as well as some stuff I haven't even opened my mouth about yet, I have to wait and see. If I can't do them because I make a deal and end up having to go back to work then they'll probably be dormant for a few years and I'll end up doing these things anyway. Of course I live out here in Los Angeles so I do a lot of Hollywood stuff. That could mean a lot of things. That could mean that I have actual jobs or that could mean that I have meetings. I have meetings a lot of times with directors or producers or casting people or whomever, people in the business.

Sometimes without even a project in mind I have meetings to meet people, I have meetings to spread ideas. As a matter of fact after I get done with this here I am going to a meeting for a Sony commercial I did an audition for last week, a call back is a good thing, that means they liked me and they want to see me again.

Ken Tuccio - You can't blame them for that though.

Rob Van Dam - That's the thing though. With that it all depends on what they like. I mean if they want a wrestler who's also an actor then there's really not a whole lot of choices out here in LA, especially if they want a legitimate wrestler to play off of their marketability. Some of the jobs I've had out here have just been handed to me simply because of star status. That's how I got X-Files, that's how I got 18 Wheels of Justice, that's how I got Spy TV, that's how I got V.I.P. as a matter of fact and the auditions I like to do as well.

It's something that some of the stars just don't like to do. Sometimes it might just be that their looking for a hairy armpit for a deodorant commercial. So I choose them somewhat selectively as well, but I enjoy doing it, I enjoy every opportunity that comes my way. Besides that I have some writing projects that I'm very excited about. They've been taking up a lot of my time lately . Most importantly to mention is the comic book that I'm writing. It's a fictional story I've written a while ago, it has nothing to do with me or wrestling. I'm doing several things with this story, and one of them is gonna' be a comic book that we are putting together right now.

Ken Tuccio - Well Mr. Van Dam I can't thank you enough for doing this interview, I truly appreciate it.

Rob Van Dam - Very cool, not a problem.

Article courtesy of eWrestling.com