RVD has heard the people calling him a hypocrite for criticizing Jon Moxley’s use of a spiked weapon in AEW, and he’s not backing down one bit. The ECW legend says fans throwing his hardcore past in his face are completely missing the point because, according to him, he’s always thought that kind of wrestling was “stupid.”
While appearing on Rip Rogers’ podcast, RVD addressed the backlash he received after criticizing the dangerous Moxley spot. Plenty of fans apparently pointed out the obvious — RVD became a star in ECW — but he says being part of ECW never meant he loved every crazy thing the promotion did.
“My opinion that I said on my podcast was that I’m not a fan of that stuff. Never have been. And I have always called that garbage wrestling. And I noticed when I woke up today, I got so many texts from ignorant fans saying, ‘You’re a hypocrite. You were in ECW.’ Uh, no. I’m not a hypocrite. I’m very consistent.”
RVD even admitted there were things happening in ECW that he thought looked ridiculous at the time. He specifically brought up The Gangstas dumping weapons into the ring and beating people with whatever they could find.
“But even back then, we thought that when the Gangstas would come out and empty all the trash into the ring and then beat up their opponents with rubber chickens and stuff like that, I always thought that was stupid.
I mean, now I’ve had a chance to see the bigger picture in life, and I know that a lot of fans do like that stuff, but never me. And I’ve always been consistent about that. I never even bladed one time in ECW.”
And that’s the distinction RVD wants people to understand. His problem with the Moxley spot wasn’t simply that AEW did something violent. He believes there’s a point where the weapons and dangerous stunts replace the actual wrestling, and he wants nothing to do with it.
“All I’m saying is that’s not my preference. I think the guy could have got paralyzed. And I don’t want to be anywhere around that myself. And I also don’t prefer to see that kind of stuff.”
RVD also fired back at fans pointing toward his infamous TNA angle with Abyss and Janice as proof that he’s being hypocritical. According to RVD, that wasn’t his idea either. He explained that TNA had gone beyond the number of appearances stipulated in his contract, so the company needed a way to remove him from television until his obligations reset. Their solution was having Abyss essentially destroy him with Janice.
“And they filmed me lying on the floor with my outfit ripped up, and they poured a bucket of blood all over me. And to explain why we’re not going to be seeing RVD for the rest of the year, for the remaining seven weeks we have or whatever, they decided, ‘Hey, Abyss came and killed RVD.’ And I thought it was stupid at the time, but I didn’t care. I’m getting paid for it.”
RVD said he thought the whole thing looked even sillier when he eventually returned after being presented like he had nearly been killed.
“And then when I came back, I thought it was stupid because they made it look like I was almost dead, and then I came back with like a Band-Aid on my arm or something.”
But RVD saved some of his strongest criticism for AEW itself. He believes the promotion gives wrestlers significantly more freedom to do what they want, and in his view, that freedom can sometimes produce wrestling that looks more amateurish than what WWE presents.
“I don’t buy that because I think the inmates are running the asylum. I think that’s what AEW is about, is the wrestlers get to do more of what they want.
And that’s why there’s more of a variety, and that’s why it’s overall, in the big picture of things, going to be a different style that to me is more amateurish, just like the backyard matches, than WWE, who seems to be going back to telling the stories with the wrestling, keeping it simple and making it make sense.”
So RVD isn’t suddenly pretending ECW was some technical wrestling paradise without weapons, blood or insanity. His argument is that he didn’t like the weapon-heavy stuff then, didn’t like his own ridiculous Janice angle in TNA, and still doesn’t like seeing it now — and losing a few fans over saying that apparently isn’t going to change his mind.
Do you think RVD has a point about the difference between hardcore wrestling and dangerous spots that go too far, or do his years in ECW make his criticism harder to accept? 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.
