In a recent episode of his 1 Of A Kind podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam discussed several topics, including his experience working with All Elite Wrestling.

“From my experience, Tony is just a really nice guy, he’s happy to be there, he comes across like a friend, like he’s genuine, like he’s really, really appreciative. He’ll like, take his time and you know, don’t walk away, he doesn’t say don’t walk away, but it’s like, you know, hold on, I’ve got a list of things I’m going to tell you.

He’ll be like Rob, that was awesome, you were awesome, the match was great, the people loved you, thank you so much for coming in here, almost like he’s going through like to make sure to cut everything, and it’s really cool, it’s really, you know, an appreciative thing to go through.

I feel like the boys there seem to have so much control and a desire to take the product in a different direction, and so I think that’s what they’re going to get judged by a lot, is whether that kind of product is inferior and if the other kind of product, more mainstream, is superior and it really has always been that way in the past.

I say that myself, being kind of a wrestler with a niche following, because ECW, because hardcore, because I’m a whole F’N show, because of all that you know, people love me, but I’m not in that position, like where Cena is, the mainstream you know, like everybody loves them, kids love them, I love them you know, so it’s, when you are a speciality item or have speciality talents, you’re going to get a little bit more of a niche, however big that niche you can get.”

The full interview is available at this link.