Rob Van Dam Reveals Impact Future, Talks Vince McMahon Conversation From Years Ago, AEW, More
Rob Van Dam recently spoke with Scott Fishman to promote his new "Headstrong" documentary that was released last month. You can see the trailer for the documentary above, and you can purchase it on iTunes.
RVD has previously stated that he suffered "hundreds" of concussions in his career and the new documentary focuses on those injuries and how they have affected him. RVD talked to Fishman about a conversation he had with Vince McMahon when he first came to WWE years ago, about putting his hands up to protect his head from chair shots.
"I never knew I could be doing long-term damage. For me, one of the things I enjoy about professional wrestling is showing how tough I am. That's an outlet for it. I would get hit in the head with a chair, and I knew it would knock my senses a little loopy," RVD said. "This was part of the job for me. I just thought I was really tough because I could take it. Now I feel very fortunate that at this point in life that I don't have the CTE that the football players have suffered. ... Vince McMahon told me when I first got into WWE to put my hands up to protect my head from those chair shots. I was arguing with him because I was stupid because I thought I was tough. He went all father on me, 'I'm your father telling you to put your hands up. He was really serious. Now I won't be cheering on chair shots to the head, but most of my concussions have probably come from landing and hitting the back of my head. So, I'm going to be cautious of that as well. There's been once or twice I've had similar things happen since shooting the movie. Thankfully, I didn't get concussed."
Regarding his current in-ring status, Van Dam said he's wrestling around 10-12 matches per year these days. He believes WWE will continue to be the king of the wrestling world, but he hopes All Elite Wrestling can prove history wrong.
"I wrestle about 10 to 12 matches a year for the past three years. I see the promotions coming up and more places for the boys to work," he said. "I think competition is cool. I think WWE is always going to be the king, at least for the foreseeable future. They are the standard setting worldwide. ... That's a lot to compete with. The AEW is very impressive right now. They sold out MGM Grand, which is pretty groundbreaking as are some of the contracts they are offering. We have seen other groups in the past that want to be competition before fizzing out before making any money back?AEW has to prove history wrong. I hope they do."
RVD is set to make his Impact Wrestling return on April 4 at the United We Stand iPPV event from New Jersey. He will team with Sabu to face Impact Tag Team Champions Pentagon, Jr. and Rey Fenix, in what Impact is billing as an Extreme Dream Match. RVD said he and Sabu have teamed up once in at least 10 years, but they remain in daily contact through phone calls or text messages. They also live in the same city now as RVD just moved to Las Vegas. There's no word yet on Sabu's Impact future but RVD revealed that he will be making more appearances with Impact. He said the company has "RVD money" to spend.
"There are people who have RVD money. But having said that, I can tell you after talking so much about AEW, Impact Wrestling also has RVD money," he said.
"I don't know if I'm spoiling any big announcement or anything, but yes," Van Dam said when asked if he will be making more Impact appearances after United We Stand.
Source: TV Insider