Recap of RVD on GIR Radio
Submitted by Calvin Martin on Monday, October 20, 2003 at 1:14 PM EST



From the GIR mailing list:

This week the Whole F'n show joined Get in the Ring Radio for the whole F'n
show! Listen to our whole F'n Show every F'n Sunday at 7pm Eastern 540 AM WLIE
or live streaming audio at our new and improved http://www.getinthering.tv

Interviews with Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, and more are coming in the next few
weeks!!

-RVD settles an argument between Sir Adam and the Phantom. Phantom believes RVD
is too young to be considered a legend; Rob says that everyone can find him on a
video game called "Legends of Wrestling". Talk turns to Rob's comic book shop
http://www.5starcomics.com in California, as well as his association with
http://www.noodlesoup.net as he is writing his own comic book series. "Twisted
Perception" is the name of the book.

-Rob recently ran down a purse snatcher in the mall where his comic book store
is located. He used "intimidation" on the thief to get the purse back to its
owner.

-Phantom talks about how now RVD is more famous than Jean Claude Van Dam, the
guy he was named after in 1991. RVD says "Jean Claude who??" Rob says he was
given the name by a promoter, and he was so green, he could have been called
"Joe Blow" and he would have gone with it. He says he got trained not to worry
about his gimmick first, but to worry about his in ring skills. Rob loves being
recognized by the fans on the street, doesn't think it's a pain in the ass at
all, he loves "the positive energy"

-RVD seems like he isn't that jazzed about being the IC champ. "For the most
part I don't care; I've had this Intercontental Belt I don't know how many
times. I read somewhere I beat Benoit for it 3 times, I don't even know if
that's true, if it is I must have had it 5 times. I've had the Hardcore Title,
the European Tile, the Tag Titles, the only one I haven't had is the World
Heavyweight Title." Phantom then bring up that Kevin Kelly mentioned on a GIR
interview that RVD was once penciled in to win the Heavyweight belt, "But a guy
with 3 initials in his name made sure (he) didn't". RVD laughs, says "'Nuff
said, I think I know who you are talking about its 3 letters and it's not RVD".

-Talk turns to websites and newsletters and RVD claims to not "put anything into
the websites and different reports, because they sometimes are so far off from
the truth its ridiculous..sometimes you can't help develop negative feelings
towards someone who writes lies about you... When I first got into the WWE.
1wrestling.com's writer kept telling me how foolish I was for thinking I was
going to get into the WWE." RVD claims that the writer (never mentioned by
name) wrote that in the office he and the other staff members would laugh about
how they thought Rob was "burying himself". Rob thought it was funny that the
writer thought he had any say in anything whatsoever; because his job is just to
report the news. Talk turns to when Rob "went round and round" with the same
site when they claimed he was injured filming Black Mask 2, and Rob was saying
that he was fine. "That's the thing, if it's coming out of my mouth and I'm
telling you I'm fine. How can someone argue with me and say 'No you're not.
You are not fine'"

-Sir Adam asks where RVD thinks these rumors get started on websites and
newsletters. Rob feels it might start from two wrestlers talking to each other,
"you talk about speculation, obviously when I came into the WWE, and I was
hurting people. They were getting hurt bad, but if they can't take getting hurt
they shouldn't be in this business in the first place. That's how the Original
Sheik trained me and I told that to Vince and he agreed with me. But none the
less I was living up to my reputation of busting people up every night..some
people are going to talk about that, but they aren't the people who can fine me,
suspend me, or even reprimand me. They are the other boys saying 'Look at RVD
he got someone good' so the internet started putting these rumors around saying
that the WWE was 'thinking about getting rid of RVD' which was never ever true,
or they said 'RVD is going to get sent to OVW to learn not to hurt people' they
sensationalized this so much, that people would ask me 'are you really getting
in all that trouble at work??' Heck no! I never got in any trouble." Phantom
asks if anything changed in his style, because recently talk of Rob hurting
people has died down considerably. RVD feels nothing really has changed other
than the WWE was putting him into hardcore matches at the beginning and not so
much anymore. "In a hardcore match the environment is different. you are going
to get busted open.I don't even consider a busted up eye or a little blood an
injury because you can still work the next day and it's no big deal, whether you
get stitches or not. Now put me in a ladder match there is a great chance
someone is going to get busted open again."




-Sir Adam asks if other guys ever try to shoot on RVD because they get mad at
him busting them up "Maybe when I was green at the start, there were some
wrestlers who tried to get over on me. But now, no, the man that I am right
now, nobody challenges that."

