Rob Van Dam Doesn’t See Similarities Between AEW and ECW, Talks Indy Wrestling Boom

– Rob Van Dam spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview discussing his returning to Impact Wrestling, the arrival of AEW and more. Highlights are below:

On if there’s any promotion he wants to attach himself to: “There’s not. Money talks. I’m always interested in considering good business, but over the last several years my goal has been to work less, have more time off and make more money. I’m really looking to do less and less – travel less. I consider myself semi-retired. At the same time I stay ready, so I don’t have to get ready.”

On if he sees any similarities between AEW and ECW: “I don’t see it. I think ECW was a gradual thing…. I don’t remember it making a boom out of nowhere like this seems to be. As far as the Monday Night Wars goes, c’mon, these guys don’t even have a TV deal yet. I wish them all the luck in the world – I hope they do well. Over the years I’ve seen many companies want to come up and be a competing brand, but eventually the guy funding it decides he doesn’t want to keep losing money and he pulls out…They have to prove history wrong that they are different and that they’re gonna stick around. People who have a whole lot of money usually don’t waste a lot of money. That’s why they have money. I’m not saying that they are wasteful but if things aren’t set up right and they’re paying guys the rumored reports, then they’ve got to make the money back and I hope they do.”

On the boom in indie wrestling: “If you listened to interviews I did 3-4 years ago, that’s exactly where I said the business was going to go. I could tell all of the different wrestling promotions that had their cult followings were gonna grow…. We’re gonna see all of these indies grow and it’s gonna be a place where the boys can have a lot more options to work instead of just trying to go to WWE or possible TNA.”

On WWE’s dominance: “I just don’t see WWE getting knocked out of its first place position, but history is what it is and I’m all about breaking tradition.”