Rob Van Dam Discusses Dean Ambrose Leaving WWE
The fallout from Dean Ambrose's announced departure from WWE after WrestleMania continues and many wrestlers are giving their two cents on the situation. The latest is Rob Van Dam who has never had an issue with walking away from a company whenever he saw fit.
Van Dam joined our WINCLY podcast here on Wrestling Inc. where he discussed Ambrose's mindset and how he's had similar choices to make throughout his career.
"I can't speak for Dean, but I've always been one to just leave when I'm not happy," said RVD. "That's a great mindset. When I left WWE in 2007, Chris Benoit said, 'A lot of us boys respect you because you know when it's time to go. A lot of us don't.'"
RVD says it's chilling to think back on that and perhaps Benoit had the mindset of being shackled and unable to get away.
"I think it's great for someone to walk away. I left WCW in '93 and Benoit said back then, 'I think you're stupid for leaving! You know how many people would want your job? You're on tv. Where are you going to go? To the indies?'
"It worked for me and I went from being unhappy to being happy and making money. Anyone who wants to do that now, I'm not surprised."
RVD has accomplished just about everything in sports entertainment that there is to accomplish. He was asked if there was still one dream match or dream opponent out there.
"I get asked that question a lot. But I don't do fantasy picks," stated RVD. "It's more of a job for me. I have a lot of fun with certain guys especially when a guy wrestles more of my style because it's less of a compromise."
Van Dam then teased an upcoming match he has at WrestleCon in early April.
"Coming up, well I guess they haven't announced it so I better not announce it. Lets just sat at WrestleCon, I have a match coming up and I'm looking forward to it," said RVD.
Van Dam recently finished up his documentary, Headstrong, and he gave more details about what fans can expect.
"Headstrong is available right now for pre-order on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Vudu," said Van Dam.
"It's something that I worked hard on for like two years so I'm glad that it's done. Each time I went over it with the director, it got better and better.... I totally expect people to love this movie, especially if they love RVD. It's not the scripted RVD you see on tv. I go super-personal and way past the point where most people would feel comfortable about letting people in."
RVD mentioned they filmed at a wrestling convention in New York and a lot of wrestling personalities make the film including King Kong Bundy, the NWO, John Hennigan, the late Bobby Heenan and others.
There is also an appearance by the late, great Bruno Sammartino.
"Bruno Sammartino [is in the film] and it was his very last public appearance," said Van Dam. "It's really cool for me because I'm trying not to bother him and he's got a big line?But he pulls me in and he says, 'Rob Van Dam, I've gotta tell you. I've seen you in the ring many times and you're pretty damn great.' It's so awesome to have that and I might have even missed it in person, but I love seeing it in the documentary and I'm very proud of it."
Headstrong is now available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Vudu.
You can listen to RVD's full WINCY interview in the embedded audio player below. In it he talks further about Headstrong, his hundreds of concussions, the launch of AEW and more. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here.
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