Marijuana is no longer frowned upon in WWE but there was a time when wrestlers were told that they would be fined if it was found out that they were smoking.
On the 1 of a Kind podcast, Rob Van Dam was asked if Vince McMahon had a reaction to him smoking marijuana. RVD doesn’t recall having a conversation with Vince about smoking but he did share a story about John Laurinaitis.
RVD said, “One time I brought it up but then I shut the window on it immediately. This is part of a much bigger story. It was at a point where I was adapting to the new waters of WWE, the political atmosphere and people stooging on me for smoking. Johnny Ace said one time, ‘Hey Robbie, Vince is gonna want to talk to you on Monday. Somebody said that you’re smoking weed during TV days. I’m not saying you are…he’s gonna wanna talk to you about that.”
RVD continued, “I had so much on my mind that I needed to get off so I was like man, I can’t wait to talk to him. I had a feeling that I don’t think Vince is gonna want to talk to me about that. If I’m in his position, I have so many layers to protect me from having to do certain things and one of those things is having to know and admit — for him in his position, he’d be better off if he didn’t ever have to know for sure that RVD smokes weed.”
RVD said that he was so frustrated that he made sure that Vince confronted him and he waited outside of his door.
RVD continued, “I went in there and I had a lot of stuff that I was frustrated on. I brushed that and then just went right by it and said Johnny said that you were gonna wanna talk to me because somebody said that I was smoking weed and getting high during TVs. He went, “Actually Rob.” I just raked his eyes and just stepped right over and said, ‘That’s so typical that somebody would be stooging me off because they can’t handle the fact that I’m getting over doing it my way and a legitimate tough guy so APA can’t go out and powerbomb them like it looked like they were doing as a shoot. I don’t know if they were or not but that was on my mind. That’s just a little piece of a much bigger story and that’s the only time I think I remember ever even having pot in the conversation with Vince.”
RVD said, “It’s a good way to talk to him. There were some other issues I had to take care of that day too.”
Needless to say, smoking pot is not seen as such a horrible thing these days and RVD would fit right in with the current crop of talent if he was full-time.
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.
