Rob Van Dam has come forward to defend Vince McMahon amid discussions from the newly released Netflix documentary, Mr. McMahon, which covers various controversies surrounding the WWE chairman. The documentary touches on numerous topics, including steroid scandals, sexual harassment claims, and lawsuits related to wrestler injuries.
On his 1 of a Kind podcast, RVD expressed confusion over why some wrestlers blame McMahon for their personal choices regarding pain pills, steroids, concussions, or working while injured.
He emphasized that he always took responsibility for his own health and didn’t blame McMahon for his decisions.
“I never understand that. Why in the world would I ever blame Vince McMahon for me taking pain pills, or for me getting concussions, or for doing steroids, or working while I’m hurt? Why in the world would I blame him? I can’t imagine any reason—except a lie—if I were to put that on Vince and say it was his fault. Now, other people have had different experiences. I’ve heard some of the boys complain that they were forced to keep working when they were hurt. I never bothered telling them I was hurt. It was all on me if I was hurt, which I wasn’t, because I could still work.”
RVD also recalled an incident where McMahon slapped a notebook out of someone’s hand during an argument. The person had questioned whether McMahon was responsible for wrestlers who had died, simply because they worked for WWE.
RVD agreed with McMahon that the question was nonsensical and said it’s unfair to blame McMahon unless the injuries happened on the job.
He made an exception for Owen Hart, acknowledging that his death was directly related to WWE’s production.
“When Vince slapped the notebook out of that guy’s hand and the guy said, ‘How can you say none of these are your responsibility? They wrestled for you.’ What the f*** does that mean? I agree with Vince on that. I’m not saying he should’ve smacked the book out of the guy’s hand—he was definitely trying to intimidate him, moving closer and closer to bully him—but I agree with how ridiculous the question is. How do you take responsibility for all these wrestlers who died just because they used to wrestle for you? What the f***?
What if a lot of them went to my third-grade Spanish class? Unless they got hurt on the job—like Owen, that’s different. Owen got hurt on the job, and people can link that directly to WWE’s production. But that’s so different than someone who wrestled there, did Somas, Norcos, Vicodin, Valium, and all that way before they ever met Vince McMahon—and kept doing it while they were there—and now it’s Vince’s fault? No, I can’t get behind that.”
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