Van Dam discusses all things AEW.
On the 200th episode of AEW Dynamite, Rob Van Dam made his debut for the company to set up an FTW Championship match against ‘Jungle Boy’ Jack Perry.
He came back to the company on the 9/23 edition of Collision and teamed with HOOK to score a win over Angelo Parker and Matt Menard. Van Dam’s Collision appearance was in his home state of Michigan and he told Chris Van Vliet about getting the call for it. He added that on September 5th, 2022, AEW contacted him about a date.
I was at a convention in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, Legends Fest and I got the message (about coming back to AEW), you know? ‘Hey, can you do the 23rd in Grand Rapids?’ Interestingly enough, last year, at this exact same time, they messaged me with that, September 5th, actually. And that’s when I got the okay to do it. It was like a year ago, and then I did it. But some time had passed then. But that day was, you know, near Battle Creek. Yeah, from Battle Creek, hometown boys was — so obviously, same idea. Again, that’ll be cool. It’s one week before, I’m going to be doing my show in Battle Creek, which those guys have been working on that for like a year, you know, promoting it. And it’s a big full circle return home and then just the week before, they put me in Grand Rapids, which is just right down the street.
Van Dam was asked why didn’t he debut for All Elite Wrestling in 2022. He responded with the following:
Communication dropped (is why I didn’t debut for AEW in 2022). So that’s it. Sometimes that would happen. Sometimes. Both of the companies over the years, every once in a while, would call, just to check out my schedule. I don’t hold it (the date). I hold it in mind skeptically as a possibility. And that’s all because I know how it works. But that’s how it works, never hear from them again. And then it’s like, well, all right, whatever, I can hypothesize. You know, I wonder what did I do? But you know, I’m very stoic and (a) part of stoicism is really being able to accept things as they are and just let it roll right off my shoulder.
The 52-year-old Van Dam is in the midst of his 33rd year in the wrestling business. Earlier this year, he returned to WWE television to announce picks for the WWE Draft.
