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Wrestling journalism by Dominic DeAngelo, founder of 1TS, co-host of “1 Of A Kind With RVD,” “Straight Talk With The Boss: Magnum TA & Greg Gagne,” social media man for “Kliq This With Kevin Nash.”
RVD: “I Hope This Quote Gets Picked Up”
Rob Van Dam makes clear how he really feels about AEW and the online wrestling fanbase.
RVD on the fan feedback he received following his opinion on the Jon Moxley spiked bat spot:
“If your perspective was that you think that I was bashing AEW, boom, you’re wrong. Raise your hand if that’s what you think. Okay, now I didn’t bash AEW, I wouldn’t bash AEW and it seems to me by far, the worst part about AEW and I hope this quote gets picked up, is the fans on IWC. The fans are so ignorant.
“I’m gonna tell you what I did say, okay? My whole career, in ECW, even before that, the matches that Sabu taught me were ‘garbage matches’ which included all the weapons and gore and had wrestlers that didn’t even have to know how to wrestle to be in the match, okay? Those have always been at the bottom of the list of my favorite matches. That’s my opinion. If you don’t think I have a right to say that because I was in ECW, not only does that not make any sense, but you’re one of the idiots that needs to realize that there’s room to learn.
“So here’s the thing – those matches, especially the ones that have, like thumbtacks, glass, fire, fishhooks and when they have the competitors in there that don’t do a single wrestling move, and they don’t even have to know how to wrestle, quote: ‘To me, that’s not wrestling.’ The more AEW does things like that, like the Jon Moxley spiked bat thing, and I think that they’re heading in that direction more, and I think WWE is heading into more like, old school WWE storytelling in the ring and less of let’s stick a [needle] through someone’s cheek, burn their house down, go for shock value, the more that they seem to be two separate styles, which I’m fine with, the more I personally would rather have RVD, the wrestler associated with WWE.
“Now, if you heard that and you still feel like I’m bashing AEW, you need to check yourself. You’re way too defensive because I’m not even bashing that spot. I don’t like that spot, but the people don’t understand. The fans are so challenged that they hit me with things, you know, like, ‘Well, if you did that kind of stuff and you’re saying you don’t like it, you’re a hypocrite.’ That’s not what a hypocrite is.”
Later, RVD mentions his previous tenure in AEW and his current relationship with Tony Khan.
“And by the way I didn’t quit AEW… I had a single, standalone per match contract each time. In fact I did talk to Tony recently. We have a great relationship, We have a great relationship and the AEW fans that don’t understand it, it’s because you’re dumb and you don’t know how dumb you are.
“You’re the same people that didn’t understand how I could come to AEW when I cleverly came up with that term, ‘All Petite Wrestling’. During that summer people were like, ‘Oh no, what? He’s going there? He shouldn’t be allowed in! This blows my simple brain!’”
