Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Rob Van Dam On John Cena's Heel Turn, Who Currently Has The Best Frog Splash, Paul Heyman, Retirement

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet!Rob Van Dam (@TheRealRVD) is a professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to discuss the launch of OnlyWrestlers, John Cena's heel turn and the reaction he got at ECW One Night Stand, what Paul Heyman meant to his career, why fans never booed a heel RVD, WWE changing its stance on marijuana use, who has the best frog splash, the secret to his crazy piledrivers, if he has retired from wrestling and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "If you've forgotten the language of gratitude, then you'll never be on speaking terms with happiness" - Inky Johnson  Please support our sponsors! PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibclouxSEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure! VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv FABRIC: Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/CVV ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv HUEL: Get 15% off plus a FREE Gift for NEW customers with the code INSIGHT at https://huel.comMIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. All right, welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet, thank you for hitting play on this episode. And thank you for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. It seems so fitting with this guest that you lay your phone down on the ground and hit a five-star frog splash on that follow button. wherever you're listening right now, Apple or Spotify or wherever it is. And if you could, could I ask you to leave a rating on Spotify? That would be incredibly helpful. Last week,

we were the number two sports podcast on the Spotify charts. So we're talking all sports podcasts like any other wrestling show, Pat McAfee, Travis and Jason Kelsey, ESPN Barstool, all of them. This little wrestling podcast of ours was number two. So I appreciate you for being on this journey with me. And here we are now at episode number 733. And we have a one of a kind guest. Always great to have Rob Van Dam on the show. And I know we just saw Heel Sina what he's all about on Raw. But 19 years ago at ECW one night stand, we got a glimpse of what that would look like when Sina got booed out of the building against RVD. Amazing. If Sina wins, we riot. The thing I really love about RVD is he's an open book. He speaks his mind about everything. And that's what you get in this

interview. That's what you get every time that he's on the show. He also tells some amazing stories. And he has one heck of a Paul Heyman impression. So good. Snap a screenshot. Let us know you're listening. Tag us so we can share it out. He's at the real RVD on social media. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. ladies and gentlemen Rob Van Dam Always good to see you RVD and CVV Hey

You're wearing Indeed Yeah hey why'd you change your name from Van Dam to Van Dam to Van Viette I wanted to start off with that That's a good question I didn't want people to mistake Me for you

Yeah that's why I get it I saw someone made a meme It was like Time Traveler steps on an ant or something And it was it was Rob Van Fleet. So it was you cutting an ECW promo with Bill Alfonso,

but it's my face on you. That's great. Amazing. Yeah. What do you call those in the comic book word? Amalgam? Right? Amogram?

Is that what it is? In the comic book world when you have like he's half Superman and half Hulk or Oh yeah, yeah. No, they fight each other. That's different. When Marvel fights DC, that's an amogram. I think a character is just a mesh when it's, it might be a word.

An alternate universe. Sweet. crazy great shirt by the way thank you yeah man great dude and perfect timing because we just recorded an interview with chris bay that'll be out in two days it'll be out on thursday so great i'll be watching man i'm i'm really looking forward to hearing what all he has he has to say you know i don't know i don't know if he mentioned this or not but after i saw him the first time i got i said a little something i don't know what it was about, I'm my podcast, but whatever it was, it was, it was a bit much to say a bit early. Yeah, well, his progress has been incredible and he's got such an amazing story. So I can't wait

for people to hear that. Yep. What's only wrestlers? I keep seeing you posting about only wrestlers. Yeah. So only wrestlers is an entity that I help create that I'm part owner of. And I like to explain it in two different halves, right? So that half of it is a, it's a platform where that bridges the gap between the fans and the pro wrestlers in a way that I don't think has been done before. And in such a way that, like,

I actually respond to all the messages that I get on my only wrestler's profile. And the fans subscribe to the favorite wrestlers, We have over 300 wrestlers now and we're getting more like all the time, like every day. I still have a lot of my friends that I still have to teach them how to use it. But when they do decide to use it, it's up to them like how deep into it they want to go. Because on my profile, I have a place for photos, for videos. I have a daily feed.

I have a story on there just like Instagram, you know. and there's even a store like a little shop where you can buy stuff on there. And so each profile for each wrestler, the fans subscribe to it. They can follow their content. They can message them. There's all kinds of ways to benefit both of them. But the other half of it is that when they join and become a subscriber, then they're part of this association.

And moving forward, the association helps us with important decisions. So the only wrestlers association is actually everybody together. So it's the fans and it's us, the wrestlers, the company, and we're running live shows. So the fans get to help us make decisions. They vote on things so far like who's going to wrestle who. Sometimes it could be stipulations. Coming up, they're taking a vote on which town we should actually come to. And also moving forward, the more we grow and the more the association grows, the more the value of what they're able to vote on grows as well.

So the whole thing just made to grow. We're still at a point right now where I would say like a beginning phases, this is going to be our first live show on Thursday, March 20th? Yep, in Hollywood. Yeah, in Hollywood. We're excited about it. It's star studded. A lot of fans are excited about it. And, you know, we're also with this show, hoping to raise a little awareness, some funds for the fire victims.

You know, I lived in L.A. for a long time. And also, I was a big fan of those huge houses that burnt down, you know. And so I looked at a lot of those when I moved out there. Some of those fires went too far from where I did live. but yeah but anyway we're not going to be able to do like what the grammies did or whatever when they don't but uh it's it's an important cause i um i hope that we can raise you know attention and and awareness and donate some stuff so people can buy tickets at onlywresters.com to go see it live they can also stream it live as well yeah so the way that works it's pretty cool because uh the

price to stream it and watch it anywhere is 695. But if you subscribe to one of the wrestlers anyway, then you get to see it. But you can do both with one ticket. So you can buy a ticket to watch the streaming or you can follow Brian Cage and get whatever content and see what we're about and then get to watch it free. So everyone that's on the show, We made their subscriptions 695 just for, just for this first event to promote it. It may change.

It may not change for each individual wrestler after that. By the way, myself and Katie, my wife and only wrestlers, we're all free subscriptions all the time. So you don't have to pay to join and follow us and see what we're about. And by the way, something I just want to mention too, I was saying, like, we're just set to grow. Like we have so many plans coming down the road. We want to make this like a, in all, all things go to like a hub, the only wrestlers.com.

And I want to do my podcast there when I'm able to. And we do have a chat room that we're still learning to really utilize where it's a community chat center. Everybody can be there at the same time. You, me, the wrestlers, the fans. And so that's pretty cool for the social value of it. And for me, when I get on the app and check it out, I usually go check and see what questions were left in the chat room, catch up a little bit. And, you know, we're looking to take over with you getting to be involved in it.

