On a recent edition of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam discussed the Coast-to-Coast finisher, Shane McMahon’s adaptation of the Van Terminator, and various related topics.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On whether Shane McMahon ever gave him credit for the coast-to-coast spot: “No, he never — I don’t remember him ever mentioning it to me. If he did, then I don’t remember. He definitely didn’t give me credit. No, he didn’t — it never came up. I believe that Paul [Heyman] showed him footage of me doing the Van Terminator and asked them, ‘Can you do this? Can you do that?’ He said, ‘Oh, maybe if I put a trash can on the ropes, I could get like an extra three feet there I don’t have to fly down.’ So that’s what the coast-to-coast is. But you know, I get credit from you guys, from all the hardcore fans that were there from the beginning.”
On why no one ever did it before RVD did: “Like a lot of my stuff, but I thought that was the Van Terminator, ‘How could I just be the first one to ever think of doing that?’ But my thinking is obviously out of the box. I don’t see any other way. And so when I do moves that people haven’t seen, part of me is like, ‘How is that?’ You know, it’s a four-sided ring with three ropes. Wrestling has been around for a long time, right? Hundreds of years if you want to go back to Odysseus and battling over the armor of Ajax.
“Anyway, I’m pretty stoked that I’ve gotten credit for being original. And when I started hearing that, it made me put more energy into celebrating my individuality, and being more confident that being myself was the right decision. And boom, it just all worked out so organically… In all likelihood, that thought probably is what kept anyone else from thinking of doing it, was just the subconscious understanding that can’t be done. And so that’s like a barrier that not everyone can comfortably think around.”
On why people don’t do it more often: “Now that I’ve proved it can be done, I see guys on indie shows, you know. The neon green dude runs halfway down the top rope and then jumps off it to make it his own. And it’s like… pretty cool, you know. But also, sometimes the ring is 16 feet, sometimes it’s 20–24 feet, if you’re in Japan. So that makes a big difference. Sometimes the ropes are loose, sometimes they’re tight. Huge, huge variety there when you wrestle for different companies and different levels of promotions and all over the world, you know. You can’t count on consistency with any of that. So, that is a move that takes — you hope for the best conditions to pull it off anyway.”
