May 12, 2006 - Rob Van Dam sits down at the table across from me, puts down his Money in the Bank briefcase, and forget ECW, Cena, and hardcore matches, the second he sits down I really only want to ask one question: What does he keep inside his briefcase?
RVD laughs, spins the case around and says "Look inside" as he pops it open. It was my Pulp Fiction moment of the day where I almost expected the case to have an ominous glow. Instead, I found out that RVD is a neat packer, nicely folded shirt, what looked like some mints, and of course, the Intercontinental belt.
"You're a traveler, you're allowed two carry-ons, so you can't carry an empty bag around if you live on the road and you carry all your sh*t with you."
Rob Van Dam was in L.A. this week for E3 to check out WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 and sat down with a group of reporters to talk about everything from the return of ECW to the signing of Sabu.
Here are some of the highlights…
On his videogame habits…
I don't play too many current videogames. I never learned how to play any of the current systems. As a kid I was a fan, and I still 'ooh and aw' when I walk into an arcade at the mall and I have all of the systems at home but they are mostly for relatives or kids who come over to visit or play. The only time I actually get to play the games is when I'm doing something at an appearance like Wrestlemania where we have a contest where we play against each other or against the fans.
On what to expect from his character fighting in the crowd in WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007…
When I'm out in the crowd, I'm just as comfortable as when I'm in the ring because I'm not afraid of hitting the floor any different than hitting the canvas. So you can expect to see a moonsault off of anything moonsaultable out there. I'll be looking around at the railings or whatever else is around there. And one thing about being in the crowd…there's always chairs nearby.
On what legend he would include in the next game…
I guess it's not a WWE wrestler but the Sheik comes to mind. The Original Sheik, of course he trained me and has passed so it would be interesting to see that. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and so I'm going to stick with that.
On whether or not the Hall of Fame is a fair reflection of wrestling history…
It's a piece of the puzzle or the overall picture. It's a great thing. It's a very happy night for myself. Being in the business for nearly 17 years now, it's great to go back in time 20 years ago, and that's what I do when I see those wrestlers inducted that inspired me when I was a fan. It's important for me to step back like that and I realize that at least once a year at the Hall of Fame. There are always going to be other wrestlers who deserve to be in there who seemed to get passed by or whatever, but that's why I say it's just a piece of it and overall, every year if you keep inducting people, then hopefully it will come around to everybody who deserves that honor.
On who else he would like to see inducted into the Hall of Fame…
I would like to see Randy "Macho Man" Savage. That was definitely during the era when I was really getting into wrestling sometime before turning it on first and deciding that's what I wanted to do. Randy Savage was a huge part, so he is my number one pick of guys who are alive I would like to see get inducted.
On whether or not he still has the same enthusiasm for wrestling as he once had…
It's a different passion. It's a different enthusiasm. You can't, at least I can't feel exactly the same as I did about it. I started right out of high school so I've been doing this for my entire adult life. I'll turn 36 this year, and basically, when I was young, I wanted to travel. I hadn't seen the world yet. I wanted to get out there and I wanted to see all of the pretty ladies all over the world…and that hasn't stopped. [laughs] I didn't have any goals that I had to achieve to live out my dream. I wanted to be part of it, but I didn't know whether I'd stay wrestling for three years or five years or how far I would make it or if I'd ever win a championship. I didn't know that going in, so now after accomplishing everything that I have and being in kick ass videogames like this and having my image portrayed over 40 action figures and seeing how my image is part of many other cultures, not only ours when I travel around the world, that's really cool. That stuff, that motivates me and keeps me in touch with how I reflect other people's lives or how they're touched by me. Aside from that, if I don't get the feedback from the fans or cross over and see how I've impacted their lives, then it can be a job. I fly over 200 flights a year. It's 52 weeks a year. Probably an average of four different towns a week. Sometimes way many more. Sometimes it's ten days in a row. Sometimes I might get a Friday off, too, but it never stops, and every night it's about giving 100% and being professional. If I'm wrestling in L.A. today, my fans have been waiting two months for me to come and they don't want to know about the 32 matches I've had since they bought their ticket. They think I've been excited about this particular night so if I'm tired, if I have an upset stomach, if I have a sprained ankle, if I have a headache…none of that is going to show if I can help it because I'm out there to give and show exactly what you paid to see. The enthusiasm and the passion and such, it changes, and the game changes. It goes sometimes from showing everything you've got to just going out and doing your part. Definitely, I can't think of a 9-5er I would trade it for.