Well, I think we need to clear up that, like, when people hear only wrestlers, they think only fans. Oh, right. So we need to, people are conflating it, too. That's not the same type of content. Very good point. but by the way so here's what i learned and by the i mean only wrestlers sounds like only fans and and you know that's part of the catch with with the name easy to remember but only fans got to be

known for its sexual content but did you know there's actually a lot of uh a lot of profiles on there they have nothing to do with sex a lot of them yeah yeah so um so it's up to the the individuals on on only fans on what they're going to want to share his content with only wrestlers, you know, it's what wrestlers want to share. So, you know, if you're, I wouldn't, I wouldn't join up if you're looking to watch, hoping to see solo scenes, if you know what I mean from, from the boys. But, you know, what I like to do, because it's so easy to, to leave the story and it adds up. I like to just keep them up, like, up with me what's going throughout my day like hey i just finished uh this podcast with uh chris formerly

van dam now van bleat and uh and then you know could add to it later dude i'm in the gym did you make it today just it could be it could be like whatever but you know i i wouldn't go to only wrestlers for that so that's a good point because people do i think they're thinking of i'm subscribing to rob van dam or brian cage yeah i don't want to see them naked right and and and of the first pieces of promotion that started getting out there when the wrestling sites started picking up on it. They were showing scenes like me and Katie in the hot tub and stuff like that. So that kind of helped lead you to believe that it might be something more risque than it is. But it's really it's about the fans. They're able to be heard like nowhere else where we're not

just taking their advice. They're actually part of it, making things change. And right now, you know, we need to improve the communication so everyone can tell us what they want to see more of, less of what's working on the site, what's not, stuff like that. So the first show is this Thursday in L.A. in Hollywood. Then do you have another show after that? Yeah, and it's going to keep on going, and the fans will be all part of it. We're looking at maybe May right now, and we're looking at Chicago, which is a great, great city for wrestling. Yeah. I love to go to Chicago and have everyone say, dude, I was there at the money in the bank match when you were right here. And lots of good memories from Chicago.

And so, yeah, that's, thanks for letting me get that out too. So everyone can keep an eye out for that. Are you planning to wrestle on these shows? Not on the first one. Okay. And for me, that's as far as plans go right now. Yeah. But with the first one, I'm going to be there presenting it, you know, like,

I'm Ted Turner. I just said that because they wanted me to say Rob McMahon. But Tony Con. One of the partners is a wrestling promoter. You know, I am. We got good partners that have their strengths, you know. And although I did, I was involved in running shows and promoting shows years ago, like 92, 93. And I did learn a lot from it.

But anyway, we do have, besides myself on the show, in a non-wrestling capacity, we do have some awesome wrestlers there, such as the mighty Chris Masters and Luke Cox, Brian Cage, who we mentioned, Charlie Hauss. I'm pointing at him because I just saw his face. Like, what's that these name? Looking forward to seeing Charlie House. I haven't seen him in a long time.

There's some lady wrestlers there. McCatie is one of them. And, you know, of course, Tessa Blancher, who's a huge name in the business. And Jordan Blue, you know, you show the poster, dude. Show the poster. Violent J. So Violent J's going to be doing premiering something, his version of, like, what we used to see in, in like the Piper Piper's Pater,

some kind of a interview shop, his style, juggalo style. I'm looking forward to being his first guest. Are you still wrestling? I am. I'm not, it's easier to say I'm not not wrestling. I'm not not wrestling.

Yeah. So it's been, it's been a minute. It's been almost a year since I've had a match. Yeah. And I do have some matches that are, in conversation in the near future, like over the next,

people are talking about even a year from now. And I'm like, dude, I don't even know if I'm going to rest of the year from now. You know what I mean? But stuff coming up that I can't talk about yet and stuff like bookings like throughout all of 2006. For me, it's something that it's still like, you know, if you want to discuss it, it's a numbers issue for me.

I feel great. And you look great. Thanks. You look great. Stop it. You look great. We saw you in the crowd at WWE. Yes. And you looked great. The wide-angle camera lines made one of your arms look massive.

And the other one looks small. Yeah. I think we can see now, ladies and gentlemen, Rob Van Dam's arms are of equal size. Bam. See, boom. Well, I mean, I am right-handed, you know. Did you see the meme? Yeah.

Yeah, that was some funny ones. The meme of you as Quagmire? Yes. This is the one on one arm looks like a little like a well it almost looks like a little Toronto source. Yes. Well, Quagmars been busy, you know, doing other things. That was funny.

Yeah, I, I hearted it, liked it. I thought it was funny. Yeah. But then there's also like some people that will comment and be like, oh my God, I hope there's nothing wrong. There's always like some people that. It's a wide angle lens. You were on the edge of the wide angle lens.

It would have made whatever was on that. It was funny. Distorted. Very funny. Funny is funny. Yeah. But that was awesome to be there. It's good to be under their umbrella right now because WWE is so huge.

And I feel like they're growing so much that they're just finding little crevices to stuff grow into. Sure. So even just being associated with them, it's a great time to be a legend, you know. You're under the legends contract with them. Yes, I am. Yeah. The video of your match with John Cena at one night stand. keeps coming up now that John Cena's turned heel.

Because that was really the last time we got a real, true, like, heel reaction for John Sina. Yeah. And it's funny that, you know, now it is almost 20 years later. Now John Sina is getting booed because he is a heel. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. He, I mean, he knew what to do that night, you know, perfectly at one night stand. And he's really great at what he does.

So I think he's going to really master the Hill persona and take it some places that we didn't expect. And by the way, I mentioned this before, but I had seen him get booed. It wasn't a lot. But leading up to that one nice stand match, there was a town or two. There's one, I think it was Wales, was the first time, I think, that I've heard. And it was very similar to the vibe in, in, um, Manhattan or Armistown. Yeah,

the Hammerstein ballroom. It was very similar. Is the Manhattan Center and Hammerstein Ballroom two different places that look exactly the same? That's a great question. Because when I walk by them,

I think I'm seeing them both, you know? Yeah. Anyway, that was, that was the first time I seen him get booed and he was great. I don't know if I told you this story or not,

but I'd never seen it. And then he was like, good, he goes, that's right, boomie. He goes, let me know how you feel as long as you're out there in the crowd and you're expressing yourself and you're screaming that I know you're having a good time and that's what it's all about tonight. And, you know, obviously he turned them all of a sudden, you know, they were cheering him and I was like, wow, that's why he gets paid the big bucks. Do you remember when you first saw the if Sino wins we riot sign? Well, was it during the match or was it earlier in the night?

