RVD Seemingly Backs Tony Khan’s Decision to Extend Rey Fenix’s Contract Due to Injury

Former WWE Superstar Baron Corbin drew a lot of attention to himself after he called out AEW talent wanting to get their releases early in light of Rey Fenix’s current situation in AEW, as Tony Khan added injury time to his contract and refuses to use him on television. Interestingly enough, RVD has now seemingly backed Tony Khan’s decision to tack on injury time to Fenix’s contract.

While speaking on the 1 of a Kind podcast, RVD was asked about how contract situations work when a wrestler is injured and whether promotions typically extend contracts to make up for lost time, in response to Tony Khan adding injury time to Rey Fenix’s contract.

RVD confirmed that this is the case and shared his own experience from 2005 when he underwent knee surgery, which was the only surgery of his career. His ACL and medial meniscus were repaired, and he took the full 12 months off for recovery.

“Yeah, that’s how it goes. Um, in 2005, I got my only surgery I’ve ever had and got my knee—not replaced, but reconstructed. ACL and a medial meniscus tear were repaired, and I took the whole 12 months off. You know, at six months, they say six to 12 months, so at six months they brought me back into WWE to have a look at me. I was like, ”F*** ‘no, I’m not ready.’

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And to be honest, I loved 2005. That was, like, one of my favorite years of my career because I got paid to be home, smoke weed, and watch TV for the whole year and do therapy. And, um, they brought me back at six months, and I said, ‘No, I’m not ready yet.’ And I wasn’t.”

At six months, WWE called him in to check on his progress, but he wasn’t ready to return. He enjoyed his time off, getting paid while staying home. To keep him out of storylines, WWE had Carlito attack him on TV. After another six months, a doctor suggested he should come back, but RVD wanted to be careful. He had seen wrestlers like Rey Mysterio return too soon and reinjure themselves. Mysterio had already needed four knee surgeries at that time, and RVD didn’t want to risk the same thing.

“So, Carlito attacked me and put me back out—people probably remember that. And then, six months later, Dr. Rios, from what I understand, said, ‘Ah, let’s get him back in here. We don’t want him milking this. We think he should be, like, ready.’

But I wanted to take the full 12 months off because so many people, like Rey Mysterio, had got the knee surgery, come back too early, f*** their knee up again, then had to do the whole thing all over again. At that point, Rey told me he had gotten one of his knees done four times already, and I think he’s had it done—I don’t know how many times since—because this was 20 years ago.”

When RVD finally returned in 2006, he felt great and wrestled just like before. His knee was strong, thanks to Dr. Andrews, who had operated on many athletes. WWE extended his contract by one year to make up for his time off.

At first, he worried they might expect him to work for free since they had already paid him during his recovery, but that wasn’t the case. The extension gave him another year to earn money, and in the end, he was glad he took the full time to heal.

“So, um, I took the full 12 months off. I was glad I did because I never looked back, you know what I mean? And people that watched my rise from 2006 to the disastrous fumble with the weed in 2007—I guess, or 2006, whatever, I don’t know. But during those years, anyway, when I came back from the knee surgery, I didn’t sell it one bit. It was, um, boom—I didn’t cut anything out of my move repertoire. I felt great.

My knee still feels good, so it was a good surgeon. It was the best—Dr. Andrews in Alabama, who did a lot of us athletes. But it was a fun year. I came back, and then I found that they were going to extend my contract by 12 months. I don’t know if I knew they were gonna do that, but here’s the thing—they paid me to do nothing for 12 months.

So I felt like, ‘Uh-oh, are they going to expect me to come back for 12 months now and work for free? Because they already paid me.’ And I had that in mind, which—thank God, no. They extended my contract by one year, and it was just another year to make more money. So it ended up being good because I needed to wrestle after getting my surgery anyway.”

It was reported that Tony Khan added injury time to Rey Fenix’s contract in order to prevent other talent from taking advantage of him. Regardless, all Fenix can do is wait until his AEW contract expires and that will be several months for now, as fans simply feel bad for him at this point in time.

Do you agree with RVD’s take on contract extensions for injured wrestlers? Should promotions like AEW continue this practice, or should talent have more control over their contracts? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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