WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam has shared his strong, old-school perspective on celebrities participating in wrestling matches, calling the practice “offensive” and “insulting.” He believes that allowing non-wrestlers to step into the ring without proper training devalues the immense physicality and durability required to be a professional wrestler.
An Insulting Practice
On his 1 of a Kind podcast, RVD was asked about the upcoming celebrity match at WWE SummerSlam. He explained his general dislike for the concept, stating that it undermines the hard work and sacrifice of full-time performers.
“You have to be an athlete to be able to do it. And so, like for me, it’s always offensive, because I take the perspective that in order to have a celebrity take a spot on a wrestling card, everyone else has to work around them to make it look like just anybody could do it. And I don’t like that, because not everybody could do it… It’s always insulting, though, for me, like when people feel like it’s, like it’s easy, like we’re just playing, or like just anybody can do it… I always will feel defensive about the fact that my career took an incredible amount of physicality, an amazing amount of durability to be able to take, you know, a s–tload of punishment on a nightly basis, besides having the talent to even pick up the timing and have cool moves and any of that. And so I feel like a lot of that just gets thrown out the window in order to f—ing make, make this work.”
Making Them Respect It
RVD then recalled an instance from his ECW days when he and Sabu faced the celebrity rap duo Insane Clown Posse. He made it clear that while he didn’t try to injure them, he made sure they felt the physicality of the ring so they would respect the business afterward.
“Before you even finish your question, it sounds like you’re talking about when ICP came and they came, me and Sabu beat the s–t out of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take it easy on them at all. And I broke Shaggy 2 Dope’s eardrum. He wrote about it in his book… Everyone knows that I didn’t go exceptionally hard on him, but I didn’t hold back either… They even had wrestling training, but we looked at them like they weren’t us, because they’re not… If they didn’t respect what we’re doing before, they’re going to respect it afterwards.”
WWE SummerSlam is set to feature a major celebrity tag team match, with country music star Jelly Roll teaming with Randy Orton to take on Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul. The event takes place on Saturday, August 2, in Cleveland, Ohio.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit 1 of a Kind with Rob Van Dam with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
