Rob Van Dam believes he still has another wrestling run in him, and he thinks AEW could be the place for it.
On his 1 Of A Kind With RVD podcast, RVD praised AEW for sticking around. He admitted that when the company launched, it was easy to wonder how long it would last, since plenty of well-funded promotions have come and gone over the years.
Yeah. They’ve definitely proven themselves. You know, like, it was so easy when they first came out to be like, ‘Yeah, well, let’s see how long they stick around.’ And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with any of us that felt that way because promotions over the years come up all the time.
RVD also likes how AEW comes across. In his view, it feels more wrestler-driven than the WWE he remembers, where he said some people were afraid for their jobs and hesitant to push back. AEW, he said, looks like a place where talent can express itself and do things their own way.
That led him to imagine another run. He said he could have a really good one working with peers, naming Chris Jericho, Christian Cage and Edge (Adam Copeland), and he added he wouldn’t mind one more match with Jeff Hardy.
If I came to AEW, though, I would, I think that I could have a really good run working with one of my peers: Chris Jericho, Christian, Edge.
He was careful to say these aren’t things he’s desperate to make happen. They just sound like good ideas to him. RVD has already worked for AEW before, so a return wouldn’t be out of nowhere, but this time he’s thinking about a real run and not a one-off.
RVD made his AEW debut on the August 2, 2023 episode of Dynamite, coming to the aid of Jerry Lynn and confronting Jack Perry.
He then competed in his first AEW match on August 9, 2023, unsuccessfully challenging Jack Perry for the FTW Championship in an FTW Rules match.
Over the next months, he returned for occasional matches and angles, including a hardcore match against Swerve Strickland on January 31, 2024, and a four-way match against Isiah Kassidy, Komander, and Lee Johnson in April 2024.