On when he plans to cash in his Money in the Bank…
I'm thinking that I'm going to cash it in really soon. [laughs] I think I'm going to cash it in really soon. I carry the briefcase down to the ring with me every night because you just never know, an opportunity could fall into place. But if I'm really looking and trying to strategize, I can't think of a better night where I would be at the most advantageous than in my own forum, ECW. I'm very stoked about that.
On how difficult it was to sit out and not be able to participate in ECW One Night Stand last year…
It broke my heart. I didn't know if there would ever be another night like that One Night Stand because the idea was to just do it this one time. That would've been my chance to show everybody, because ECW had never been seen by WWE's platform, from their stage ever before. This was the one time where I could've been seen ECW style, which is of course when I'm at my best, but to the entire world because over 100 countries get to see WWE's product. I made it happen. It was my dream and it was my idea to even do this, to have ECW One Night Stand, so to have it all come to a reality and me to not be able to wrestle on it truly broke my heart. I still felt the spirit. It was a great night, one of my favorite nights in the business over the last five years, but definitely this year being able to wrestle adds a whole hell of a lot to it, both for me and for the fans.
On if the return of ECW can live up to what people remember about the product…
I'm very optimistic about a lot of stuff but I don't have any definites yet and I don't know exactly what to expect. I have a lot of questions, but the ECW spirit has never died, even when the idea had been vacated for months and months at a time, it was almost like a burning ember that would catch flame again. It looks like it's going to burn the house down right now.
On the WWE signing Sabu…
I think it's about time. All of the other organizations have got bought up or dried up and it's basically just WWE that represents what professional wrestling is for us now. There is of course TNA, which is way down here and WWE is way up here, but you can't compare them and say they're competition by any measurable standards. And because WWE is all there is right now, I feel like we've got the best of the best in the business. It's very prestigious sitting at the table and eating a WWE dinner right now. A few years ago when there was AWA, WCW, ECW, WWF…there was room for guys who weren't that good, and girls who weren't that good. Sometimes I would watch one of these other shows and I thought what they were doing just looked horrible. I thought the people had no business being in the ring. I thought these people needed to go back to school for another five years, and yet, I felt like people were going to watch that and think that's what I do. I was always defending myself saying, no, you've gotta watch me, you gotta see ECW, that's not what we do. I was insulted. Now, basically, that's gone. There's not room for people who suck anymore. We basically have the best people who are current and some of the key figures who have been important in wrestling history over the last ten years or so, and I definitely think there's room for Sabu. I also think that he's going to prove a lot of the hesitation people have about him wrong. A lot of people are curious if he can go at it full time at the physical level that he's known for doing, because we haven't seen him do it for a while. I think this is his chance to show, and I think he's going to impress…and I think I'm going to have some kick ass matches with him.
On the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD…
I watched the DVD and found it very entertaining. I felt the overall message might have been intended to make me as the watcher feel like Ultimate Warrior destroyed himself or that he was less than admirable, but it didn't come across that way at all. Watching the DVD brings out the mark in all of us who used to watch Ultimate Warrior back in the day. Watching him when he was at his peak, when he was doing those truly crazy promos, and he was nuts, but it reminded me of being a kid and watching that, and it actually made me thankful for the time that he was here. Hearing the wrestlers perspective, the guys that had to wrestle with him at the time, they have a completely different story because he was the one making the money and they were the ones dancing around him making him look good. There have been other wrestlers that fit his exact same shoes since then, but watching what he did have to offer, his uniqueness, his one of a kind nature, which it was, was definitely, definitely entertaining. I enjoyed the DVD and I wonder, of course, just like everybody else, what kind of feelings came out from the ripple effects of him and everyone shooting on each other.