Yeah, I don't remember that. I couldn't tell you exactly. Yeah. Because it'd be funny if you saw earlier in the night and you're like, oh, damn, like, look at that. No, but I believed it. And you know, some of the ECW shows did end in riots. They had a lot less at stake. I've always wondered, what was the biggest difference between the ECW ring and the WWE ring? Difference in size, right? I was going to say, first off, there's about two feet difference.

Yeah, 18 by 18 and 20 by 20. Right. And then, and part of it is because of the size, but also the ropes were much tighter in ECW. And another reason that that's the fact is because we used steel cable through rubber hose and WWE use nylon rope. So there was a big difference in that, you know, in the stiffness that I got trained like in Sabu's backyard with, Sometimes there would just be a garden hose because for whatever reason we didn't have the other one. And it didn't offer that much support. And they would have that turnbuckle so tight with just a cable.

It was almost like a rod because you run into it and it hurt so bad. And at that time, like our ribs would be so bruised every time working out. And that's the way I learned. So going to nylon feels loose. me like I can't count on it. The spring like, boom, giving me the reverberation. Prize picks is the best place to get real money sports action. With over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings,

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and of course Heel Sina will be wrestling Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41, which is why I want to to give the sponsor of today's episode Seekkeek a huge shoutout. With over 28 million download, Seatgeek is the number one rated ticketing app. There are more than 70,000 events listed on Seatgeek, including concerts, sports, festivals, and more. So on top of WWE tickets, right now you can get ticket to the NBA playoffs, which are right around the corner, as well as the NHL and MLB. I love using Seatgeek because they make it so easy to see where the best deals are for the best seats. Each ticket is rated on a scale of 1 to 10,

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So make sure to click the link in the show notes to download the app, and then the code will automatically be applied to your. count so you can use it later. The first time I went to an ECW show and there's the guy who had wiped the ropes down in between matches. I'd never seen that before. And they would chant, go, go, go, go. No, and ECWs?

Oh, what were they chanting? Clean it up, asshole, clean it up. That's what they used to chant. That's what I remember. Maybe the Canadian crowd, I went to the show and missed a song and maybe they were nicer. I could see that being a possibility. Maybe they were just, because they were going, go, go, go, go. And he's going faster and faster and faster.

That's great. Yeah. Yeah, they got, he got better treatment north of the border. That ECW crowd's just so wild. Yeah. So wild. Did you ever experience, aside from One Night Sand, did you ever experience a crowd like that anywhere else? Um, not exactly. No. Um, but there's certain pockets around the planet, you know, where I could tell they were big ECW fans. Um, one of them that sticks out when you ask, me that was leading up to the match with Sina because I had the money in the bank briefcase and I wrestled Matt Stryker and it was in Belgium. And that crowd just stuck out to me as being the most ECW-like crowd that I had engaged since I left ECW at that time.

Oh, wow. Yeah. And it was obvious that they really watched it all. And I think also with the name Van Dam, there's a connection. you know with belgium muscles from brussels so that that was was part of it too but uh they were awesome i just i remembered thinking like wow the good to know if i never if i never wrestled here in belgium you know this one time i would never know that the everyone was like such big fans of mine and everything i stood for the whole extreme hardcore movement and perspective yeah

The obvious ones are Philly, New York, maybe Chicago, but to hear the Brussels was that hardcore is amazing. Yeah. Wow. Do you think about what your career would look like if you hadn't met Paul Heyman? I don't really waste a lot of time with hypotheticals that are, you know, not likely to come true since I already met him. But what did he mean to your career? Okay, so if I hadn't met Paul Heyman, I would have jumped probably right up to WWE or WCW because at the time they were the top two, you know, there was no seeing one of them going down

and the other one sticking around. I wouldn't have developed the way that I did. I wouldn't have probably been as comfortable or fit in because before 96, when I came to ECW, I was hardcore, you know, and I was doing things that I hadn't seen done in the ring. And me and Sabu would wrestle, we were diving out to the crowd and breaking tables and stuff. And then when I wrestled Sabu and ECW, the crowd had never seen like anything like that, like what we were given them, but we had. So I feel like if I hadn't come to ECW, I wouldn't have found a proper voice. and I probably would have been much, much different, which, whether I was as comfortable or not,

it might have been better for business. I mean, I have a lot of things that work against me, you know, whereas, you know, to be, to be the absolute best pro wrestler, like, well, what would that mean? I mean, you have to include not just your moves. and you got you got a lot of peas not just your promos what about like what about politics

you got to be good at politics you know that's something I could I could never do you know what I mean and I forgot I forgot what I was going to say about some of the other peas but you have to be good

at being a puppet there's another pee sometimes you know because you're a vessel for other people's values creative ideas and stuff and in a lot of ways I wasn't as flexible

on a lot of stuff like that. I was more stubborn. And so having all that, you know, as details to answer that question, I don't think it would have worked out as good at me if I wasn't able to to build myself in my more organic natural environment. But in the end, if I would have been able to be whether you want to see it as manipulated, but if I would have gone down some other paths and learn to like them or deal with them or whatever, then who knows? Maybe I'm a champion of the world right now. They always talk about in wrestling how you need to have patience,

you need to slow down. That's right. I don't even do that in purpose. Slowing down such a huge thing in wrestling. Your entrances in ECW are the epitome of slowing down. They were like 20 minutes long. Yeah. Where did that come from?

you know well first off i never had a time limit that was never an ECW a factor once i got to wwee every match is just about the time limit so that's one of the biggest changes differences that people wouldn't even think about normally as a fan you know to think about the style they didn't let you be you it's like i'm thinking like what can i do in four minutes you know taking out a minute for your entrance and then a minute afterwards so dolf ziegler can run in and do whatever he's doing. No time limit. Just feel it.

You know, when I knew I was coming up, I'd be back there warming up with Fonzie, doing jumping jacks. And like when my music would hit, and I'd hear, no, first off, I'd hear the crowd chanting RVD, usually. RVD, RVD, RVD, I'd be back there warming up,

pouring water on my head, jumping around. And then when the riff, hits for my song walk walk yeah oh good I'm like get out there Fonzie and then Fonzie would go out there first and blow his whistle and I'd be like I got another 30 seconds do some pushups some more jumping jacks drink some more water you know and is that I found just probably getting tired of pointing at the curtain and then boom I go through there and and that's just how I started I just stayed in that vibe went through stops I got nowhere to go

oh, I'm here to see the fans. You know what I'm going to connect with. And let's see who we got here. What's going on? And boom, it was a high for me, connecting and riding that vibe, surfing that. So I would just go around high-fiving everybody, celebrating, partying with every single fan. Yeah. And it was like there was so much noise going on that it didn't feel like it was like a doll or a low point of the show.

