During a recent edition of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast, Rob Van Dam discussed a potential off-season in pro wrestling.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On a potential off-season in pro wrestling: “So an off-season for wrestling, I mean — You wouldn’t get the same f**king energy out of it. I don’t think that wrestlers can take time off. You know, here’s one of these rules of thumb, or expressions in the business: they say that a wrestler’s worst enemy, I’ve heard this like my whole career. A wrestler’s worst enemy is time off. I’ve always heard that, and I take that to mean, especially from the wrestlers telling me that, that when they stop moving, that’s when all the pain sets. And that’s what I’ve always heard. They’re active, they’re bumping, bumping every night, they’re conditioned to go with it. And then when their job ends, or they’re not getting booked or whatever, and they sit home then all of a sudden, then they’re feeling all the aches and pains and stuff. And then it’s not easy to to go back and do it again.
“I think if they continue their lifestyle on the time off, then it could work. Even for me, like I mean, I continue to be active on months in between matches. Most people couldn’t do that I don’t think, the way that I can. I’ve always people say, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’m feeling a little rusty tonight. What about you?’ No, but I do feel better and more conditioned after day one, especially if we spend a lot of time off. And then if like, a tour to Japan, let’s say. Day one’s the hardest. Day two a little bit better and then, boom, pretty soon you’re like, ‘Okay, I got the hang of it.’ You feel all the bumps and bruises from that first night. So it would be counter-conducive to give wrestlers time off in some ways. But you know, it could work. But like [Katie Forbes] was saying, I think they would have to report to a ring, depending on their experience, at least a couple times a month, if not more on the time off.”
On how to protect yourself from an unsafe worker: “Well first off, at my level you shouldn’t be in the ring with unsafe workers too often. Sometimes I do work [with] some green person that a promoter wants to give a rub to instead of other like main eventers. That does happen sometimes. But by receipting them. So if somebody is unsafe, then there’s a physical way of letting them know by you know, kind of shooting on them, hopefully for just one move. But it could be a little something.
“It’s like — there’s like a balance and checks system out there. But if there’s someone that’s overall unsafe with everything and he’s just unsafe, probably doesn’t belong in the business, you know. So what are you paying me all this money for to be in there with someone like that? So people that I wrestle — you know, TNA, AEW, WWE. Even if once in a while somebody does something that’s a little careless, I don’t think anyone that I work with I would consider an unsafe worker, like overall.”