-Talk turns to Rob's renegotiation of his contract. RVD has not "entered any
kind of talk at this point about renegotiation. All that has come up so far is
that my contract will be expiring.it's not soon it's sometime down the road.
And that we should start talks soon"

-RVD stretches every night before his matches, "for a good 45 minutes before a
match", and claims he's the only superstar who does that. He says that's one of
the reasons he's able to stay injury free. "I've always been a fighter; I got
into martial arts, kickboxing. I kept testing myself, and once I got
comfortable enough with what I got, that's the coolness that comes out with
RVD."




-Phantom says he used to enjoy Rob's laid back promos that he did when he first
joined the WWE and was in the Alliance. He mentions when he was late to the
ring, and Stone Cold yelled at him about it, RVD says "That was a shoot, I was
really late. That was not planned or scripted. And all the other stuff that
they gave, it's always been an argumentative state when I do promos. One what
they have me say.. is either ridiculous or it isn't something I would say,
something that would get RVD over to the fans. RVD isn't the same character
that he was in ECW, and he can't be ECW was a time that's gone and I can hang on
to as much of it as I can. Usually when it comes to my lines they usually have
me say 'COOL' and that's it. They don't get me that's all they know about me.
Then the critics come down on me that I don't know how to talk. But, that's
what they give me to say, listen to this radio interview this is how I really
talk." Sir Adam says that one Raw show had RVD running down to the ring to beat
someone up and he felt that RVD would never do that. "Sometimes it's like you
guys sitting in that studio, it's a J-O-B..We do this 4 nights a week, and
sometimes it's alright to come out there and have a match that's not easy, but
you move on to the next night sometimes that's alright. It's not like in ECW
when RVD was the whole F'n show that meant every night I would bust my ass, I
would go out there and have a PPV caliber match every night. No matter how many
people were there if there were cameras, and that's how I built up my fan base.
And to tell you the truth sometimes I miss those times."

-Phantom asks if RVD if some of the WWE power brokers backstage watch the way
the fans respond to RVD, despite almost no push, storyline etc. and kind of
scratch their heads, and get their feathers ruffled saying 'Why the hell do
they love him so much we are doing the best we can to keep him mid-card at best
and he's getting a bigger reaction than some of the main event guys'. RVD
responds "They don't ask me that, but I 'm sure they are asking each other, what
the hell can we do to keep this guy down?" Sir Adam says that one of the
reasons he still buys WWE ppv's is that he knows RVD will always put on a good
match no matter what. "They knew I was different when I came in that my
attitude, the way I carry myself, my values were a little different than anyone
else. They think I'm different and unique. But instead of thinking that's a
good business strategy, they tried to make me more like the preconceived notion
of what a wrestler should be. I kept hearing 'tone it down you're going to get
hurt you can't keep wrestling that reckless style. We're not even going to give
you a chance until you slow it down.' And now after 2 years of not getting hurt
they say 'Wow you must be made of rubber', what did I tell them from the
start??"

-RVD says he'd like to wrestle "the guy who's on top" no one in particular he'd
like to feud with. "Because that's how you get the most money, and the most
recognition". His favorite matches in ECW were against Sabu and Jerry Lynn and
since being in WWE he liked working with Jeff Hardy and Christian. "Those guys
aren't in that top position we were talking about, but if I can be showcased
against those type of guys and get people talking. Because that's what it
really is a showcase of what I can do in the ring."

-RVD used to ride with Shawn Stasiak when he was in WWE. He felt that WWE cut
him for financial reasons, and the "Financial situation of the WWE seems to be
diminishing. Since I ve been there in the last 2 years they've made many cuts,
whether if it was letting office people go, or some of the boys. Or even asking
the boys to take a lower guarantee then they were originally." Phantom asks if
they ever asked RVD to take a pay cut, to which RVD says "they've never asked me
specifically and I would imagine it wouldn't.there was a time when if you didn't
want to work for one company you'd get another company to bid against each other
to get you. Now there's none of that if you want to be a successful wrestler
you have to work for Vince, especially in the United States."

