Rob Van Dam On CM Punk Returning, Sting, Chris Jericho & Bill Goldberg

RVD also covers his friendship with his manager Bill Alfonso

Episode 5 of “1 Of A Kind With RVD” released everywhere this Monday at 4:20 PM ET. I’ve included some quotes where RVD talks about his first impressions of CM Punk, if he’s surprised Sting is still going at his age, seeing the comparisons between AEW and ECW and more. (If you use any of the quotes please backlink it to the episode)

On if he is surprised to see Sting still going in the ring:

“The reason that I'm really would say that I’m surprised is just because of information that I had gotten and it was during his induction into the  NA Hall of Fame.

}During the speech. I don't remember if it was him talking or if it was TNA, which would've probably been Dixie's husband giving the speech. I think it was Sting that was talking and he was saying that he was talking about after his Atlanta run and whatever he did, that he thought he was done and that TNA was just starting to get their first gimmick where they were getting, remember there were pay-per-view only like every week?

“And so the speech alluded to that and said that they reached out to him and he was like, ‘Oh man, you know, I don't know.’ Then they said, ‘Well, come on, you know, we really need you.’ And he is, ‘Man, I think I'm done. You know, my back and ‘All right, cool. Well we'll give you this much money.’ And he was like, ‘Alright, for a little bit … And then they were like, ‘Man, we need you to stay a little bit longer.’

‘And [he] was like, ‘Oh, I think I'm done.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, we'll give you this much more money.’ And [he] was like, ‘Oh, I guess I could do another year.’ And, and that was the gist of what I got out of his speech for being inducted. So that's why I would say I'm surprised now because that was 2010.”

On if he thinks any difficulties with CM Punk and AEW will work itself out:

“I don't see why not. I mean, the fans love him and always seem to wanna see him … I don't see why not unless there's some burned bridges that I don't know about, which usually I've always heard that bridges are flame retardant in this business, and I find that to be true.

“But  I can't say that I really know him really well, you know what I mean? Like right when you're at work, and I've explained this lots of times for me at least, and it's probably like that with him too - ou got a competitive vibe, you know? You have to, right? You know, you're a little bit more defensive, you're vibing way different than you are when you're chilling at your own house, you know, with your family or whatever. So that's all I know is the guy  at work and, you know, he seemed professional.”

On CM Punk standing up to Test:

“The first time I remember really paying attention to [CM Punk] was when Paul [Heyman] started putting him over.

“I don't know. We did an international tour and he was dating Maria Kanellis. Test was dating Kelly. Kelly. SmackDown and Raw were on different tours at the same time in the same countries, but they were split up into two different teams.

“And so Kelly Kelly was on the tour that CM Punk and I was on, and Test was on the other one. And Test was from what I understand, ‘being a guy on the road,’  at the same time, checking up on Kelly, like really hard and doing that through CM Punk. Like I guess he was texting CM Punk trying to check up on her and ‘You tell her this’ and ‘You tell her that,’ and my understanding of it is that after a little bit, CM was like, ‘F*ck him. He can take care of his own relationship. I'm not in the middle of all this.’ And Paul Heyman said that Test’s response when CM said whatever or quit responding in the way that he wanted him to, Paul said that Test said, ‘Does he think I won't slap him?’ And Paul's response was ‘Oh, my money's on the tattooed kid.’”

On if he ever tried to get Bill Alfonso in WWE:

“Yeah, absolutely. You know, my way of doing that would be to pitch it to Paul and ask Paul, ‘What can we do?’ You Paul he'd usually, ‘Well, we need to do this first,’ or he would usually kinda act like that's on his agenda anyway.’

I think Fonzie might have burned a bridge with the Hebners at one time and that hurt him at least for a long, long time. I don't know if they would've considered hiring him back after that or not. He used to tell me he didn't think that they would.

On the potential for a new ECW and how AEW has gotten close:

“In order for there to be a new ECW, it would have to find a new way to all of a sudden, boom, stand out and be super cool. In some ways AEW has done that because of everything they've done and their success.

“So at first I was just like, ‘Yeah, we'll see.’ You know, like so far there's no reason for me to feel either way. ‘I’ll  believe it when I see it.’ And they definitely have offered an alternative. Definitely made big noise.”

On Chris Jericho:

“It's awesome what Jericho's been doing. And not just him, but you know he's my age and had career about as long as mine. And it's cool to see him still in there, like on top doing it his way. I’m a big proponent of doing it your own way and that's what the boys did with AEW.”

On his wrong impression of Bill Goldberg:

“I remember I was in WWE Bill Goldberg  was coming in this day and I never met him, but I had this image of him in mind that I wasn't gonna like him because he had said something that I took personal, which was stupid about ECW, something about that nobody in ECW is talented. Something like that or I thought that he said that, whatever. That was the limited info I had. I had this image in my mind of him. And then he was in catering and he was putting food on his plate. And I was near there and he came up to me and extended his hand and he said, ‘Hey, Rob Van Dam, I'm Bill Goldberg. Man. I'm a big fan of yours. I really appreciate your work.’ And all of a sudden I was like, ‘My image was way off. This dude's really cool.’ And he was like, ‘You're so talented.’ And I was like, ‘Dude, an image is just an image. It's not a real person. It's not three-dimensional. It's just an image.”