RVD’s issues with AEW apparently weren’t limited to the crazy weapons and hardcore spots he’s been criticizing lately. The ECW legend says actually getting into the ring with AEW’s younger generation could be a challenge because their approach to wrestling was sometimes “barely compatible” with his own.
During his appearance on Rip Rogers’ podcast, RVD was asked about the creative freedom he had during his handful of AEW appearances. He made it clear that Tony Khan wasn’t dictating every second of his matches and that he had plenty of input, but he still had to figure out how to work with whoever AEW put across the ring from him.
“No, of course I have say in what I’m doing, but I’m still there to do a job. You know, it’s been almost a year. It was last April, the last match that I had with AEW. I wrestled four or five times for them. Each time was a one-match deal.”
RVD then pointed toward his final AEW match, a 420-themed fatal four-way, as an example of the problem. He found himself working with three younger wrestlers who came from a completely different wrestling philosophy than the one he grew up learning.
“So, even though I have my say-so, I’m in there with like three young kids that totally are from a different school. Their ideas, the way they wrestle, the way they approach the match, their mindset, everything that they want to do is so different than me and my times that it’s barely compatible, I think, to an extent.”
That meant RVD sometimes found himself essentially wrestling around things his opponents wanted to do. Some of those ideas either wouldn’t have made sense during his era or simply weren’t the kind of wrestling he personally wanted to perform.
“Like, I’m wrestling around them, and the stuff that they’re doing either doesn’t make sense, didn’t make sense back in our day, or it’s something that I don’t prefer.”
But RVD also admitted there’s a pretty big question hanging over his criticism: maybe wrestling has simply changed. Rather than assuming his generation’s way is automatically the correct one, he questioned whether trying to teach younger wrestlers his philosophy would even accomplish anything.
“And it’s like, you know, I could try and teach them, but am I right, or has it just changed and it’s not the way it was anymore? You know what I mean? Because that’s the truth. The way wrestling is right now, it is the expression that the artists are giving us.”
That doesn’t mean he suddenly loves the modern style. RVD explained that The Original Sheik drilled one major rule into him during his training — protect the business. That extended all the way down to avoiding elaborate moves where the setup made it painfully obvious that both wrestlers were cooperating.
“And even your moves. If the move that you want to do out in the ring, if the setup for it takes so long that it kills the whole match and kills the feeling of competition, then don’t do it because it exposes the business.”
RVD believes that philosophy isn’t nearly as obvious with some younger wrestlers today, particularly in AEW, where he feels performers are given considerably more control over what they do.
“And now it’s so obvious watching the guys, the young guys. And, you know, especially in the smaller company of the two, I’m getting heat for bashing AEW, and I’ll talk about that in a second, which I don’t do, but that is a place where it seems more like the inmates are running the prison.”
Still, RVD isn’t using any of that as an excuse for having a bad match. He recalled advice from promoter George Lambert that the best wrestlers are the ones who can consistently deliver regardless of who gets thrown in front of them, and that became something RVD tried to carry throughout his career.
“You have to go with consistency on that because they have good matches, but in order to be the best, you have to consistently have the best matches regardless of who you’re in the ring with.”
So RVD clearly doesn’t see wrestling the same way as some of the younger talent he encountered in AEW, but he also realizes the business may have simply moved in a direction that isn’t designed around his generation anymore. For a guy trained to make everything look like a legitimate struggle, stepping into a world where the rules have changed was apparently one hell of an adjustment.
Do you think RVD has a point about younger AEW wrestlers having a completely different approach, or is this simply wrestling evolving beyond the style he was taught? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