-RVD claims he never gets heat for any media interviews he does. He claims in
ECW he had "a no heat clause." Phantom remembers when Sir Adam and himself
attended an ECW show in Queens and RVD got so excited when High Times magazine
came backstage to interview him. "That's where RVD 4:20 all started, in Queens,
that's where the ball started rolling guys" Phantom asks if RVD thinks
marijuana should be legalized. "Of course, anybody who studies about it will
read about .it's not a gateway drug the only reason it's considered a gateway
drug because through education you are lied to as a child. And it's
categorized with the harmful drugs like heroin, LSD, of course they are going to
try other things after they find out marijuana isn't all that bad. It's how
it's classified. The truth is that the benefits far outweighs the negatives of
marijuana." Phantom asks if he ever smokes before he wrestles to which Rob
responds "You can't do that legally. Let's stick with the RVD stretch routine
and call it a day." Sir Adam asks if RVD voted in the recall election to which
Rob responds "They changed my polling location and being the last minute guy I
am, I missed the deadline.let's just say I'm happy with the way things turned
out." Phantom says he could see in the next 10 years RVD as governor to which
Rob responds "If you watch the way I practice politics in the WWE, you'd see
it's not my thing."




-RVD stayed in ECW rather than taking a WCW offer because he really thought it
was going to take off. "ECW was taking care of me.allot of people assume that
if you worked for ECW you made no money. But because I was the top guy they
gave me a good contract and because they went bankrupt it turned out not being
as good as I hoped. By me staying in ECW and not going somewhere else and
selling out I built up my character in the environment I wanted to. If I was to
fade away and turn more and more into a typical wrestler (in WWE), thank god for
ECW DVD's so fans can still see what I used to do." Sir Adam mentions his
favorite RVD match being a tag with Sabu against Gado and Jado, "Me and Sabu
really had each other's backs in situations like that". Phantom mentions RVD's
match with Bam Bam Bigelow for the TV title, "again thank God for DVD". Talk
turns to Taz, "He's enjoying the position as commentator. Allot of the guys
that came from ECW had to adjust to the WWE, and I'm not saying Taz couldn't
adjust but it does appear that he fits into the role better now, then if he was
just another WWE wrestler." Sir Adam asks if it's true that Paul Heyman was
able to emphasize wrestler strengths over their weaknesses and that's why some
came over to the WWE and didn't work out as well as in ECW "In the WWE you're
entire job is different, the parameters you are working with, what you are
planning on achieving, the story you are going to tell. In ECW it was
considered, by the wrestling community, reckless, because if you were the 1st or
2nd match on the card you could steal the show, you had no parameters. IF you
think you could go out there and steal the show, don't worry about toning it
down to save for the rest of the card. You could go out there and do every move
in the book if you think it can get you over. Which of course it doesn't, you
can't just go out there and do every moonsault and expect the fans to love you.
You have to make sense, that's how they would learn, even on a PPV moment Paul
Heyman would say to me 'Go out there and steal the show', it was all up to me.
But, you had to earn that respect, the authority to make those calls, you were
watched at the beginning. It was up to us as artists to open ourselves up to
everybody and show what we've got"

-Phantom says that when he watched Wrestlemania when Shane McMahon did the Van
Terminator he thought RVD was at home "kicking the TV", and asks if he's had any
words with Shane about that when he got to WWE. "You try to come up with a move
that no one else can do, but what do you do when someone else does end up doing
it? Okay. it's just another move. Good for him he got allot of WWE fans who
never saw me do it on ECW. I've had plenty of conversations with him about it.
The other day when he did his 'coast to coast' he got up limping and said 'Rob,
you can keep that move'"

-Van Dam claims that he doesn't watch the other boys matches, just really
concentrates on his stuff. HE likes Tajiri, Rey Misterio, he doesn't consider
himself a wrestling fan. Phantom says that he used to be, because back in the
day RVD was picked from the crowd by the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase to kiss
his feet for $. "I was a huge fan back then, and he picked me out when the WWE
was in Battle Creek, I jumped the guard rail.I was so excited I didn't hold out
for more money I did it for $100."

-Van Dam hangs out with Booker T "We like and dislike the same people. We have
the same road habits. All the ECW guys are super tight, Tommy Dreamer, Spike
Dudley" RVD doesn't care if he's pushed in a feud with someone like Goldberg,
because he's comfortable when he's able to entertain the crowd.

-Phantom asks if he liked working with Shawn Michaels on RAW for the title a
year ago. Phantom assumes he was a big Michaels fan growing up watching the
WWE, "I grew up and long time ago, you know what I mean. When I was a kid, yeah
now wrestling him I'm not that same kid. It's a business, here's the thing it
was one of his first (single) matches back. And everyone was assuming it was
going to be some big 'dream match'. I know if the match did go south, it wasn't
my fault, because I hadn't had a bad match in months." Phantom says he liked
the backstage stuff between the two and RVD answers half heartedly "Yeah?
Thanks"



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