Rob Van Dam was recently a guest on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, where he spoke about when he first arrived in WWE and how his relationship with Triple H was.

“I mean, I wasn’t happy about the situation at the time. Again, competitive state of mind, you don’t look at it when you’re across the ring from him and you’re both competing for the love of the crowd. You don’t look at it like, ‘Hey, this guy is, not a CEO, but whatever his position was at the time, is qualified to make important decisions. He sits in the meetings. He’s one of the guys that directs the paths of where the whole show is going.'”

“You don’t look at it like that. You look at it more like, ‘It’s not fair just because he’s with the boss’ daughter.’ Really, there’s so many more variables to it that you just don’t consider at that time. A lot of wrestlers don’t grow enough to see the whole picture. So forever, their opinion will be like it is in the book they wrote where they’re like, ‘If it wasn’t for him, I would have had a great career.’ But you know, really, it is what it is.”

“But looking back, I had great matches with him. He’s a really good wrestler. At the time, I don’t even think I could have admitted that just because I felt more like puffing my chest out and trying to fight for every inch I could get.”

On his relationship with Vince McMahon:

“We have a great relationship. I have nothing but respect for him.”

“From my personal interactions with him, he’s always been nothing but super respectful to me. From watching so many of his interviews that he does, I find myself agreeing with him almost 100% of the time.”

“I really learned to respect him the more I understood about life and just the more I grew. I feel like I was really immature when I worked with him and got busted with the marijuana and dropped the ball and stuff. Not that I’m necessarily above something like that again, but I definitely dropped the ball and I feel bad about that.”

“He’s the most important man that I know. I hope Vince lives a long time. I’m grateful to know him.”