Rob Van Dam Weighs In On Wrestler vs. Superstar Debate

On the latest episode of 1 Of A Kind, Rob Van Dam talked about the wrestler vs. superstar debate when people refer to wrestling talent, something brought up by Mercedes Mone in a recent Mone Mag edition. You can check out some highlights below:

On the debate: “I think it’s subjective. I think that maybe that’s what those words mean to her [Mone], because all they are is two words, right? When I was in WWE from 2001 to 2007? Everybody knows that when I was in WWE, Vince had long ago decided that we were sports entertainment, right? We weren’t allowed to call ourselves wrestlers… Everybody in 2001, 2002 through at least most of — if that ever changed, then I don’t even know when the f**k it was. But when I was there, we were all to call ourselves superstars. If we did a promo and said, ‘Hey, that’s right, one of your favorite wrestlers is coming to your town!’ They go ‘Cut, cut! One of your favorite superstars.’ ‘Oh, okay,’ And that was the rule. And maybe that’s changed.”

“But again, all it is is a word, and words mean different things to different people. Obviously, a dictionary is not going to back up what she said or even what you or I would say, because they wouldn’t be specific. But on what she said, if a superstar is somebody that — she said the fans look at and say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s something special!’ I’m paraphrasing because I can’t remember the exact quote. But if we go by that alone, is everyone on the roster a superstar? I don’t think so. I don’t think the crowd can say that to 100% of them, right? But if they’re on TV every week, and people know who they are, and they got action figures, and they got merchandise, and they’re part of the show, are they superstars? In my opinion, yes.”

On the policy of the term changing: “The rules and policies always change. And you know, it has to. They’re always evolving and adapting as the times change. And oh my god, how many times have I said in the last week that the world changes so f**king much and so fast. Like, we were talking about the future and I was saying, even what I do — you know, if I’m working ten years from now, whatever I do could be — I could be involved in something that’s not even here right now, something we couldn’t even dream of. And that’s how it is, you know? I go back to 2001 when we picked up our first cell phones. You know, they weren’t very smart back then and had the f**king cord. And anyway, the flip-up. But we could never have imagined that, ‘Yeah, take a picture and send it to Japan, he’ll get it instantly,’ Like, what you couldn’t imagine before it happened.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 1 Of A Kind an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.