The Baltimore Sun has posted the second part to their interview with former WWE and ECW World Champion Rob Van Dam. RVD gives his thoughts on WWE’s drug testing policy, having to tell Vince McMahon he has been charged with possession of marijuana. Shane McMahon using his Van Terminator move and more. Below are some of the highlights of the interview:
On WWE’s Drug Testing Policy: From personal experience, being tested probably five or six times at least in the year, year-and-a-half that I was there and they were testing, it felt like it was very violating. For them to actually go inside my body and take my urine and then tell me if they’re OK with what I’m taking, it’s all very violating. At the same time, I do realize the goal behind it, hopefully, is to help people. And there are a lot of irresponsible wrestlers, there’s no doubt about that. I’m responsible myself; I can take care of myself. I’m an independent contractor, which means that I show up to work, I do my job, and then I leave. I’ll see you tomorrow – different place, same job. And that’s what I do. It’s a very onerous contract that they’ve amended several times since signing it. I signed the deal, then a little while later they said, “Oh, OK, by the way, now we’re going to add a dress code.†Then a little while later they said, “Oh, if you’re late, you’re going to get fined. Now we’re going to add this drug testing.†It’d be kind of like hiring a painter to paint your house and then every couple of days adding work for him and telling him it’s under the same deal. “Hey, by the way, we decided you’re going to paint my neighbor’s house, too.â€
Having Marijuana Legalized: Absolutely. And I think anybody that looks into the truth, if they’re not for legalizing it then they just don’t care about it. But anybody that says that there’s any logical reason that a plant that grows in the wild that zero people on the planet have overdosed from should be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the [Drug Enforcement Administration] with heroin and acid, and is one of the deadliest drugs with no medical benefits whatsoever – people knows that’s [nonsense]. I’m strongly for the legalization. I divide the argument into three categories: there’s recreational, there’s medicinal and there’s even material. You can make over 25,000 products with hemp, which doesn’t even have THC. It’s just a plant that they have outlawed by assimilating it with marijuana.
Telling Vince McMahon About Being Charged: The day that Sabu and I pulled into the Philly arena and had to tell Vince, and I knew how much I had disappointed him and dropped the ball on his immediate plans, I felt bad that day. I was feeling like I let some people down. But that’s the way emotion is. Emotion takes the place of logic, and until you work things out you’re a victim of it. Eventually, I could see the big picture, and that’s how it goes down in history and I’m OK with that.
Shane McMahon Using The Van Terminator: You can’t patent a move. It’s challenging enough to come up with a move that nobody else does. … I try and do things that I would want to see done that I haven’t seen other people do. Most wrestlers obviously don’t think that way, and instead they steal somebody’s move as soon as they’ve gone on to the next company. It was actually Paul Heyman, my good friend, who showed Shane a video of me doing the Van Terminator and said, “Do you think you can do that?†I wasn’t happy that he did it, but I didn’t lose my cool, and I definitely see why he did it.
