Rob Van Dam On Why His First WWE Push Ended Abruptly

Rob Van Dam was interviewed by Pro Wrestling Junkies and discussed his time of being in WWE at a very young age.

"When I went to WWE, that time in my career and in my life, really up until I'd say about five years ago, was almost adolescent. Have you ever heard people say, 'When you get into the entertainment industry young, you never really grow up?' It was like that. I got in right out of high school. Through that whole time, I hadn't really grown up. I never experienced a lot of those emotions that someone needs to experience in order to really grow up.

"I'd go back to my young, competitive-minded RVD because I looked at everyone as competition, and maybe I had to in order to get where I was at. I would look at everyone in the dressing room like, 'F--k that guy, f--ck him, I could kick his a--.' And that's how I felt. Now I don't look at it like that; I don't think about it like guys want something I want. I don't mind giving guys TV time. Honestly, I'd rather have the night off and get paid for it."

"Someone in an interview recently brought up that they got a tip that a reason one of my first pushes in WWE was stopped was because Hunter had offered to help me with my promos and I pretty much told him to 'F--k off. Honestly, that sounds about right. I didn't really tell him to f--k off, but I should have let him help me. I was feeling the stresses of the adjustment to the political machine there."

"I had [Triple H] and JR pulling me in different directions trying to get credit for bringing me there. Triple H would be telling me one thing and then JR would be pulling me the other way saying, 'I got you this much extra on your merch - can your buddy [Triple H] do that?' And then [Triple H] would say, 'I got you this match because they want to do this with you,' or whatever. I just didn't want someone else trying to get credit for my success or taking credit for creating me. I was very headstrong and stubborn. Sometimes that was good, but if I could have been a little more flexible on certain things, it surely would have made a difference in a lot of areas."