Rob Van Dam gives his perspective on retiring from professional wrestling.
Rob Van Dam was one of the pillar performers of the late '90s and 2000s. His innovative offense inspired a generation of performers, and he still occasionally shares a ring with modern wrestlers, albeit having slowed down the amount of bookings he takes.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rob Van Dam was asked if he believes he's retired. In response, he said he is not retired, nor does he think he will ever officially retire or make a big deal out of it.
“I don’t [think I am], and I don’t think I will [retire]. That’s how I feel right now. I feel like even if I don’t take wrestling bookings anymore, I don’t think I’ll make a big deal out of retirement. Because when wrestlers retire and they end up coming back and wrestling anyway. ‘No, I want one more match.’ For me, that is completely eating up the credibility that I had in wrestling retirement matches. I doubt that I’ll ever feel like, ‘No, I’m going to be different. I never want to wrestle right now. I’m done.’ I just see me is just going with the flow. And someday, when you say, are you still wrestling? I might say, It’s been six years, and then I might have a match.
"I've always said also I want to price myself out and not wear myself and my value down. A lot of my peers, they were worth so much in their prime, and then they are not worth as much, can't get booked as much, so they come down and compromise, and that has a cycle effect where they are worth less. But I'm not gonna do that, I'd rather have less people afford me until I don't wrestle that way instead of wrestling myself into a grave and my last match was $5."
One of Rob Van Dam's former tag team partners, Sabu, once wanted to have his final match against RVD but is now slated to retire after facing Joey Janela.
Chris Jericho, another wrestler with an extensive history facing Rob Van Dam, also wants to take a nonchalant approach to retirement. Read his comments here.
