Rob Van Dam was the latest WWE star interviewed by the Detroit Press this week to help promote Wrestlemania 23. Of all the interviews thus far, this was easily the most interesting, with Van Dam discussing his pre-match routine, his relationship with his wife Sonya, why he doesn't bring her on the road, and his dream match (The Original Sheik). He also praises NBC series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", an awesome show that has yet to really find a following in the ratings.

You can check out the entire interview by clicking here.



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RVD loves being with his wife
Adam Graham / The Detroit News

Who knew Battle Creek was so extreme?

Rob Szatkowski -- better known as professional wrestling "extremist" Rob Van Dam, or RVD for short -- grew up in quaint Battle Creek, the land of the Corn Flakes. But it was when a World Wrestling Federation show came through to Battle Creek's Kellogg Arena that he saw his future in front of him -- and it had nothing to do with Tony the Tiger.

At WrestleMania 23, Van Dam -- who is known for his rubber band-like flexibility -- will wrestle alongside members of his Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brethren in an eight-man tag match that will see the ECW "Originals" taking on "The New Breed," a group of young ECW upstarts.

Van Dam spoke to The News last month in Bakersfield, Calif., about his TiVo, his pre-match routines and why there is such a thing as too much music.

Outside of the ring, what do you like to do with your time?

My favorite thing to do is spend time with my wife, which is something I cherish and don't get enough of, because our schedule is so crazy. My wife and I spend a lot of time watching TiVo. Routinely, when I get home on a Wednesday after being on the road for four or five days, I have several hours to catch up on some of my favorite TV shows, such as "Heroes," -- that's one of my favorites -- "Medium," "Studio 60"

You're sticking with "Studio 60"?

I love it! The dialogue is so quick and fast. It reminds me of "Moonlighting" or "The West Wing." It's that dialogue that's fast and the intelligent conversation that really draws me in.

How long have you been married, and does she come out on the road at all?

It's been eight and a half years. She does (come on the road) a bit; we don't have any children, so that's an advantage as far as taking her with me. But the reason I don't have her with me all the time is what we do is brutal.

We're conditioned in a robotic manner to withstand the punishment of being on the road. But when I take her on the road with me for a normal week, I'm flying at least two days out of five -- it might be five days out of five -- I'm driving 1,000 miles, not sleeping much, not eating much, because that's how it is rolling on to the next town. When I take her with me, the consequences are it usually takes her a couple weeks to recover, and I'm usually wiped out myself for two days, and I recover just in time to get back on the road again.

Do you have a dream match up?

The only guy that comes to mind is the Original Sheik. He trained me, he was my mentor, and I'd like to see if he's proud of what I've learned.

Do you have any routines you go through before a match?

Absolutely. My routine pretty much starts with drinking several cups of coffee throughout the day. I have a stretch routine and a lot of people know that about me. But the fact is, in all my years of wrestling, all the different dressing rooms I've been in, nobody else really takes the benefits of stretching to heart like I do.

And that's something I do every night before a match. It's an insurance -- to not guarantee that I won't get injured, but it gives me my best odds. It gets the blood circulating, it gets me loosened up; there's so many benefits for it.

I stretch extensively for up to an hour before my match. After I'm all stretched out I have calisthenics I do, starting with jumping jacks, and some shadow boxing, and kicks, and more stretching. I stretch my lungs out because the worst thing that can happen out there in the ring is to be what we call "blowed up," which is to be winded. It's the worst feeling when you're out there sucking air and you feel like anybody can just stand on you and you'd be helpless. And that's what you don't want is to ever be helpless. You always want to have the upper hand and feel like you're in great shape, throughout a six minute match, a 30 minute match, whatever. So my routine and my conditioning is very important to me. And stretching the lungs out consists of expanding the lungs like a balloon. You figure the first time you try to blow on a balloon that you just pull out of a package it's not stretched out yet, the air doesn't get in there as easily. But after you blow it up, maybe a few times and let it down, then its kind of stretched out, it doesn't take as much pressure to blow up, and that's how I think of my lungs when I'm out there. I want to be able to take in air and, believe it or not, you actually think about the opportunities you have to take in air. Sometimes you get knocked down from a shoulder tackle, and while the guy's hitting the ropes you're thinking, "OK, I've got two breaths. Here we go!" Because that's my style -- I get up, I jump up and I leapfrog and I land, I drop in the splits, I do a spin kick, a back flip -- you know, that's what I do. I'm not like the other guys that just throw and elbow and take a rest or whatever, so for me it's all about pacing, and my routine is very important. All the way up to going out the curtain, I'm trying to time and pace my routine.

Do you listen to any music while you're warming up?

No, I listen to my body. I listen to my body from the inside. It's a great way to check and see what's injured on me, what's tight, it's a complete body check, because I stretch everything a few different ways and a few different directions by the time I'm done with my routine. It's a spiritual thing as far as checking your body, from being the passenger inside, so to speak, and it's a great way to increase my mind-body connection because you have to tell your muscles to trust you and relax while you're pulling them in an unnatural manner. Music would distract me. I'm not as musically motivated as everybody else, and that's something I think about a lot. We have music all day, from waking up to music to music on the elevator to music in the car -- music's just just a thing, you know?

You like wrestling, you like music. But what if someone decided wrestling instead of music? You listened to different wrestling in the car, there was wrestling in the elevator, that'd be weird, right?

I think it's kind of weird that we have to have music all the time all day long.