Is there trouble in paradise between RVD and AEW?
Rob Van Dam has never been shy about criticizing AEW. In fact, the former WWE Champion took plenty of shots at the company before he shockingly made his AEW debut in 2023.
The WWE Hall of Famer comes from one of the most infamous periods of wrestling - ECW, which is a place known for it’s heavy use of violence. However, even RVD thinks AEW went too far during Jon Moxley’s title match against Adam Copeland two weeks ago.
Of course, everyone is talking about that infamous spot where Moxley took a spiked baseball bat out of his back. Many have deemed the spot disgusting and unnecessary, and on RVD’s 1 Of A Kind podcast, he doesn’t feel that the definition of wrestling to him.
"It's not my thing, not my kind of thing. That's not wrestling to me, but obviously that is sacrificing a lot for the business, I mean that could be said about it. But the more AEW has been doing stuff like that, the more personally I feel like I would rather be associated with WWE than AEW you know?”
The former WWE Champion feels like the inmates are running the asylum, which could be for better or worse.
“Like a couple years ago it was like, ‘Man they're growing, they're trying things to get up there,’ and then there's a feel that like the inmates are running the prison, which there always has been, for better or worse. I mean that was used as a good point at first, like ‘Hey, the boys are running it, cool,’ but for me this serves as an example of why that might not be a good idea but it is a style of wrestling. I personally look at it as being lower than the standard, substandard because it's going to draw only a certain niche crowd that's into that kind of stuff. I didn't like it. It's really crazy dangerous.
I don't want to knock their freedom of expression. I think that's probably cool to them or else they would turn it down when it was at the idea phase if it didn't sound cool, right? So congratulations to pulling off a crazy stunt, death defying stunt for better or worse, you know?”
RVD hasn’t done an AEW show since April 2024. The 54-year-old is currently on a legend’s deal with WWE; so he’s allowed to make appearances for AEW, but with certain restrictions. It is surprising that a former ECW guy was disgusted by the Jon Moxley spot, but RVD wasn’t one of the originals who’s known for his controversial and grotesque violence in ECW so his opinion isn’t too far fetched to believe. Given AEW’s history, especially the Hangman Page/Swerve Strickland stuff, it’s doubtful that they'll stop with moments like these unless someone higher up tells them no.