On a recent edition of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam discussed working in Japan before making it big in the United States.
RVD toured with All Japan Pro Wrestling from 1993-1997 before heading for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the US.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On working with a lot of talent over in AJPW: “Yeah, and I worked with [Kenta] Kobashi and [Mitsuharu] Misawa a lot. [Jun] Akiyama, [Takao] Omori, [Toshiaki] Kawada, [Akira] Taue, all them guys. And who’s the guy that did the shoot fight… him Don Frye had the, ‘Boom, Boom!’ [stiffing each other]… It’s the most brutal thing. Anyway that guy, I can’t remember his name but he was he was with us for a while in All Japan. Maybe he came in to work with Gary Albright. But yeah, there was a lot of guys that were on every single tour and then there was some of us that would rotate.”
On making more money in Japan than the US at the time: “You know, I didn’t like being over there all the time. But I made so much more money over there than I would in the States that I could go for a few weeks, then come back and take months off and still be fine. You know, back then when I had a $400 a month, roach-infested apartment.”
