During a recent edition of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam reflected on his Major League Wrestling debut at MLW Battle Riot VII.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his MLW debut: “What a pop…. Great reaction from the people came out to. Came out to Kushinator’s music, the one that we used in TNA. And the people loved it because they knew within the first, what do you call that a measure in a song? Within the first few beats anyway, it was ‘Rob Van Dam,’ and everyone was screaming, great reaction all the way down. And then yeah, I came in at the end of the battle. Ended up being me and Riddle. Thought he wanted to smoke an air doobie with me. Next thing I know, he’s dumped my a*s on the floor. But good experience. MLW was really cool. From my limited one-day experience, they were very professional and I respect their hustle and admire their… I appreciate what they’re doing.”
On going from split-legged moonsault to a frog splash: “I ended up switching that — Damn, so that’s ’97. It’s weird because I thought I switched that like way before. Because Ron Slinker told me, ‘You got the split-legged moonsault. It’s pretty, but it’s soft. And you’re wrestling guys that are way bigger than you, you need to come up with a finish with more impact.’ And it was Slinker, the same guy that named me Rob Van Dam. And then I came up with the frog splash, thinking. ‘That’s the most impact I can think of is jumping up as high as I can and just coming down and throwing my weight and gravity on somebody, bam!’”
