kitty! she/they! 32! mostly wrestling sometimes whatever!
00s enjoyer, tag team liker โ๐, action figure girlie, top .05% of break stuff listeners. wrasslin side acct. got nuked so i'm being a bozo on main (i tag for blood but thatโs abt it)
People constantlyyyy using new words to water down misogyny when a woman does it. No she is not โmale centeredโ or โnot a girls girlโ sheโs a misogynist just like her boyfriend!!!!
TV Champ Rob Van Dam sounds off on ECW, TNN, his career and the heavyweight title
by Blake Norton and Galatea
ROB VAN DAM
[Van Dam solicits heat from the crowd by showing off his TV champion belt. He has not ruled out a possible shot at Taz and his world champion belt.]
ECW Magazine: What are your thoughts on Extreme Championship Wrestling making the jump to being on national cable television each week?
Rob Van Dam: I think itโs great! Iโm very happy. Itโs a long-awaited line that weโre crossing here. Being a nationally and world-recognized organization, itโs something that weโve all stuck around and worked our asses off for.
โ...weโre not going to [cut back], but iโm sure weโre going to have a lot of critics right on our assesโฆโ
ECW: Thereโs been some talk about new restrictions for televised matches. For example, with the pay-per-views you had some mandatory guidelines.
RVD: From what Iโve been told weโre not going to [cut back], but I'm sure weโre going to have a lot of critics right on our asses, wondering what kind of role models we are, this and that. Maybe we are a controversial, politically incorrect group, so thatโs OK. And if weโre really allowed to speak our minds on it and say how we really feel about it, then good.
ECW: So you expect by and large that things will remain much like they are now on television? The kind of angles that go on and the way ECW approachesโฆ
RVD: I believe it will be. There have been fans that have said, โThis particular pay-per-view wasnโt nearly as hardcore as the other ones. What happened? Are you guys toning it down a little? But we hadnโt toned down. The matches that night might not have been.
[โ...i brought into the business with me my acrobatics, my martial arts skills, moves, abilities, and i tried to adapt them toward wrestling.โ
Van Dam cranks a headlock on Lance Storm.
Rob Van Dam lands a kick to the head of Spike Dudley.]
ECW: ... toward the hardcore style?
RVD: Yeah. I mean, as an individual in the ring, I try not to do the exact same move every night. There may be some occasions when performers modify their moves, but I do not expect the company to change what weโre known for and what the fans get excited about when they watch us. Thatโs really what we stand for.ย
ECW: How did you become so versatile in the ring? As many fans know, you were trained by Sabuโs uncle, The Sheik. But how do you incorporate your multiple wrestling styles in the ring?
RVD: Iโve always tried to be unique and Iโve never patterned myself after anybody else. Although The Sheikโs style is different from what I do now, I brought into the business with me my acrobatics, my martial art skills, moves, abilities, and I tried to adapt them toward wrestling. Everything I learned from The Sheik, his views on the business. He taught me the basics of wrestling. In reality I spent a couple years trying to fit my moves in, seeing how they work with actual matches. Then, after I went to Japan in 1993 and I learned, it was like, โwow!โ It was the opposite of what a lot of Americans over here were telling me. In japan after every match, at first, they were telling me โkick harder, kick harder,โ and during the match if I wouldnโt kick harder I would get my teeth kicked in.
[A man of the people, Van Dam always has time to exchange high-fives with the fans.]
โ...during the match if i wouldnโt kick harder i would get my teeth kicked in.โ
ECW: Theyโd kick the crap out of you?
RVD: Exactly. That's a great way to learn.ย
โi was kickboxing on my own for non-school activities,and i was working on my own trying to learn what i could break into pro wrestling.โ
ECW: Did you wrestle in college at all?
RVD: I never went to college. I knew I wanted to be a professional wrestler when I was in high school. I already knew I needed to be big because I wasnโt a big kid, so I was trying to eat more and I started lifting in high school. I joined high school wrestling and I learned that the main goal then was to try to drop as much weight as possible. I went to school in Michigan and they take that sโ very seriously. They're all about running for three hours with eight sweaters on, making yourself throw up and not eating. And if you weighed 150 pounds, youโd try to drop down to 135 pounds by Saturday, and that was just crazy. I also noticed the guys with the reputations of being the best wrestlers were very skinny and wiry with skinny arms and that was totally not what I wanted to do. I had already been studying healthy and nutrition for a couple years, and I knew that I only had so many teenage, super growth years where my body was going to take on the extra muscle mass. Even when youโre not working out, โ
