Former WWE Champion & Hall Of Famer "Offended" By Current Product
Multi-time Champion had a lot of surprising things to say on the state of modern wrestling.
Rob Van Dam has surprisingly admitted to being "offended" by some wrestling he sees in 2022.
Known as a futuristic performer in his peak performance years, the former WWE Champion and Hall Of Famer fleshed out his concerns during an interview on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast. He said (h/t WrestlingInc);
“I’m still offended by a lot of the stuff that I see nowadays...The number one rule was to protect the business, always, always, always was, and then somewhere way down the road, it became, ‘number one rule: safety first.’ Like, what? The way we trained, if you got bloody, that was good for the match, it made it looked good. And there was no air allowed between anybody, my whole training with [The] Sheik was about grabbing each other and bringing each other in tighter. Bringing each other in whether its a headlock, or a waistlock, or an armlock, it was always about coming in and squeezing. Anytime someone was on their back, boom, you better be jumping on him trying to pin him, trying to win. And that’s not the way I see a lot of wrestling today. A lot of times, it eats me up...What’s the right way to put it? Some things are less than enjoyable for me to watch just because of that mentality, old school perspective that I have.”
In spite of his remarks on modern wrestling, Rob Van Dam's mixed up with several over the last few days. He worked a six-man tag at Pro Wrestling NOAH's CyberFight Festival, teaming with Yoshinari Ogawa and HAYATA to defeat Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada and YO-HEY. He'll wrestle NOSAWA Rongai in a hardcore match at a NOAH card in Budukan Hall in July.