At least not where I'm from. thinking along to wrestlers entrance themes has become a thing now they were doing that for you in the 90s yeah they were respect yeah they were what do you say yeah by the way i think steve carino and tommy dreamer have the record for taking the longest before a match before they locked up we were in four lauderdale florida at the warm and war memorial auditorium and i had to follow them if i remember right and and after they had already been out there half hour, like I looked through the curtains and that building had like a stage on it. They're both sitting in a chair with a microphone talking to each other.

Had another 30 minutes to go until they even, I think they went like an hour before they even locked up. Like there's nothing left in the crowd after that. What do you guys doing interviewing each other? I don't know what they did. You know how hard it is to boo Rob Van Damme? I've never tried it. You've been heel or I guess you've been presented as a heel, but like it's hard to boo.

you. And I feel like that's a special thing. Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a, sounds like a hell of a compliment, you know, there's a, there's a certain, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I get, I get a lot of cheers even against the plans or the agenda sometimes in the, in the, in the wrestling like environment. And so that's where everybody wishes I would just stay. But I'm, I'm, I'm so, um, transparent, open-minded, open-mouth in a way that, like, when I do my podcast or I do interviews or stuff, I stand up for things I believe in, you know what I mean? And I talk against things that I don't, even if they're commercially accepted or the, or government agenda, whatever. So I think, I think, like, through a lot of just being honest and genuine,

I found some, there, there's some people out there that sure seem like. they would prefer to give me a boob rather than a yay. At least that's the way I take it when somebody tries to change me into them. You know, because you would be so cool, but, man, you just, I wish you would, you know, talk more about, you know, women abuse or whatever. You got this plant on it's like, you know, okay, I'll consider it, whatever. But everybody has their own, their own stink they want to put on you as, as the expression goes. And I've always had that with wrestling.

Even, I think everyone gets it when you're in school, you know, why are you hanging out with that kid? He's not cool. Nobody likes him. I've always hated that. Hated all of that. So I found a common, uncomfortable bond with just being a nonconformist. And the more people talk about me being one of a kind and unorthodox, the more I felt like, yeah, I'm proud of that. Yeah, you've been you.

You've been authentically you, your entire career. Did you ever feel like there was a point in your career where someone tried to put you in a box? Oh, sure. I feel like I had to fight against it. Always and still do. Yeah. It's, you know, I don't want to talk bad about him, but I just, he just came up this morning. But this is what I think of anyway.

I think about way back in 92 when I'm in WCW, there was two guys. that I've wrestled. Rip Rogers was one of them that said, you know, all that stuff you do fancy, you know, flips and kicks and all that. It don't mean anything unless you save it. He said, just do one special kick at the end and then that way it means something. And I felt like, man, that would suck. You just took everything I love about wrestling away.

You know, that's how I saw it. I get now what he meant because I feel the same way when I'm watching one of the products and I see the guy get a power bomb, stand up, power bomb, the other guy, stand up, super kick, don't fall, super kick the other guy, three super kicks, spin around, spin around, boom, hurricane around, you know, and they both stand up, then both fall, and I'm like, how do they expect anybody to be emotionally involved in what they're doing when they're, and I feel like maybe I could have been one of the things that bridged that, but to me, you know, I had to get my moves in because it was.

wasn't about the script or having anything planned out before then. You know, if I wanted to, like, if I'm going to leg drop you or I'm going to do a 360 leg drop and then hit you, you don't need to know the difference. And so when I do it, it's not going to come across like we had a plan because we didn't. And so I feel like most of my career, like I had to get all that stuff in. And so because of that reason and other reasons, I'm different. And it comes across different. So that, so at least I, I look at, um, maybe it's defensively, but I look at me and what I did

like that compared to what I complain about nowadays, but going back to it to, you know, what we're projects. I said, Ricky Nelson was the other guy. They don't mean nothing. You have to doing all that stuff. It don't mean nothing. You just do one kick at the end. Bam, and then it means something. And, um, I'm glad that I didn't listen. to their advice, even though I know now what they meant, and they didn't mean to hold me back or anything, but they, but they would be, you know, it's like, hey, if you're, if, if, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, a leg lariat on the guy, guess what? That's my move set. Yeah. What's what's, what's, why are you going to

give me my move set and make it in a box, as you say, just like everyone else is. So I feel like I've always fought that and still do. When you first went to WWE, your singlets look different. Why didn't you have the tie-dye at that time? I never wore a tie-dye. You know what tie-dye is? That's what Michael Hayes said. The tie-dye reminds us of the 70s. Airbrushed. Right. When I first got there, no, I did have airbrush. And then Michael Hayes said, the tie-dye reminds us of the 70s. Like I just said, it's exactly what he said. He wanted me to wear. Something like Kurt Angle wears. And so he had the seamstresses, make me an outfit that wasn't airbrushed.

It had like a dragon sewn on it or whatever. And they did that two or three times. And what I ended up doing was wearing those outfits on the house shows that weren't on TV. So I would let them get beat up and worn out. And then the bright newly airbrushed outfits, I would save those and wear those on TV. There's probably one or two TV matches where I had to figure out that that's what I was going to do after they first gave me those outfits. But I do have those and you see pictures of me in them. And I just, that's one of those things that we disagreed upon where I was stubborn and didn't

go with the curt angle kind of outfits. Do you have an airbrush artist that you always work? Oh, same guy, Joe Holland, always. He worked at a flea market when I was Savannah, Georgia, and I went to him, because Giant Baba, he was my boss at that time in Japan, and Giant Baba wanted me to wear something that looked catchy. He said like bright colors or something, because I had the black and the red just boring, plain singlet. And you know what? There's an action figure that I just not realize that's what that figure is. I have an action figure, like maybe three of them, maybe four even, because the old ECW. But anyway, It's just a plain red outfit.

And I used to think, wow, the toy makers were lazy. They didn't put anything on it. And then I thought maybe it was inspired by my first outfit because I have a little me doing a flying sidekick behind a lightning bolt on the leg. Not a whole lot. And I thought they just left that out. But now that I think about it, those must have been inspired by the outfit

before I got an airbrush that I was wearing when Giant Baba said, you know, first off he made me wear boots. and because I used to go barefoot. And I was stubborn about that, but I'm glad, you know, that he did make me do that. And then, yeah, I was trying to think of something to wear bright.