On his favorite comic book character…
Ghost Rider. I'm one of the biggest Ghost Rider fans ever. He's been a hobby of mine ever since I was seven years old. I actually have a whole room in my house dedicated to Ghost Rider memorabilia. I go on the Internet and get crazy. I have every action figure, every t-shirt, the watch, the ring, the earring. Anything with the trademarked symbol. I'm also a big Ice Man fan. When it comes to X-Men, Ice Man is my favorite.
On TNA's X-Division…
Samoa Joe is a good friend of mine and I'm very impressed with his in-ring abilities. AJ Styles is very good too, I'm impressed with him as well, and for years and years, fans have told me that they want to see an RVD/AJ Styles match. If that ever comes to pass, I'm sure it will be good. I've had a good match with Christopher Daniels a few years ago, I've actually wrestled against him. I like a lot of the talent TNA has and I like the fact that they're trying to be different than WWE because I think the contrast in styles is important. Like when ECW One Night Stand hit last year, everybody else kind of picked their game up. Everybody else got a rub off of that and attacked with that same spirit for the audience. I say stay true to what you are and what you stand for and TNA is trying to be the new cutting edge, extreme group. Trying to go after those fans who were left lonely when ECW vacated them, and it looks like they don't get to keep them if ECW comes back around. It will bring those fans who were left alone, it will bring them back out too, and it's going to make it hard for the guys who think they were going to capitalize on the momentum of ECW. They still will, but there's only one ECW, so even if it's ECW 2006, just the depth that will go along with that, it's going to be something that nobody else can even compete with.
On if the new ECW roster should only consist of former ECW stars…
No, that would not work. That's something that, last year, was talked about a lot. Right after One Night Stand because it was such a huge success, because it had so much momentum, people were like 'Oh yeah, I heard it's going to take place at Smackdown', and of course, I had some ideas of my own and if I wasn't out on injury, I would've been trying to talk Vince into doing something. I really thought that through, but it wouldn't work with just the old ECW guys…half of them are dead and half of them should be dead. [laughs] Last year it was about history. It was about bringing everybody back to that moment in time, and if you weren't there, then you don't belong. It was a love night. This new idea of brining it back for today would have to involve recruiting new guys and making it current while having enough of the original players to carry the spirit through. And with Paul and Dreamer behind it, it can't be bad.
On the Edge/Mick Foley hardcore match at Wrestlemania…
I thought it was good. It was a good hardcore match and they did some really impressive 'Oh sh*t' worthy spots. The thumbtacks, of course, is incredible. It was awesome for me just to see a hardcore match brought back. It had been so long since there had been a hardcore match. I was depressed when they retired the hardcore belt, to my musing none the less, and gave the belt to Mick Foley to keep. The fact that it was a hardcore match got me excited and it was a good demonstration of a hardcore match. Right now, trying to bring the whole thing back to today's audience, it's important to me to display the wide range of what hardcore is. A lot of people have it in their mind that hardcore matches are garbage matches, and they're not. There is a place for matches that are just bloody, and fire, and thumbtacks, but if you remember what ECW was about, there were wrestlers so square, you wouldn't think they could survive one night in Philly. Lance Storm and Jerry Lynn, they were so good that their wrestling skills alone made them extreme. I've been in there with Jerry Lynn, and we're going through our moves ducking, reversing, jumping over, flipping back, duck, spin, catch, and the crowd would be chanting in the middle of the spot because they knew they were getting something extra. The whole world of extreme, to me, is to take a good match, then add elements of extreme to it. Otherwise, if you use the extreme match to take the place of a good match, you've lost a good match, and then people can say it's garbage wrestling and then somebody can hit themselves over the head with a light bulb and say, 'Look, I'm hardcore'. So I think there needs to be a lot of different flavors and a wide range of the match. We need to have Edge/Mick Foley and then we also need to have a match like RVD versus Jerry Lynn and then we also need to have a match like the Gangstas...anything that had it's own position. Sandman's whole deal was his entrance. Coming down to his own music with the crowd, drinking five beers, smoking a cigarette, interacting with the fans. That was his whole deal. Once the bell rang, he usually got his ass kicked. [laughs] It's all about finding your spot.
