Hall of Famer unsure if he will attend WWE shows again after Vince McMahon's retirement
Vince McMahon’s retirement has left Rob Van Dam (RVD) wondering whether he should attend future WWE events.
After 40 years in charge of WWE, McMahon retired in July amid several sexual misconduct allegations. Triple H now leads the creative team, while Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon are WWE’s co-CEOs. Stephanie has also replaced her father as the company’s Chairwoman.
On Rene Dupree’s “Cafe de Rene” podcast, RVD doubted whether WWE’s new regime would be interested in him appearing at future shows:
“Do I like that Vince is no longer with WWE? No,” Van Dam said. “I personally don’t think there’s anything in it for me because Vince was a friend and there’s no reason for me to believe at this point that the current guy that’s running things has any more interest in me than Vince did. For those reasons, just from my selfish perspective, I think [it was] better for me when Vince was there.” [0:23-0:54]
RVD wrestled for WWE between 2001-2007 and 2013-2014. The 51-year-old has made sporadic appearances in recent years, including in 2019 when he returned for one night on the RAW Reunion episode of RAW.
With Vince McMahon gone, RVD does not know who to visit in WWE
The ECW icon occasionally attended WWE events to catch up with Vince McMahon. He also interacted with others backstage, including WWE’s former head of talent relations John Laurinaitis. Like McMahon, Laurinaitis recently left his WWE role after 21 years due to misconduct claims.
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Following the departures of Laurinaitis and McMahon, RVD no longer sees a reason to go backstage at WWE shows:
“When they’re in town, I don’t even know who to visit,” Van Dam continued. “If they were in Vegas, if I stopped by normally it would have been to see Vince, maybe Booker [T], maybe Paul [Heyman] if they were there, maybe even Johnny Laurinaitis, not so much that I would go there just to say hi to him because he’s political like everyone else.” [0:55-1:24]
RVD was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021. The former WWE Champion, who is a marijuana advocate, gave Vince McMahon some rolling papers at the ceremony as a gift.
Would you like to see RVD on WWE television again? Let us know in the comments section.
Please credit “Cafe de Rene” and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.