I don't know if he mentioned the rockers or if they were in my head, but I felt like that's what he was talking about at the time. You know, and I was like, damn, what can I do like that? And then I had the idea of just airbrushing my outfits. I went to Joe Holland at the flea market. He did that very first outfit,

and every outfit, since then. I've always wondered about the ladder match you have with Eddie Guerrero, where the fan runs in and pushes Eddie off the ladder. What were you thinking when you saw that? I'm, I think I'm just thinking, it wasn't the first time that I, that I had that happen or seeing it happen or have it happen when I'm in the ring. So I was just thinking, do they got it or do I need to do something? No, it looks like they got it. All right, cool. I'm just going to keep working. Eddie took a really, swing at that kid. Yeah. Yeah. Well, usually I find when the fans decide to breach the safety zone and get into the ring, usually everyone in the business wants them to regret it. You know,

like that's got to be safe for us. We can't, it can't be like a normal thing to have to turn around, you know, and watch your back while you're trying to watch your front. I remember Sabu talking about Puerto Rico years ago, way before I ever went. And he was saying that, that to get to the ring, the wrestlers had to go underneath the bleachers and that they would drop rats on them. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And another thing he said they would do would be heat up coins.

They would heat up coins, get them super hot, and then drop them on them or even throw them at them in the ring. Wow. And, yeah, it's not, you know, I wouldn't want that to be the norm. No. Let Puerto Rico keep that. Now, so at what point did you see this fan running in? Because he actually pushes Eddie off the ladder. Yeah.

I don't remember at one point. I don't think I saw him until probably he was coming through the robes or something. I really don't remember exactly. But there was never a point where I thought anybody was in trouble except maybe the fan. You know, I mean, I saw what he was doing. I said Eddie landed right on his feet, no problem. And then once Eddie's in him are facing off, I already know it's over. What's the secret behind how you took a pile driver?

kinetic energy. It defies physics. Yeah. The secret is in order for it to be the best and for me to get the highest elevation, no one gets higher than RVD. It has to be with Tommy Dreamer. Okay, what is it about Dreamer? He says it's his fat ass.

I don't know. But it's just the chemistry. Like when me and Tommy are together and he pile drives me, that's the result. And when I tried it, you know, with some other wrestlers and didn't work. So it's something that just comes out of our chemistry. What's the secret behind the way you take a DDT? Because that looks, you spike yourself completely. Well, I don't think that's a secret.

I mean, that's if I was, like every time I bump this year, your eyes go down like you hear it. Because you know, you're like, okay, I got to remember, take that out, fix that son. Sorry, I'm. It's Chris Bay, not me. It's all good. He wants, he wants, you got something you got to say, Chris. Look at that. Chris Bay's talking.

Didn't you have the last interview? So if I was to teach someone how to take a DDT, I would tell them exactly what I do. I grab their waist and, and hug it in close to my head so that I know when they go, my head's going to go and my body's going to follow. How do you not compress your neck? There's no secret to it. It's just, you know, boom, I hit it with my head. And then I don't know.

I don't think there's any way to tell you. You know what I mean? Is it just your flexibility? It allows you to do it? I think other people can do it. I think it's like where I was joking when I set kinetic energy, but maybe it really is like the energy that the energy like like I take like like um when my head when I take head bumps you know whether if whether you give me a face bump into the mat or whatever

I you know like a lot of people drop to their knees in like it in the kind of awkward and super safe to your hands and knees and and maybe hit their head and roll over but I'm going my feet are going to go like up so that my to make sure that my head is is with with the momentum you know with lead of the action. And that's just, that's just feeling it and it being real, you know, is like,

boom, my head has to dive in first. And then I guess my remaining weight and momentum, hopefully doesn't go straight down. It either stops, you know, because it's going up when my head goes down. Maybe it stops and it's suspended or something to my body falls over.

But I, the pressure just doesn't really go all to my neck. It's just, here, try it. Let me show you. Yeah. It just looks amazing. Well, thank you. It's just the mindset, I think, of, you know, it being real.

Like, Sean Michaels used to take face bumps. Like, like, it would be, you know, noted, like, seeing him, like, it felt more like, you know, like if you grab his head and you put his head down, like, it's going with your hand. It's not like a matter of the whole body collapsing and going down to the hands and knees, right? There's a falcrum point. there has to be that something has to go up in order for that to go down. I've never heard it explain like that, but that makes a lot of sense. One of a kind, baby.

What's the story behind the 420 leg drop? Yeah. I did that move forever ago here in Las Vegas with Bobby Bradley Jr. We were the aerial assault. That was one of the many moves that I would take way later when I would have tag matches because Bobby was a great tag team partner. I would have him in front of me with his back to me and flip him over me so that he would moonsault on the guy

and then I would do a standing moonsault. He would roll over and bam, I would hit. Me and Sabu would tag a lot. And I brought those moves, did him with Sabu as well. And then when Ramis Serio and I were tagging, boom, I got someone else that I can do some of these moves that I used to do with. and I called it the 420 leg drop.

I think 420 was just, it was kind of popular in the undertone at the time. So Vince didn't know what it was, supposedly, but people that knew thought it was super cool, and they like to pop at it. And Paul came to me one time before TV, Paul Heyman and said,

Vince wants to know what is the 420 late drop? And I said, oh, no, that's when I grabbed Ramo Stee goes, no, why is it called 420? That's all he wants to know. And I said, oh, he goes, he wants to know, is it a drug reference? And I said, drug reference. So no, there's four legs because I pick Ray, Ray up, and then I kick my feet out. So we hit him with four legs and 20 is our combined shoe size. And he liked that, made me, he smiled.

He's like, gotcha. But Paul knew what it was. What do you think Vince figured it out? I have no idea. Maybe someone told him later. That's great. Yeah. Yeah.

How did you come up with the van Terminator and the Van Daminator? Do you mean the names or the actual moves? The actual moves? So before my first day in ECW, I knew that it was a way different kind of promotion than I had worked for before, a different style. I was down in Georgia, redneck woods, you know, I'm going, come on everybody, let's go, let's go. Well, I didn't really have the southern accent, but that's, you know, I was Tracy's mother.

Everybody's face was Tracy Smothers down there. And that's what the crowd wanted to see, you know, USA. And, man, I was, I was intimidated by the product that I saw on the TV shows when I watched ECW, which I started watching it because SAB was trying to get me in, right? Did Paul call you? Yeah, he's supposed to bring you in, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I started watching, I was like, wow, these guys are, I mean, it's cool, but, man, I really have to step up my game and have some hardcore moves, you know. And so before my very first match, I had a pen and paper and I wrote down some things that I'd never seen before.