On Sandman wrestling drunk…
It's not for everybody. We put ourselves under extreme conditions and extreme measures and a lot of extreme measures could make our jobs more challenging, and one of those could be wrestling a drunk Sandman. I remember one time in the middle of a match I was watching, this wasn't my match, thank God, but it was a six-man match and in the middle of the match, he just left. He went back to the dressing room and everyone was so thankful because he had been beating the hell our of them with his stick…even his own partners. He waffled everyone with that stick, then he left, only to come back completely naked. [laughs] He had a little too much to drink that day.
On the potential of challenging John Cena for the title at One Night Stand…
It would obviously a WWE flavored ECW match, which would be fine because it would be me challenging an outsider to come in, and bring what you've got with you. He does offer a lot, and he's got what he's got, and it has taken him this far. And of course I would expect the ECW fans to just tear him up…I don't think he'll get the crowd behind the 'You Can't See Me'. That doesn't work there. [laughs]
On his dream match for next year's Wrestlemania…
I haven't thought about this, but maybe the way things are going, how about I have the first ECW match at Wrestlemania. I don't even care who it is against, I just want to represent ECW because I think there should be room for at least a couple ECW matches on the card. I don't know what's going to happen between now and then, but right now, since you made me look ahead, that's what I see as an ideal situation.
http://sports.ign.com/articles/708/708370p3.html
RVD laughs, spins the case around and says "Look inside" as he pops it open. It was my Pulp Fiction moment of the day where I almost expected the case to have an ominous glow. Instead, I found out that RVD is a neat packer, nicely folded shirt, what looked like some mints, and of course, the Intercontinental belt.
"You're a traveler, you're allowed two carry-ons, so you can't carry an empty bag around if you live on the road and you carry all your sh*t with you."
Rob Van Dam was in L.A. this week for E3 to check out WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 and sat down with a group of reporters to talk about everything from the return of ECW to the signing of Sabu.
Here are some of the highlights…
On his videogame habits…
I don't play too many current videogames. I never learned how to play any of the current systems. As a kid I was a fan, and I still 'ooh and aw' when I walk into an arcade at the mall and I have all of the systems at home but they are mostly for relatives or kids who come over to visit or play. The only time I actually get to play the games is when I'm doing something at an appearance like Wrestlemania where we have a contest where we play against each other or against the fans.
On what to expect from his character fighting in the crowd in WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007…
When I'm out in the crowd, I'm just as comfortable as when I'm in the ring because I'm not afraid of hitting the floor any different than hitting the canvas. So you can expect to see a moonsault off of anything moonsaultable out there. I'll be looking around at the railings or whatever else is around there. And one thing about being in the crowd…there's always chairs nearby.
On what legend he would include in the next game…
I guess it's not a WWE wrestler but the Sheik comes to mind. The Original Sheik, of course he trained me and has passed so it would be interesting to see that. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and so I'm going to stick with that.
