Rob Van Dam On How AEW Has Surprised Him, Praises MJF’s Heel Work

Rob Van Dam didn’t expect AEW to be as big as it’s become, and he recently discussed how the company has stepped up. The WWE Hall of Famer spoke with Sportskeeda’s Riju Dasgupta and you can see some highlights below, per Wrestling Inc:

On AEW’s success: “Pretty cool, they’re groundbreaking. When they first came out, they just stood as good a chance as everybody else in my mind because even though I heard they had a lot of money, this guy owns [the Jacksonville Jaguars], even with all of that, that wasn’t anything new. Happens all the time, every once in a while somebody comes up and they think they’re going to be the next big thing and usually, they have one show, if that, and then they’re done.

“AEW started and I thought they were just going to be another one of those companies, and they certainly weren’t. It’s amazing that they draw as many fans as they do and that’s on TV and in person. The crowds are so much bigger than IMPACT Wrestling or a lot of the independents outside of WWE. So they’ve stepped up and they really are the next big thing.”

On MJF: “I think MJF really has the fans’ attention. He’s super committed from what I understand, he was at a comic convention of some kind and on his own without the production crew behind him or anything, he walked into a room full of black people but they had a black person on stage and he said, ‘Does anybody have any questions on Black Lives Matter?’ Like, what a heel. He’s just committed, he doesn’t laugh at himself or break character that I know.”