One of them was to stand on the top rope, holding the chair folded like this, and then to dive off into a helo on the guy, but have my body, you know, hit the chair on them. I did it a couple of times. it wasn't that impactful. It's something that maybe I would still do just, hey, I'll do this tonight, but it wasn't, you know, like a finish or it was just one of several things that I thought of. And one of them was I thought, I wonder if I can throw a chair up if I could be fast enough to kick it into the guy's face, spin kick it. And so that was my original idea.

And I didn't know how the timing would work if I'd be fast enough to do a back kick while it's still in its arch or what, but then, you know, I guess through trial and error, I guess I tried it with someone and turns out they catch it first before my foot hits it, which I'm not sure if it went that way in my mind at first, but when I did it, everybody loved it. And I was like, okay, I'm going to keep that one, you know? And then ECW for me was always about outdoing myself, because that's what I saw the whole show doing. First time I went to an ECW show, I was just blown away, like right there in Philly, listen to that crowd and saying, you know, how the show builds and builds and builds.

And then like, boom, like, everything, smasj at the end, everything crazy. And I was like, wow, like how they're coming back here in three weeks. I was like, there's no way they're going to top that. Sure enough they did. They did everything like that. But then the lights went out. It was a whole new effect. You know, whoa.

And I noticed that's what they did. that's what I did. And that's, when you look at my matches, like I would run and jump over the top rope and do a heel out of the floor. Then I put one chair there, jumped over that.

Then I put two chairs and I'd jump over it. And I don't know if anybody was noticing, but me, but that's how I was challenging myself. And I started, like, throwing the chair to Fonsie, and Fonzie would throw it to the guy,

and I'd do the Van Daminator, started crotching him on the top rope, jumping off the top rope. Fonzie would hold the chair, and I would kick him, kick the chair into him while he's on the rope. And while I was doing that, I would get more and more air and slide him down further and further to the other corner challenging myself. And pretty soon, I was like, man, I bet I could just clear the ring.

And boom, there's a Vent Terminator. Beautiful move. Thanks. This year, actually achieve your New Year's resolutions. This is your year to feel your best, regain your energy and conquer your goals. So no matter what your goals are for 2025, this supplement can help because it supports your health at the foundation by encouraging cellular renewal. Mitopure is a precise dose of the rare postbiotic urolithine.

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The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. We didn't get ECW in Canada until much later, so I didn't see the jump into the crowd with Bam Bam Bigelow. I didn't get to watch that match, but it was always in the opening of the show, right? Yeah, that clip's played a lot. That clip has played a ton. And I remember watching that clip and being like,

did Rob Van Dam just jump into like a bunch of fans here? Yeah. It's wild to watch that. Yeah. Yeah. It was wild to do it. You know, I loved wrestling with Bam Bam.

I would do that move with only three guys back then in ECW. Bam Bam Bigelow, Baba Dudley, and also Balls Mahoney. Just because of their size? Because of their size and the way that they caught, you know, that they were. they were going to, some guys would not even try to catch me, you know. And it became a joke a lot of times, you know. Lance Storm was one of them.

And I don't know if, I mean, I know I had a heavy ass to be asking someone to catch when I would run and dive over the rope and not even stop my momentum, not even slow my momentum down to grab the rope, but just come all the way down ass first. And I knew it was, I was heavy, but some guys would like, you know, they would just like, turn. and let me like barely brush their shoulder or whatever. And with Lance,

I remember one time in New Orleans because me and Fonsie would talk about it all the time. And boom, Lance bumped out. He's out on the floor. I'm getting ready to do the dive. And I looked at Fonzie. And I was like,

I go, watch me go hit the floor, you know, because we both said before, you know he's not going to catch it. I said, I know, you go,

here it comes. And I ran over, bam, all floor, solid floor. And I didn't even have a personal problem with it. It was just, you know,

like, for whatever, I feel like it was intentional, but I feel like he must have to have his reasons. And I was, I was in my head, like, I'm not going to let anybody know if I'm even a little hurt, you know what I mean? That was, that's just my own, that's the way I am. No, it doesn't matter what I have. Someone's, you are right?

Like, heck yeah, I'm all right. Let's do it again, you know? Did you talk to him about it? Never talked to him about it. I've said this a couple times on interviews. So I wonder, you know, like what his response is. I wouldn't imagine him say, I didn't. sidestap him, but I imagine his response would be more like, yeah, I didn't want to break my,

throw my shoulder out catching, you know, 240 pounds dropping. I mean, I don't know. But there was other guys too, though, that, you know, it was just, it was something me and Fonzie knew. Luckily, I was indestructible at the time. So I would do it to prove a point, even though looking back at it, probably didn't look too good, not hitting them. Because of them selling anyway. If you have the best frog splash, who else do you think is up there? I think that Montel. Montes Ford? Montez Ford, definitely.

Like, he gets up there. It looks like a five-star frog splash. Yeah, for sure. Looks a lot like yours. And, of course, Eddie, you know what I mean? Eddie is that's the lifelong contendership. Everyone's going to compare our frog splashes. Have you seen Logan Paul's frog splash?

I don't think I've seen it. It's probably pretty good. It's pretty good. Yeah. Very athletic. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I'm sure.

You know, it's, it's a move that, um, out of all my moves, it's the least original, you know. Like everything else I do, no one else does or did or whatever. And that one, I mean, I watched Tonga kid do a Frogs Plus, Jimmy Snooka. Um, who else back in the day? Um, dope. But, uh, but, but I did kind of. to make it my own, you know, by turning in the air, you know, and trying to get creating the height that you got.

And being able to go all the way across the ring, I started going for the furthest corner, like every time for a while. That was my thing. And sometimes that's cool. Like, like, if a guy's closer to one corner, go over and grab the corner, look at the crowd, be like, nah, go over to the other ones. Like, sometimes that's fun. And then sometimes I regret it.

Because it looked like you actually got hurt during this every time. time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's inconsistent as far as that goes. I mean, you can tell sometimes my face hits or whatever, but sometimes I'm, I could be winded or it could be fine or it could be a pretty solid hit. You know, when I would do a frog splash to Big Show and same thing to Mark Henry, there was no way that I was going to be able to reach the ground with, with my extremities. I mean, I could not, I can't, not my knees, not my hands, elbow. there was nothing. It would just be like, boom, because they're three feet tall when they're on their back. Sure. So I would go, oh, and it would just knock all the wind out of me. And I knew

that that was going to happen, but it was part of it. And hopefully it was worth it. Hopefully it was the last move of the night. What's the highest you've jumped on a frog splashers? How would I know? Well, I'm just saying, like, is there one where like, you're like, I can't believe how high or far I jump for that person? No, but I used to like it. Sometimes me and Eddie would do like the crisscross thing, you know, where we'd have two guys laying down there and maybe he would jump first and then me or whatever and he would go for his furthest guy that's closer to me and I would go over to the other guy. I like doing stuff like that. You know, that's fun, especially when you're a show off and that's all, that's all I ever really enjoyed about wrestling anyway. What's the thing in the ring

that's hurt you the most? Um, probably getting my ribs. broke. That's pretty painful. That's a pretty painful thing to have happened. I guess my worst injury because the only surgery that I've had was my knee in 2005 doing that 420 leg drop probably, but it was in a match with Ramisera. That's why I say that and the Bachel Brothers. But my knee had been hurt for a long time. I was just whittling my ACL down to nothing and then I finally snapped. And that hurt. I mean, I had to have surgery on that. But a broken rib is like, like so bad and I've done it a couple times. Last time was just like three years ago or something in guitar.

