Rob Van Dam recently spoke with Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston about his recent return to Japan for Pro Wrestling NOAH.
On June 12, 2022, it was announced that Rob Van Dam would make his in-ring debut in CyberFight’s Pro Wrestling Noah at the CyberFight Festival 2022. He teamed with the Stinger duo of Hayata and Yoshinari Ogawa to defeat Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada and Yo-Hey.
On July 16, the former WWE Champion made his return to Pro Wrestling NOAH and competed at NOAH Destination 2022. Van Dam & Masato Tanaka defeated NOSAWA Rongai & Super Crazy in a hardcore tag team match.
“The Wrestling Is So Much Better”
When speaking with Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston, the former ECW World Champion spoke about wrestling in Japan and what it was like to work with Pro Wrestling NOAH.
“Well, so it looks like it’s very likely that it will keep happening. I’ve already gone back. So I wrestled there June 12. And then I came back on July the 16th. Just a couple of weeks ago, and we’re talking about maybe returning in January. So yeah, it’s it’s pretty cool.
I love wrestling in Japan. I started wrestling there in 93′. Somebody, a fan there that every wrestler knows this fan, Masa, he’s, we all know this guy. He had the whole breakdown for me.
This was the 22nd time that I had been to Japan. And he had the breakdown of how many times I’ve been to that building, the Nippon Budokan, and how many times I was there with All Japan, and then FMW, and then New Japan, and IWGP, and WWE, and all these different companies. So, it’s pretty cool. And I have a lot of history there.
Man, the wrestling is so much better. Like, I was watching the other matches, and I was like really proud to be part of that. It’s so different.”
“It Was Actually Like Wrestling”
Van Dam went on to speak about how he believes pro wrestling is better in Japan. He even elaborated on how impressed he was with another match on the card.
“It was actually like wrestling you know. A lot of people complain now that the the newer generation kind of got away from wrestling and now it’s just about stunts, and, you know, flying or whatever and diving on to 80 people catching you. You know, like, the more people that catch you the better. It seems like the biggest spot I don’t know.
But man, Muto, the fabulous Muto, he’s retiring. He’s got five matches left. And this match a few nights ago, a couple weeks ago. That was one of his last five. And I watched him wrestle. I don’t want to brutalize the kid’s name that he wrestled and you wouldn’t probably know him unless you follow. You know, the, the product NOAH. I don’t know.
But anyway, man, these guys put on a clinic, like it was so good. And it was like, the story that they told man. I just hadn’t seen anything like that in years. It wasn’t, they barely even like, hit the ropes and saw there was like Muta going for his trademark leg drag. And he would go to do it in the kid would stop and then get him in the move and then they would work their way up for that, work the way up, bam, bam, bam, he goes for it again. This time you know he’s gonna get it boom, you get stopped right back into and they just worked that leg lock and that leg drag and they made so much sense out of it and it was built so that every little thing meant so much and you know, I was humbled.
Actually, I’d already wrestled and I felt, you know, like, not like not worthy. Like, like the fans were over appreciative of my match. I had a hardcore match that night. And it was a tag team match, you know, when your tag team instead of a singles match, if you compare that to a normal job, a lot of times if your singles match, that’s like being the, the waiter, the cashier, the busboy and the cook at the same time, and when you when your tag partner not so.”
Watch Steve’s interview with Rob Van Dam here:
