WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam (RVD) spoke with CJ Perry on TMZ’s Inside the Ring about various topics, including whether he believes other wrestlers should model their careers after his.
RVD said, “That’s a great question because you know we all judge ourselves from hearing what other people say. You know, if everybody told you that you were ugly, CJ, you’d believe it. You wouldn’t know how beautiful you are. You know what I mean? That’s how we get all of our facts about ourselves, you know? So, I just I’m used to people saying I’m one of a kind. I’m so original, different, unique. That makes me wonder like if somebody else one thing I always heard my whole career too, ‘Yeah, but you’re RVD.’ Like that’s always supposed to be an excuse. I’ve heard it so many times, you know, when I didn’t want to go to the desert to visit the troops on our Christmas um break when I was burned out from being on the road several years ago. A lot of people know about that story. And I remember Chavo saying, ‘Man, I don’t want to go either, you know.’ And I said, ‘Well, say no. That’s all I did.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but you’re RVD.’ And Booker said, ‘You could tell a lot about a man from his shoes.’ I go, ‘Well, what do my shoes tell you?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, but you’re comfortable in your own skin, man. That ‘Yeah, you’re RVD.’ Like, everyone always says that I get away with it just because I’m who I am.”
On advice he learned from Sabu:
“And I don’t usually give that credit, but when I think about somebody trying to do what I did and follow the path that I did in their in their career, I say yes in the perspective that be yourself. Don’t worry about conforming some of my values that I got taught. I mean, I would love to pass them on if you ever hear me, you know, talking about like what Sabu taught me. Don’t don’t try to be like someone else. There’s already one of those guys. And and don’t don’t try to take someone else’s spot. Someone already has that spot, you know, create your own spot. And also, I came from a time when people really weren’t doing each other’s moves. They really weren’t. There was, like, maybe like Johnny Ace did the Ace Crusher, which Randy Orton does as RKO now, and DDP did it as the Diamond Cutter, and that was one of the first ones that I saw where like, okay someone in every single organization seems to do that move, but that was about it. And you know it wasn’t like everyone was doing a one and a one and a half and everyone was doing this, but now it’s so different in that respect, like in the wrestling schools’ moves. Everyone does everyone else’s moves.”
On the five-star frog splash being one of his less original moves:
“I mean that is amazingly or interestingly to me anyway, that’s like the it was my finish, but it’s the one move that I didn’t like originate that that I did consistently because, you know, everyone did a frog splash. I did try to make it different by spinning in the air and going for the furthest corner and and what I could do to make it mine. But you know, if you talk about the Rolling Thunder and the Split-Legged Moonsault and the Van Daminator, Van Terminator, and all that stuff, this is one move that, like I saw Jimmy Snuka and Tonga Kid and those guys doing a top rope splash, you know?”
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(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
