Rob Van Dam has seen plenty of crazy stuff during his wrestling career, but one of his strangest memories has nothing to do with a wrestling ring.
While speaking on The Dirty Secrets Podcast with Kate Shelor, the WWE Hall of Famer recalled being taken to the Ponderosa Sun Club in Indiana early in his career, where he found himself at an annual nude competition packed with strippers, photographers and plenty of people he definitely wasn’t expecting to meet.
RVD explained that his wrestling mentor brought him to the resort for the Miss Nude Poppin’ contest, which he described as a massive gathering built around a nude competition.
“It’s a big nude contest. It’s in the pool area, and outside the fence is where all the crowd is — full of photographers, cameras and stuff. Man, I was so young there.”
That was also where RVD says he first crossed paths with adult film star Ron Jeremy.
“That was the first time I saw Ron Jeremy. I’ve seen that guy so many times throughout the last 30 years, running in the same circles.”
The funny part is that despite seeing Jeremy several times over the years, RVD eventually realized the guy apparently had no clue who he was. RVD recalled one encounter where he tried to acknowledge Jeremy, only to quickly realize the recognition wasn’t mutual.
“Maybe the third or fourth time, I think it was at a wrestling show or something, I passed him and said, ‘Hey.’ But I could tell he didn’t know who I was. I was like, ‘Okay, never mind — I’m never going to talk to you again.’”
For a guy who spent decades traveling the world as one of wrestling’s biggest stars, RVD has collected his fair share of bizarre stories. A nudist resort, a national stripper competition and repeated run-ins with Ron Jeremy certainly rank pretty high on that list.
What do you think about Rob Van Dam’s wild story from his early wrestling days? Let us know your thoughts and feedback.
