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Rob Van Dam was on Live Audio Wrestling Sunday night – catch the show every Sunday night at 11pm EST at www.liveaudiowrestling.com  

Jason Agnew :  It’s a pleasure to welcome back to the LAW a man who has always guaranteed a great interview. He is now formerly a part of the WWE and has just launched RVD TV. The one and only Rob Van Dam, welcome to Live Audio Wrestling. How are ya Rob?

Rob Van Dam: I’m doing excellent! I feel happy, I feel healthy, I feel terrific!  

Jason Agnew : That seems to be the common sentiment when guys leave the WWE, that’s the response that we get, why is that?  

Rob Van Dam: Well that’s an answers I like to give all the time, it’s nothing that you could even hear me say when I was with the WWE. Am I happier? Yes. Am I healthier? I’m rested up and such and yes I definitely feel more terrific. I wanted out of there so bad, it was no secret and everybody knew that. As time went on and as they destroyed the legend of ECW more and more and made me feel like there was less and less reason for me to even be there, I was literally counting down the days till my contract would expire. So when it did, I did the right thing that I had the power to do because you know before that you pretty much feel like you owned. Once that contract is up there’s nothing anyone can make RVD do that RVD doesn’t want to do.  

Jason Agnew : What was the straw that broke the camels back?  

Rob Van Dam: I was very much burnt out. Originally back in 2001, I wasn’t wanting to go to WWE. I knew that it wasn’t going to be my favorite style of wrestling but it was the right thing to do. ECW had folded, WCW had folded, if I wanted to continue being a professional wrestler and of course moving upward there was nothing to do but join the WWE. When I did it was every bit as frustrating as I thought it would be and then some. I used to call Sonya and say I’m coming home, I can’t stay here, I hate it. That was a combination of things. It was the politics, it was the style, the attitude, the egos, there was so much up there and it made me not happy you know. I would say for everybody work is the number one source of negative energy. We all stress about our jobs but people don’t want to look at wrestling that way. They want to think your living a fantasy dream, well it is very much work and when your love and passion for it dwindles it can be work that is very, very, very challenging. When I left WWE it was because I was burnt out, most of it was the schedule because I had adjust to a lot of the BS that originally was hard to cope with. It was the schedule, it was the meaningless schedule. I felt like going from town to town to town to town doing back flips and spin kicks, it had lost it’s meaning for me and there was different cycles of motivation. Ya it was exciting when I was the world champion, it was exciting bringing ECW back. But you know what the excitement would die down because they would frustrate me again and it was just one long continuing cycle of down hill burn out. Towards the end there I didn’t even feel like I could maintain because my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I was trying to be professional in the ring but I’ll tell ya I was starting to lose stuff at hotels, I just getting careless, I was getting more and more tired. Living on the west coast is a strong disadvantage on top of the crazy schedule because I’ve got to leave the night before to get a red eye to get to the east coast in Boston and its 6 hours back home. It was just a lot of work and you have to have your love and passion carry you through and some of my passion got burnt out. So I took an indefinite break which means when my love and passion return then I’ll be ready.  

Jason Agnew : It’s funny you say that because your contract with the WWE expired last spring and many felt it would be a very long time before we saw you in a WWE ring again but then you popped up at the 15^th anniversary last month. That was very much a surprise. How did that come about and why did you do it?  

Rob Van Dam: They called me on it and it was I mean there was no reason not to do it. It was a win, win situation. I was flying straight in, flying straight home and I didn’t mine doing just one date because my schedule is pretty open now. So I was going in and I all I did was a showcasing of RVD, it was a shout out, it was like look at me.  

Jason Agnew : Well having said that though when you got there, you’re hanging out with the boys at the arena, management sees you again, and you’re in their sights. Was there an offer made to RVD to come back to the WWE?  

Rob Van Dam: Everybody from the boys to the office, Stephanie, everybody wants to know, do you miss us? Are you ready to come back? They know, everybody knows that I tell everybody I don’t miss you enough, I’m not ready to come back yet.  

Jason Agnew : One more question about the whole comeback of RVD and when it may happen. Some one like Chris Jericho who just made his comeback always looked to be headed back to the WWE despite an offer from TNA, what do you think you would go for? Would you want a more relaxed schedule like TNA or would you like to hit and do one more big thing, one more big run with WWE?  

Rob Van Dam: Right now from my perspective I would want both. I would want the lighter schedule but it would be hard to give up the prestige of working for the WWE. A lot of fans say they want to see me in TNA because they think I would have great matches with the athletic wrestlers that are there. Its business and WWE is like Coke a Cola, it is recognized around the globe and when we travel to countries I never thought I’d go to like Belgium , Brussels and everyone is all over RVD with money in the bank signs. We go to places like India and I see all theses little kids doing the thumbs at the hotel you know going RVD and out on the streets. You have to really realize how much you impact these cultures all over the globe and that because of the stage, the spotlight WWE puts you in. TNA is the next best thing, it’s the only alternative we have going right now. I’ve always said that’s good for competition and that I hope TNA grows. I would weigh out the lighter schedule verses the prestige and honor and exposure of WWE. I’ve got to say it would be really rough just going back to wrestling in front of 700 fans a night or whatever they put in that studio and they’re growing which means they’re gonna eventually do more house shows and travel abroad more so they can cater to their fans that watch TNA all over. That’s not necessarily a good thing if you’re looking for a lighter schedule. There you go, there would be a lot to consider and I would consider everything if I was at a point where I was considering that stuff.  

Jason Agnew : How drastically did your time in the WWE change after Paul Heyman was sent in December of 2006?  

Rob Van Dam: I knew I was on my way out already. In fact in November we were on a very, very stressful and dreadful over seas trip. Paul Heyman and I every night would get together in the hotel room and talk about everything they had done to try and destroy ECW on nightly bases. It was little things, not putting as much promotion in to it, where it is on the card, just everything, you know everything. It was obvious that a lot of it, agents didn’t like ECW and that’s no big surprise but guess what? Its Vince’s EWC now, get behind it, quit being A-holes, its business!  They were still trying to squash and bury ECW and it frustrated us. Paul and I both on that trip said we were leaving and I knew that we were going to leave, we both were. Paul, you said got sent home but I actually watched him get in to a taxi and walk out of the place, so there’s two sides of the story for you. Vince told Paul basically kiss my ass, I’m paraphrasing, it had more to do with apologizing and taking back some things that were said and caving in or consider this you handing in your resignation. Paul said I am very happy to hand in my resignation, he couldn’t wait to get out of there and he’d always been like that so I talked to him. I was waiting for his cab and he told me what just went down and he got in his cab and left. I told him “Paul my contracts up in a little bit, I’m gonna finish it. I signed the contract you know and I believe in loyalty. If I tell ya I’m gonna do the job, I’m gonna do the job, I’m gonna be there.”  I had till June and as it got close to it man I could not wait. It wasn’t actually until Wrestlemania that I absolutely knew for sure that I was not going to re-sign. From that point on ugh, it just seemed like week by week it got more stressful for me.  

Jason Agnew : I do have to ask you one question on this program, just as a little side bar here, my co-host Dan Lovranski does a great impression of Fonzie and we’ve had some fun with Fonzie impressions and some stuff on the program. He was out there for one of the one night stands, was there ever talk about pairing him with you in the WWE?  

Rob Van Dam: I talked about it all the time; I just preferred to get the uppers to go for it. Besides he’s one of my many friends that I would love to be able to help if I was in a position to do it. There’s only so much you can do if you’re not the guys actually doing the hiring.