agony & ecstacy

ROB VAN DAM

[Van Dam solicits heat from the crowd by showing off his TV champion belt. He has not ruled out a possible shot at Taz and his world champion belt.]

ECW Magazine: What are your thoughts on Extreme Championship Wrestling making the jump to being on national cable television each week?

Rob Van Dam: I think it’s great! I’m very happy. It’s a long-awaited line that we’re crossing here. Being a nationally and world-recognized organization, it’s something that we’ve all stuck around and worked our asses off for.

“...we’re not going to [cut back], but i’m sure we’re going to have a lot of critics right on our asses…”

ECW: There’s been some talk about new restrictions for televised matches. For example, with the pay-per-views you had some mandatory guidelines.

RVD: From what I’ve been told we’re not going to [cut back], but I'm sure we’re going to have a lot of critics right on our asses, wondering what kind of role models we are, this and that. Maybe we are a controversial, politically incorrect group, so that’s OK. And if we’re really allowed to speak our minds on it and say how we really feel about it, then good.

ECW: So you expect by and large that things will remain much like they are now on television? The kind of angles that go on and the way ECW approaches…

RVD: I believe it will be. There have been fans that have said, “This particular pay-per-view wasn’t nearly as hardcore as the other ones. What happened? Are you guys toning it down a little? But we hadn’t toned down. The matches that night might not have been.

[“...i brought into the business with me my acrobatics, my martial arts skills, moves, abilities, and i tried to adapt them toward wrestling.”

Van Dam cranks a headlock on Lance Storm.

Rob Van Dam lands a kick to the head of Spike Dudley.]

ECW: ... toward the hardcore style?

RVD: Yeah. I mean, as an individual in the ring, I try not to do the exact same move every night. There may be some occasions when performers modify their moves, but I do not expect the company to change what we’re known for and what the fans get excited about when they watch us. That’s really what we stand for. 

ECW: How did you become so versatile in the ring? As many fans know, you were trained by Sabu’s uncle, The Sheik. But how do you incorporate your multiple wrestling styles in the ring?

RVD: I’ve always tried to be unique and I’ve never patterned myself after anybody else. Although The Sheik’s style is different from what I do now, I brought into the business with me my acrobatics, my martial art skills, moves, abilities, and I tried to adapt them toward wrestling. Everything I learned from The Sheik, his views on the business. He taught me the basics of wrestling. In reality I spent a couple years trying to fit my moves in, seeing how they work with actual matches. Then, after I went to Japan in 1993 and I learned, it was like, “wow!” It was the opposite of what a lot of Americans over here were telling me. In japan after every match, at first, they were telling me “kick harder, kick harder,” and during the match if I wouldn’t kick harder I would get my teeth kicked in.

[A man of the people, Van Dam always has time to exchange high-fives with the fans.]

“...during the match if i wouldn’t kick harder i would get my teeth kicked in.”

ECW: They’d kick the crap out of you?

RVD: Exactly. That's a great way to learn. 

“i was kickboxing on my own for non-school activities,and i was working on my own trying to learn what i could break into pro wrestling.”

ECW: Did you wrestle in college at all?

RVD: I never went to college. I knew I wanted to be a professional wrestler when I was in high school. I already knew I needed to be big because I wasn’t a big kid, so I was trying to eat more and I started lifting in high school. I joined high school wrestling and I learned that the main goal then was to try to drop as much weight as possible. I went to school in Michigan and they take that s— very seriously. They're all about running for three hours with eight sweaters on, making yourself throw up and not eating. And if you weighed 150 pounds, you’d try to drop down to 135 pounds by Saturday, and that was just crazy. I also noticed the guys with the reputations of being the best wrestlers were very skinny and wiry with skinny arms and that was totally not what I wanted to do. I had already been studying healthy and nutrition for a couple years, and I knew that I only had so many teenage, super growth years where my body was going to take on the extra muscle mass. Even when you’re not working out, –