On whether or not the Hall of Fame is a fair reflection of wrestling history…
It's a piece of the puzzle or the overall picture. It's a great thing. It's a very happy night for myself. Being in the business for nearly 17 years now, it's great to go back in time 20 years ago, and that's what I do when I see those wrestlers inducted that inspired me when I was a fan. It's important for me to step back like that and I realize that at least once a year at the Hall of Fame. There are always going to be other wrestlers who deserve to be in there who seemed to get passed by or whatever, but that's why I say it's just a piece of it and overall, every year if you keep inducting people, then hopefully it will come around to everybody who deserves that honor.
On who else he would like to see inducted into the Hall of Fame…
I would like to see Randy "Macho Man" Savage. That was definitely during the era when I was really getting into wrestling sometime before turning it on first and deciding that's what I wanted to do. Randy Savage was a huge part, so he is my number one pick of guys who are alive I would like to see get inducted.
On whether or not he still has the same enthusiasm for wrestling as he once had…
It's a different passion. It's a different enthusiasm. You can't, at least I can't feel exactly the same as I did about it. I started right out of high school so I've been doing this for my entire adult life. I'll turn 36 this year, and basically, when I was young, I wanted to travel. I hadn't seen the world yet. I wanted to get out there and I wanted to see all of the pretty ladies all over the world…and that hasn't stopped. [laughs] I didn't have any goals that I had to achieve to live out my dream. I wanted to be part of it, but I didn't know whether I'd stay wrestling for three years or five years or how far I would make it or if I'd ever win a championship. I didn't know that going in, so now after accomplishing everything that I have and being in kick ass videogames like this and having my image portrayed over 40 action figures and seeing how my image is part of many other cultures, not only ours when I travel around the world, that's really cool. That stuff, that motivates me and keeps me in touch with how I reflect other people's lives or how they're touched by me. Aside from that, if I don't get the feedback from the fans or cross over and see how I've impacted their lives, then it can be a job. I fly over 200 flights a year. It's 52 weeks a year. Probably an average of four different towns a week. Sometimes way many more. Sometimes it's ten days in a row. Sometimes I might get a Friday off, too, but it never stops, and every night it's about giving 100% and being professional. If I'm wrestling in L.A. today, my fans have been waiting two months for me to come and they don't want to know about the 32 matches I've had since they bought their ticket. They think I've been excited about this particular night so if I'm tired, if I have an upset stomach, if I have a sprained ankle, if I have a headache…none of that is going to show if I can help it because I'm out there to give and show exactly what you paid to see. The enthusiasm and the passion and such, it changes, and the game changes. It goes sometimes from showing everything you've got to just going out and doing your part. Definitely, I can't think of a 9-5er I would trade it for.
On when he plans to cash in his Money in the Bank…
I'm thinking that I'm going to cash it in really soon. [laughs] I think I'm going to cash it in really soon. I carry the briefcase down to the ring with me every night because you just never know, an opportunity could fall into place. But if I'm really looking and trying to strategize, I can't think of a better night where I would be at the most advantageous than in my own forum, ECW. I'm very stoked about that.
On how difficult it was to sit out and not be able to participate in ECW One Night Stand last year…
It broke my heart. I didn't know if there would ever be another night like that One Night Stand because the idea was to just do it this one time. That would've been my chance to show everybody, because ECW had never been seen by WWE's platform, from their stage ever before. This was the one time where I could've been seen ECW style, which is of course when I'm at my best, but to the entire world because over 100 countries get to see WWE's product. I made it happen. It was my dream and it was my idea to even do this, to have ECW One Night Stand, so to have it all come to a reality and me to not be able to wrestle on it truly broke my heart. I still felt the spirit. It was a great night, one of my favorite nights in the business over the last five years, but definitely this year being able to wrestle adds a whole hell of a lot to it, both for me and for the fans.
On if the return of ECW can live up to what people remember about the product…
I'm very optimistic about a lot of stuff but I don't have any definites yet and I don't know exactly what to expect. I have a lot of questions, but the ECW spirit has never died, even when the idea had been vacated for months and months at a time, it was almost like a burning ember that would catch flame again. It looks like it's going to burn the house down right now.