It might have been 2021, otherwise 22. And man, I knew as soon as I did it. But there's nothing you can do to feel comfortable. It's like everything you do, everything from just lifting your leg. It's just like part of your frame. It hurts to breathe. And it's, yeah, it's the whole time on the, on the plane ride back, because I was breathing, you know, in a strenuous way, the steward eye,

or they would come by the flight attendants, and they would hear me just go, you know, we're making these noise that are so bad. And they'd say, excuse me, sir, are you all right? And I swear, every time they'd say that, I'd say no. And I'd look at it when they had no idea what to follow up with. They were just, sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they'd be like, can I get you something? Yeah, I know there's champagne. You've been so outspoken about your support and your use of cannabis. Isn't it interesting that all these years later, WWE has kind of changed their opinion about that? It's interesting in a good way. I can't say I'm surprised. I always knew the direction that. that marijuana prohibition would go.

I was just ahead of the curve like I am with a lot of things. I'm ahead of my time in a lot of ways. And so people back when I started advocating and telling people, dude, put that cigarette down. That's killing you. Marijuana is not. Like everyone thought I was crazy back then. Everyone smoking was so popular, cigarettes,

which kills one out of two users statistically long term. And I was learning. that they say cannabis is a Schedule 1, worst drug, but no one has overdosed from it because it's not even possible. And so, you know, I was like, I got to tell people about this and stuff. And back then they didn't want to hear it.

Because people like to be told what to do. They really do. And then they, I feel like people like to be told what to do. And then they determine their own self-value, their own self-judging by how good they're following directions. That makes them a better person if they stopped all the way at a four-way stop sign when there was no other cars around in a lot of people's minds. Yeah.

Because they're doing what they're supposed to. Nowadays, everyone before that was like, oh, marijuana is horrible. Now because the government's come around, everyone's like, well, I eat a couple of gummies before I go to bed at night. It does help me sleep. What about all you guys saying it's going to lead to harder drugs? Like, when are all these people that are having a couple of gummies going to come out? I went straight to heroin.

And then that wasn't enough because that's what they believed before. Before the government finally came around and said, oh, we weren't right about that. You know, I didn't need that. Your title run would have looked a lot different if WWE had adapted the mentality they have now. Who knows where it would have went? You know, I don't know what. I was always the last one to know what people had planned, you know, and I don't know how long the championship would have been around,

but for sure I would have been able to do a hell of a lot more to keep ECW going. You wouldn't have dropped the title as quickly as you did. Okay, a thousand percent. Now, that was all because of the marijuana bus, which is not even a thing right now. In that same Hanging Rock, Ohio, for that same 18 grams, there's no, you're not going to get arrested. You're not going to, we're probably just going to get let go.

Yeah. And like I said, I was just ahead of my time. Like I, to me, what I'm doing right now isn't necessarily a bad thing just because the authority says that it's bad. You know what I mean? Like people that think that, like, no, they say it's bad. that's bad. Well, they change that all the time. Coffee's good for you. Coffee's bad for you. Guess what? Do some research, make up your mind for yourself. And you've always been free thinking

like that. You've always been like on the forefront of just like, this is the way I live my life. I always have. That's the way I feel like my parents brought me up. It's always been important to me to be genuine and to be honest. How's that book coming along? Last time I saw you, you were talking about writing a book. I got two pages done since then. Okay. I mean, it's heading in the right direction. All the RVDology.

Yeah. No, it's, that's, that is a project that, um, is on my agenda like every day and I rarely get to it.

And, and I just judge myself by that and a lot of, I, I always have like so much stuff to do. I can't imagine being someone that's like, um, I couldn't retire. You know,

I got to do something. I got to do something. For me, I'm always putting off like so much. I always, have a huge list of things and that one's really important to me otherwise someone like bobby fulton that could could come in uh he's a scumbag by the way do you know what's going on with him or no he looks surprised oh okay i don't know um but you know who he is yeah bobby fulton

your other your former business no no no no bobby fulton is uh who's a fantastic with tommy rogers oh no i don't know the story okay anyway i've just been um a lot of people wrestlers office people fans have come out to me over like last month and told me they enjoyed me outing Tommy. So it's kind of like out there. But anyway, I just did a bunch of signings for him. He shorted me as soon as I said something about it. I was full of crap. I was making it up.

And then I find out he's done this to a huge list of people. There's a huge list of people that won't work with him anymore. You know, Sonny Ono, Bushwacker Luke, C.J. Perry, Matt Rito, DeVon, Dudley. I reduce Sabu Fanzi, huge list, and way more than I know. But anyway, I learned that they've screwed a lot of people over, Zakarni and whatever. So anyway, my point was, if I don't write my book, someone like that could completely change history.

So it is important to me, but yeah, it's not something that I can tell you that I'm done with. Do you consider yourself retired? No, I don't. And I don't think I will. I think, I don't think, I think, I don't think so. That's how I feel right now. I feel like even if I don't take wrestling bookings anymore,

I don't think I'll make a big deal out of it, a retirement, because when wrestlers retire and they end up coming back and wrestling in anyway, no, I want one more match, no one more. For me, that is completely eaten up the credibility that I had in wrestling retirement matches. and I doubt that I'll ever feel like, no, I'm going to be different. I never want to wrestle right now. I'm done. I just see me is just going with the flow.

And someday when you say you're still wrestling, I might say, oh, it's been six years. And then I might have a match. And then if I ask you the next year, you'll say, it's been seven years. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. That's a good approach. I've always said also, I just want to price myself out, not wear myself and my value.

you down like a lot of my peers. They're worth so much in their prime. And then when they're not worth as much, and they can't get booked as much, and they come down and compromise, and that has like a cycle effect where then they're worth less. And they've been seeing that, oops, how many times are hit that?

