Rob Van Dam Talks TNA & WWE's ECW Reincarnations, Training Ultimate Warrior, Lesnar's Return

Joshua Modaberi recently interviewed Rob Van Dam, here are some highlights from the interview:

The original ECW invasion angle in WWF: "I was actually angry with Paul becuase at the time I felt underused and I had an offer from Eric Bischoff to go to WCW and then Paul had this idea where he could get me on WWF television doing this angle with the spotlight on me. Everybody was expecting me to go to WCW because they knew about my offer but we pulled the plug and I would turn up on Raw and it was something that had never been done.

"It was a great angle with lots of twists and turns and my debut on WWE television was actually against Jeff Hardy and lots of people don't remember that because at the time he was just a jobber. The angle only lasted for four or five weeks, and then I found out that Vince McMahon actually thought that I was being transferred over to the WWE and Paul kind of let it self destruct.

"When we went over to the WWE for the angle we were told to watch our backs because their guys didn't want to get beat by us and it ended up on a sour note when they made ECW look bad. We were there to get ECW exposure on WWE television because we needed it as we were growing and it helped us out a lot. I didn't realise it had all blown apart until Sabu, Vince and myself all sat down and talked but I ended up walking out, and have walked out from everywhere when I thought it was time."

WWE relaunching ECW with One Night Stand: "I had high hopes for One Night Stand, I pitched the idea to Vince because I loved ECW and all of the fans at the Raw and Smackdown shows were chanting 'ECW' when myself and other former ECW wrestlers made our way to the ring. I gave Vince a list of 14 guys that had been in the original ECW that were on WWE's books at the time and they didn't need to bring anyone else in. Vince liked the idea and thought that he could make some money from it and I was getting more excited each time we talked about it.

"I was glad we had it and I thought it was awesome, there are things that I could complain about but my major complaint was that I had knee surgery and couldn't wrestle but again I talked on the microphone. What I said on the mic did more for me than what a match would have done as far as I will be remembered in people's memories, because they didn't know I could talk because WWE didn't want those people to know I could talk.

"I didn't like it when they used ECW as the third brand just like Raw and Smackdown with all the rules and all of a sudden it didn't mean anything anymore, it basically squeezed every last bit out of our hearts that we had left."

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."

Brock Lesnar's return to the WWE: "When I saw Brock lose his last UFC fight I actually tweeted 'looks like someone is going to be heading back to WWE', it was an obvious move and a good move. After Rock v Cena at WrestleMania, bringing Brock back was probably the biggest thing they could have done in wrestling today and it is great to see Paul Heyman on TV again."

Training The Ultimate Warrior: "He called me and wanted me to train him because he had his first match coming back in ten years and he was fifty years old. I was honoured because I was a big fan of his and we actually went to a wrestling school, so I didn't want to go to rough on him and didn't want to take a chance injuring him so we did a bit on the ropes and worked off some cobwebs. We only did it the once but talked about doing a few more times but it never happened, he did do some RVD TV for me and he was super cool."

Working for Dixie Carter, Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman: "I would say that Dixie rules with love, Vince rules with fear and Paul rules by letting you think your ruling."

Much more is contained in the interview, you can read it by clicking here.

Source: Wrestling 101