Rob Van Dam revealed the creative process behind his innovative maneuvers, including the Van Daminator and the Van Terminator, on a recent episode of “1 Of A Kind.” The episode also covered other topics. Highlights are below (thanks to 411mania.com).
RVD on how he came up with the Van Daminator and the Van Terminator:
“Before my first match in ECW, I was thinking about adjusting to this hardcore, grungy, dark style of adult, entertaining wrestling. It was a really big change from being down in the south, where Bobby Fulton would wrestle me, and I would say, ‘Come on, everybody!’ The crowd would get going behind us. And then he could say, ‘Stop it!’ [And the crowd goes] ‘Boo!’ I mean, that was like such a simpler kind of match in that respect to work than going to this intimidating, death-defying spectacle where the fans are the most opinionated. Studying you, watching for you to slip, so they can say ‘You f**ked up, you f**ked up,’ and just kick your ass with it. So that was like, there was a lot of adjusting. I had to really shift gears.
“And before my debut, I was sitting there with a pen and paper trying to come up with some hardcore moves. And I was, just like always, thinking of moves I hadn’t seen before. And one of them, I said, ‘What if I could throw a chair up and jump up and spin kick it into somebody’s face?’ I never knew that it was going to be my finishing move and win me world championships. It was just one of several moves that I thought of for that first night. And in my mind, I really was thinking more like I would throw it up, and I would be fast enough to kick it out of the air without them catching it. But in reality, the timing of it — and the flow, obviously — they catch it before I kick it now. That’s not the way I envisioned it in my head first, and I had to try it out. And people loved it, you know, it became the Van Daminator, became my finishing move. And then I was just always working on what’s the next extreme version of it. You know, I threw the chair at Fonzie. Fonzie would throw it to say, Jerry Lynn, and then I would kick him, boom! We call that a hot potato. And then I would like crotch my opponent on the rope halfway down the ring and Fonzie would hold the chair over him. And I would jump from the top rope in the corner and get as much distance as I could and kick the chair, you know, before I had to use my feet to brace my fall. And that was fun. And so I slid him down further and further. Pretty soon I was clearing the whole ring, and I was like, ‘Damn, I should just set him down there. F**king boom, drop kick him.’ And there you go. That’s the Van Terminator.”
RVD on being able to do the Van Terminator:
“Yeah. And now look, so many people can do it. How come no one ever thought of that before? Why does it take a one of a kind like RVD to think of things that no one else has thought of and open up the door for everybody? I don’t know. It’s part of my mission in life.”