On the WWE signing Sabu…
I think it's about time. All of the other organizations have got bought up or dried up and it's basically just WWE that represents what professional wrestling is for us now. There is of course TNA, which is way down here and WWE is way up here, but you can't compare them and say they're competition by any measurable standards. And because WWE is all there is right now, I feel like we've got the best of the best in the business. It's very prestigious sitting at the table and eating a WWE dinner right now. A few years ago when there was AWA, WCW, ECW, WWF…there was room for guys who weren't that good, and girls who weren't that good. Sometimes I would watch one of these other shows and I thought what they were doing just looked horrible. I thought the people had no business being in the ring. I thought these people needed to go back to school for another five years, and yet, I felt like people were going to watch that and think that's what I do. I was always defending myself saying, no, you've gotta watch me, you gotta see ECW, that's not what we do. I was insulted. Now, basically, that's gone. There's not room for people who suck anymore. We basically have the best people who are current and some of the key figures who have been important in wrestling history over the last ten years or so, and I definitely think there's room for Sabu. I also think that he's going to prove a lot of the hesitation people have about him wrong. A lot of people are curious if he can go at it full time at the physical level that he's known for doing, because we haven't seen him do it for a while. I think this is his chance to show, and I think he's going to impress…and I think I'm going to have some kick ass matches with him.
On the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD…
I watched the DVD and found it very entertaining. I felt the overall message might have been intended to make me as the watcher feel like Ultimate Warrior destroyed himself or that he was less than admirable, but it didn't come across that way at all. Watching the DVD brings out the mark in all of us who used to watch Ultimate Warrior back in the day. Watching him when he was at his peak, when he was doing those truly crazy promos, and he was nuts, but it reminded me of being a kid and watching that, and it actually made me thankful for the time that he was here. Hearing the wrestlers perspective, the guys that had to wrestle with him at the time, they have a completely different story because he was the one making the money and they were the ones dancing around him making him look good. There have been other wrestlers that fit his exact same shoes since then, but watching what he did have to offer, his uniqueness, his one of a kind nature, which it was, was definitely, definitely entertaining. I enjoyed the DVD and I wonder, of course, just like everybody else, what kind of feelings came out from the ripple effects of him and everyone shooting on each other.
On his favorite comic book character…
Ghost Rider. I'm one of the biggest Ghost Rider fans ever. He's been a hobby of mine ever since I was seven years old. I actually have a whole room in my house dedicated to Ghost Rider memorabilia. I go on the Internet and get crazy. I have every action figure, every t-shirt, the watch, the ring, the earring. Anything with the trademarked symbol. I'm also a big Ice Man fan. When it comes to X-Men, Ice Man is my favorite.
On TNA's X-Division…
Samoa Joe is a good friend of mine and I'm very impressed with his in-ring abilities. AJ Styles is very good too, I'm impressed with him as well, and for years and years, fans have told me that they want to see an RVD/AJ Styles match. If that ever comes to pass, I'm sure it will be good. I've had a good match with Christopher Daniels a few years ago, I've actually wrestled against him. I like a lot of the talent TNA has and I like the fact that they're trying to be different than WWE because I think the contrast in styles is important. Like when ECW One Night Stand hit last year, everybody else kind of picked their game up. Everybody else got a rub off of that and attacked with that same spirit for the audience. I say stay true to what you are and what you stand for and TNA is trying to be the new cutting edge, extreme group. Trying to go after those fans who were left lonely when ECW vacated them, and it looks like they don't get to keep them if ECW comes back around. It will bring those fans who were left alone, it will bring them back out too, and it's going to make it hard for the guys who think they were going to capitalize on the momentum of ECW. They still will, but there's only one ECW, so even if it's ECW 2006, just the depth that will go along with that, it's going to be something that nobody else can even compete with.