It's okay. It's right there. I'm very close. We'll just move it to, you know, there we go. Okay. But anyway, yeah, I've always said, you know, I'm not going to do that. Like, I would rather just have less people

be able to afford me until I don't wrestle that way instead of wrestling myself into a grave when my last match was $5, you know? It's such a simple taunt, but what's the story behind Rob Van Dam? So I didn't know, just like most things that are really good, it was organic. I didn't know that I was coming up with something, you know. You can see the young guys sometimes where they're like, I got to have something stick. And so they'll just do whatever to the crowd. Like, hey, no one's doing it back.

Hey, you know, whatever. Sometimes I see things that I'm like, all right. If they got some real hard support, maybe they'll learn that. But for me, it was just, it was being a heel. People loved Saboo. So Saboo would do something and boom, Frankenstein mean, whatever, something. And the crowd would go out, Saboo, Saboo, Saboo. And then I would like, boom, give them a leg sweep.

uh, jump back to a moonsaw, bam, land on him. He's always holding his gut. I'm like, uh, what did you say? I think you meant this guy,

RVD, am I right? It took a while for me to get the three pumps though. When you watch it, I did, I did a lot of this before. And I didn't know that I was being any different, that I was doing anything special until,

uh, one time in Japan when the fans did it back to me. I was on the bus, um, outside the, uh, the, um,

the arena Nippon Budikon and we had to the bus went to get around the back it had to go alongside the fans that were all lined up to get in it's something you do every time because you go the same way every time

but anyway I was looking out the window and fans started like oh and they started they were doing this to me and I was like like it never struck me until that and then it was just so real I was like they're doing me

that's me that's my thing whoa, you know, they know me by that. I just thought that was so cool because I didn't realize that no one else was doing that. I was just expressing myself. And how I actually came up with it and thought of it was in the movie King of the Kickboxer, no, kickboxer, in the movie Kickboxer was John Claude Van Damme,

Billy Blanks. Your brother, of course. Yeah, our brother. There's a scene. He wants to fight the main. heel, Tung Poe. But first he has to go through this jobber in front of the promoters

and impress them to get a match. And so he's in this club. And that's where they do the scenes way. They do the exchange of the rib kicks, which me and Chris Benoit did. And Chris was like, kick me hard as you can. And he loved it.

But anyway, bam, they kick each other in the ribs. And then John Claw kicks him a few times, kicks him off the stage. And then he goes up, he goes to the promoters. And he goes, I want Tung Poe!

And I was like, he's kind of flexing, showing he's got some biceps without actually doing like a Hulk Hogan Billy Graham biceps shot. I think that's cool. And so I had that in mind, you know, when I was saying, don't you mean this guy, RVD right here? You know, and that's the whole story. I appreciate that every time I see you, I get to borrow it and be C, V. Yeah. So thank you.

It's really something. I'm going to be sending my manager around for picking. picking up royalties. There's a lot of people that have taken that. A lot of athletes in different sports too. Like every once in a while, someone to send you see the football player that does the thumbs after the, there's a fisher,

man, a whole bunch of soccer, bowler. Always good to see you. And congrats on everything you've got going on outside of wrestling as well. Of course, only wrestlers, only wrestlers.com and the show you got coming up this Thursday. But you're all, you're like a, you're a businessman. You're a business comma man. That's what you are.

That's what you are. Have to be. You have to be. And sometimes because that's so true, I may have missed out on some of the enjoyment that I would have had if I was more of a fan and less of a businessman. You know what I mean? But I was intentionally stripped of that before I was allowed in the dressing room. Shekin Sabu said, you're either a fan or you're a wrestler. you know so don't talk to anybody don't ask for an autograph because this was before cameras and phones

and they said don't talk to anyone unless you're going to introduce yourself shake their hand look them in the eye just say your name and that's it unless they talk to you and then just you know introduce yourself and so like right away saboo was like you know you're not a fan anymore you're a wrestler and so it so now wrestlers are allowed to be fans they're allowed to say whoa rvody's on my card you know, can I get a picture in the dressing room? You know, and I'm not going to say, no, you know, you're a wrestler, not a fan, because it's changed so much. But for me, I notice a lot of the moments that people bring up, I kind of missed because

my mind was on business, but I don't regret it, you know. I'm going to wrap this up with a question I asked you last time at the end. It's the question I asked everybody at the end of every conversation. And again, thank you for making the time to do this. Hey, you said every time I'm on, you get more than double the race. ratings of any other guests you have. So what am I going to do? I should have you on every week then.

Hey, I'm not going to hold back on it. Gratitudes, a huge part of my life. I wake up every day and I say I'll add three things I'm grateful for. Do it before I go to bed as well. What are three things in your life, RV, do you're grateful for? Ooh, okay. Man, I automatically, like, I only got three. I want to sum up.

I want to say my wife. I want to say, you know, my mom and family. I want to say all the love from the fans. If I can cheat all that under just love. It's your list. Yeah. That's one. Love?

All the love that I get specifically from, yeah, from Katie and from my mom and from the fans and everything. I'm grateful for my. freedoms. I'm grateful that we're all free as as free as we are in a society where we're controlled so much. I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful and feel very grateful for for the ability to manifest my dreams. Love that. RVD and CVV. Always so good to see you. Awesome, man.

Appreciate you, dude. Thanks, man. Thanks for helping me get the word out with only wrestlers. We've been having a lot of fun with it. And if you check out the site, see what wrestlers are on it so far. You'll get an idea for what we're doing. And we'll be around a while and growing. So jump on right now.

There we go. Big thank you to RVD for joining us at Circa Resort and Casino for this interview. That's where my live show will be during WrestleMania Week. So if you're going to be in Vegas for Mania, I hope to see you there. Thursday, April 17th. Tickets are on sale at CVVTix.com, CVVTX.com, and we'll be announcing the guest in the next few weeks here, but you won't want to miss it. Snap a screenshot.

Let us know you were listening to this. Let us know what really stood out for you and tag us. He's at The Real RVD. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and I just love how RVD has stories for days. check out his podcast, one of a kind with RVD, wherever you're listening to this, to hear even more of his great stories. And as we wrap this up, I'm going to share this quote that The Rock put out on Instagram this past week. It's a powerful quote from Inkey Johnson. If you've forgotten the language of gratitude, then you'll never be on speaking terms with happiness.

That's good. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. we've got an inspirational conversation with Chris Bay on Thursday. If you don't know the story, he broke his neck during a TNA match in October and was paralyzed. Doctors gave him a 10 to 25% chance of walking again. Well, he defied those odds.

He just started walking again recently. And if you're only going to listen to one episode of Insight this year, this is the one to listen to. It's so good. I will see you back here on Thursday for the last. that one. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear

from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack.

Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.