Rob Van Dam Recalls Working With Big Names in Japan, Making More There Than In US

Rob Van Dam had a lengthy stint in Japan before he became a star in the US, and he recently recalled working with the big-name talent over there. The WWE Hall of Famer looked back on that era from 1993 to 1997 when he was working on tours in AJPW during the latest episode of his 1 Of a Kind podcast, and you can see some highlights below:

On working with a lot of talent over in AJPW: “Yeah, and I worked with [Kenta] Kobashi and [Mitsuharu] Misawa a lot. [Jun] Akiyama, [Takao] Omori, [Toshiaki] Kawada, [Akira] Taue, all them guys. And who’s the guy that did the shoot fight… him Don Frye had the, ‘Boom, Boom!’ [stiffing each other]… It’s the most brutal thing. Anyway that guy, I can’t remember his name but he was he was with us for a while in All Japan. Maybe he came in to work with Gary Albright. But yeah, there was a lot of guys that were on every single tour and then there was some of us that would rotate.”

On making more money in Japan than the US at the time: “You know, I didn’t like being over there all the time. But I made so much more money over there than I would in the States that I could go for a few weeks, then come back and take months off and and still be fine. You know, back then when I had a $400 a month, roach-infested apartment.”

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