Konan
01-29-2010, 06:50 PM
Former WWE & ECW Champion Rob Van Dam was interviewed by FanHouse.com to promote this weekend's WrestleReunion event in Los Angeles. Here are some highlights...
How to "Spice Up" Today's Wrestling: "I would say bring back the day of the jobber. When I was a fan, when I was younger, wrestlers were larger than life because I would watch them totally annihilate some local scrub, some guy that was in the ring, I didn't know who the jobber was. We called those enhancement matches and they hardly ever do them anymore. That to me was how you build the wrestler, and when I found out two of these superstars would be battling each other, whether it was near me at a live show or when it was on Saturday Night's Main Event, that was huge and it drew great interest and enthusiasm because I got to see these two big wrestlers who I've seen just destroy everybody actually face each other."
Van Dam feels that the Monday night wars forced both companies to abandon jobbers and always put on marquee matches, but looking back, it's hurt the companies' abilities to build stars and the overall product:
"Ever since Monday Night Wars, every single match from the bottom to the top of the card seems like it has to be main-event quality -- superstar vs. superstar, superstar vs. superstar -- and then you gotta find a political way to go into the finish, you know, to try to deck one guy while doing what you want with the other. It's a bunch of bulls**t I think. You know, I really think that the enhancement matches were what brought everybody into WWE in the '90s."
Returning to WWE or Going to TNA: "I mean, it's possible that I could be interested in either TNA or WWE if it was the right amount of work vs. pay ratio. That's basically what it is, and I haven't had that deep of conversations with anyone yet, really. So I don't know if it's out there or not, since I haven't been the active one out there pursuing, you know, the information comes to me as it comes when they're reaching out to me."
NODQ
How to "Spice Up" Today's Wrestling: "I would say bring back the day of the jobber. When I was a fan, when I was younger, wrestlers were larger than life because I would watch them totally annihilate some local scrub, some guy that was in the ring, I didn't know who the jobber was. We called those enhancement matches and they hardly ever do them anymore. That to me was how you build the wrestler, and when I found out two of these superstars would be battling each other, whether it was near me at a live show or when it was on Saturday Night's Main Event, that was huge and it drew great interest and enthusiasm because I got to see these two big wrestlers who I've seen just destroy everybody actually face each other."
Van Dam feels that the Monday night wars forced both companies to abandon jobbers and always put on marquee matches, but looking back, it's hurt the companies' abilities to build stars and the overall product:
"Ever since Monday Night Wars, every single match from the bottom to the top of the card seems like it has to be main-event quality -- superstar vs. superstar, superstar vs. superstar -- and then you gotta find a political way to go into the finish, you know, to try to deck one guy while doing what you want with the other. It's a bunch of bulls**t I think. You know, I really think that the enhancement matches were what brought everybody into WWE in the '90s."
Returning to WWE or Going to TNA: "I mean, it's possible that I could be interested in either TNA or WWE if it was the right amount of work vs. pay ratio. That's basically what it is, and I haven't had that deep of conversations with anyone yet, really. So I don't know if it's out there or not, since I haven't been the active one out there pursuing, you know, the information comes to me as it comes when they're reaching out to me."
NODQ