On if the new ECW roster should only consist of former ECW stars…
No, that would not work. That's something that, last year, was talked about a lot. Right after One Night Stand because it was such a huge success, because it had so much momentum, people were like 'Oh yeah, I heard it's going to take place at Smackdown', and of course, I had some ideas of my own and if I wasn't out on injury, I would've been trying to talk Vince into doing something. I really thought that through, but it wouldn't work with just the old ECW guys…half of them are dead and half of them should be dead. [laughs] Last year it was about history. It was about bringing everybody back to that moment in time, and if you weren't there, then you don't belong. It was a love night. This new idea of brining it back for today would have to involve recruiting new guys and making it current while having enough of the original players to carry the spirit through. And with Paul and Dreamer behind it, it can't be bad.
On the Edge/Mick Foley hardcore match at Wrestlemania…
I thought it was good. It was a good hardcore match and they did some really impressive 'Oh sh*t' worthy spots. The thumbtacks, of course, is incredible. It was awesome for me just to see a hardcore match brought back. It had been so long since there had been a hardcore match. I was depressed when they retired the hardcore belt, to my musing none the less, and gave the belt to Mick Foley to keep. The fact that it was a hardcore match got me excited and it was a good demonstration of a hardcore match. Right now, trying to bring the whole thing back to today's audience, it's important to me to display the wide range of what hardcore is. A lot of people have it in their mind that hardcore matches are garbage matches, and they're not. There is a place for matches that are just bloody, and fire, and thumbtacks, but if you remember what ECW was about, there were wrestlers so square, you wouldn't think they could survive one night in Philly. Lance Storm and Jerry Lynn, they were so good that their wrestling skills alone made them extreme. I've been in there with Jerry Lynn, and we're going through our moves ducking, reversing, jumping over, flipping back, duck, spin, catch, and the crowd would be chanting in the middle of the spot because they knew they were getting something extra. The whole world of extreme, to me, is to take a good match, then add elements of extreme to it. Otherwise, if you use the extreme match to take the place of a good match, you've lost a good match, and then people can say it's garbage wrestling and then somebody can hit themselves over the head with a light bulb and say, 'Look, I'm hardcore'. So I think there needs to be a lot of different flavors and a wide range of the match. We need to have Edge/Mick Foley and then we also need to have a match like RVD versus Jerry Lynn and then we also need to have a match like the Gangstas...anything that had it's own position. Sandman's whole deal was his entrance. Coming down to his own music with the crowd, drinking five beers, smoking a cigarette, interacting with the fans. That was his whole deal. Once the bell rang, he usually got his ass kicked. [laughs] It's all about finding your spot.
On Sandman wrestling drunk…
It's not for everybody. We put ourselves under extreme conditions and extreme measures and a lot of extreme measures could make our jobs more challenging, and one of those could be wrestling a drunk Sandman. I remember one time in the middle of a match I was watching, this wasn't my match, thank God, but it was a six-man match and in the middle of the match, he just left. He went back to the dressing room and everyone was so thankful because he had been beating the hell our of them with his stick…even his own partners. He waffled everyone with that stick, then he left, only to come back completely naked. [laughs] He had a little too much to drink that day.
On the potential of challenging John Cena for the title at One Night Stand…
It would obviously a WWE flavored ECW match, which would be fine because it would be me challenging an outsider to come in, and bring what you've got with you. He does offer a lot, and he's got what he's got, and it has taken him this far. And of course I would expect the ECW fans to just tear him up…I don't think he'll get the crowd behind the 'You Can't See Me'. That doesn't work there. [laughs]
On his dream match for next year's Wrestlemania…
I haven't thought about this, but maybe the way things are going, how about I have the first ECW match at Wrestlemania. I don't even care who it is against, I just want to represent ECW because I think there should be room for at least a couple ECW matches on the card. I don't know what's going to happen between now and then, but right now, since you made me look ahead, that's what I see as an ideal situation.
http://sports.ign.com/articles/708/708370p3.html
