RVD shares his thoughts about the amount of talent WWE has let go recently.
The topic of WWE releases came up while Rob Van Dam was chatting with René Duprée on his Cafe De René podcast. Van Dam expressed that he was never “real comfortable” in WWE, even when he was champion.
He went on to add that he was humbled so much during his time in the company by way of opportunities being presented to him and then those opportunities being taken away.
For some reason, I was never like real comfortable in WWE, you know? People are like — every time someone gets fired now, which I mean it is, you know, pretty crazy how often they’ve been doing that but the world is always shocked, you know? Like, ‘Oh my God.’ I think, even when I was champion, I never felt untouchable. They humbled me so much by — you know, they give you plans. ‘We’re gonna do this. We’re gonna do this, sike. Sike.’ [It happened so much] to where it humbled me. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m not fired? Oh, okay. That’s cool.’
He recounted the first time he met Ken Anderson while they were in TNA together and overheard Anderson explaining why he was released from WWE. According to Van Dam’s recount, Anderson said he was told that his promo ability was a reason for his departure which surprised him. Van Dam said he could not imagine having an ego such as the one he remembered Anderson having in that moment.
Ken [Anderson said] at IMPACT when I met him, him and somebody, they were talking about when he got fired from WWE and the reason they gave him. Ken says, ‘They said I couldn’t do promos, me. They said I couldn’t do promos’ and I was like, ‘Wow, what an ego this guy has.’ I can’t imagine feeling like that myself. Like, ‘They said I’m not a good wrestler. Me, the whole f*cking show.’
Van Dam believes that him not being as open and sociable in WWE like he was in ECW hurt him a bit. He recalled seeing Chris Jericho out to eat with one of the creative writers and initially making fun of Jericho for it, but added that the writers at the time enjoyed when ideas were given to them by talent.
I was one of them and when I look at it now [being reserved in WWE], that kind of in some — I mean it is what it is but in some ways, I see where it hurt me. Like in WWE, I would look at somebody — I remember one time we saw Chris Jericho sitting at a Waffle House table with a writer and me and whoever I was with at the table across from the way, we’re like, ‘Look at that suck ass over there f*cking pitching stuff man. Oh my God. Doesn’t that make you sick?’ And in reality, why? It’s just somebody doing their job well and writers would love it when you would give them ideas, pitch them ideas and whatever, you know, and I was so opposite from that. Last thing I would do is probably pitch an idea. The only time that was different was in ECW. For some reason, I felt really comfortable there and I felt like that was, you know, a lot of mine as much as everyone else’s but I mean I felt like, dude, how could I not feel like I’ve … they’re chanting ‘RVD’ from the beginning of the show ‘till the main event, you know? So it’s like I had to own that and it was a good feeling but, I wouldn’t wanna be hungry again like that.
In early 2021, Van Dam was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. As of this writing, WWE has not made an announcement concerning a 2022 Hall of Fame ceremony. WrestleMania 38 is taking place at AT&T Stadium on April 2nd and 3rd.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Cafe De René podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
