Rob Van Dam Blasts Ignorant AEW Fans
Rob Van Dam had some harsh words for AEW fans.
On the March 19 edition of Dynamite, Jon Moxley successfully defended the AEW World Championship against Cope in a wild Street Fight. However, when the match was over, there was only one spot fans were talking about.
With the match in full swing, Cope suplexed Jon Moxley onto Spike — a bat filled with nails. These nails then became embedded in Moxley’s back as the referee and Wheeler Yuta struggled to get the bat free.
The spot split fans online, but the criticism was particularly vociferous. One man who was vocal in his criticism was WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam who suggested the spot wasn’t to his taste, and could even set the company back.
Rob Van Dam Holds Nothing Back
Since making those comments on the match, RVD has come in for significant criticism online and he’s now decided to fight back.
Speaking on his 1 Of A Kind podcast, Van Dam took aim at AEW’s fanbase for their response to his discussion of the spot involving Moxley. He branded them “ignorant” before saying they needed to check themselves when getting so defensive.
If your perspective was that you think that I was bashing AEW, boom, you’re wrong. Raise your hand if that’s what you think. Okay, now I didn’t bash AEW, I wouldn’t bash AEW and it seems to me by far, the worst part about AEW and I hope this quote gets picked up, is the fans on IWC. The fans are so ignorant.
I’m gonna tell you what I did say, okay? My whole career, in ECW, even before that, the matches that Sabu taught me were ‘garbage matches’ which included all the weapons and gore and had wrestlers that didn’t even have to know how to wrestle to be in the match, okay?
Those have always been at the bottom of the list of my favorite matches. That’s my opinion. If you don’t think I have a right to say that because I was in ECW, not only does that not make any sense, but you’re one of the idiots that needs to realize that there’s room to learn.
So here’s the thing – those matches, especially the ones that have, like thumbtacks, glass, fire, fishhooks and when they have the competitors in there that don’t do a single wrestling move, and they don’t even have to know how to wrestle, quote: ‘To me, that’s not wrestling.’
The more AEW does things like that, like the Jon Moxley spiked bat thing, and I think that they’re heading in that direction more, and I think WWE is heading into more like, old school WWE storytelling in the ring and less of let’s stick a [needle] through someone’s cheek, burn their house down, go for shock value, the more that they seem to be two separate styles, which I’m fine with, the more I personally would rather have RVD, the wrestler associated with WWE.
Now, if you heard that and you still feel like I’m bashing AEW, you need to check yourself. You’re way too defensive because I’m not even bashing that spot. I don’t like that spot, but the people don’t understand. The fans are so challenged that they hit me with things, you know, like, ‘Well, if you did that kind of stuff and you’re saying you don’t like it, you’re a hypocrite.’ That’s not what a hypocrite is.”
Van Dam went on to add that despite what people online might think he retains a good relationship with Tony Khan and they spoke recently. He reiterated that he never quit AEW as he was working on a pre-appearance deal every time he wrestled.
Quotes come courtesy of Dominic DeAngelo via WrestlingNews.Co