Rob Van Dam On His Issues With Current Wrestling Compared To How He Was Trained

[Liz]

Rob Van Dam sees a lot that he doesn't like in current wrestling, citing how things have changed from "protect the business" to "safety first." The WWE Hall of Famer discussed the matter on a recent episode of the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling, and you can see the highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On wrestling today being very different from how he was trained: "I'm still offended by a lot of the stuff that I see nowadays. Because I was taught, and I hate it when people say, 'Oh, I wasn't brought up that way,' no one was brought up that way, we have to adapt. Your perception changes when you're an adult ... The number one rule was to protect the business, always, always, always was, and then somewhere way down the road, it became, 'Number one rule: safety first.' Like, what?"

On how he was trained: "The way we trained, if you got bloody, that was good for the match, it made it looked good. And there was no air allowed between anybody, my whole training with Shiek was about grabbing each other and bringing each other in tighter. Bringing each other in whether its a headlock, or a waistlock, or an armlock, it was always about coming in and squeezing. Anytime someone was on their back, boom, you better be jumping on him trying to pin him, trying to win. And that's not the way I see a lot of wrestling today. A lot of times, it eats me up.

What's the right way to put it? Some things are less than enjoyable for me to watch just because of that mentality, old school perspective that I have. because I see what's missing and the audience might not always know what's missing, but they just know they're not connecting in the way they used to be, you know, back in the day with other wrestlers when it was different ... What's it gonna be, eventually? Unless it just goes straight up to a Broadway play."