Various: RVD on If He Hadn’t Met Paul Heymen Then He “Would Have Jumped Probably Right Up To WWE Or WCW”, Scott D’Amore on Maple Leaf Pro Having Good Relationship with Every Promotion, Indies/Misc.

Mar 23, 2025

Rob Van Dam Comments on “If I Hadn’t Met Paul Heyman, I Would Have Jumped Probably Right Up To WWE Or WCW”

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured ECW legend and WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam as the guest. One of the topics discussed included RVD’s thoughts about Paul Heyman and how if he had not met Heyman, he might have ended up in WWE or WCW instead of working for ECW in the 1990s.

“Okay, so if I hadn’t met Paul Heyman, I would have jumped probably right up to WWE or WCW because, at the time, they were the top two. There was no seeing one of them going down and the other one sticking around. I wouldn’t have developed the way that I did. I wouldn’t have probably been as comfortable or fit in, because before 96 when I came to ECW, I was hardcore and I was doing things that I hadn’t seen done in the ring. When me and Sabu would wrestle we were diving out to the crowd and breaking tables and stuff and then when I wrestled Sabu in ECW the crowd had never seen anything like that, what we were giving them, but we had. So I feel like if I hadn’t come to ECW, I wouldn’t have found a proper voice, and I probably would have been much, much different; whether I was as comfortable or not, it might have been better for business. I have a lot of things that work against me. To be the absolute best pro wrestler, what would that mean? You have to include not just your moves and you got a lot of P’s, not just your promos. What about politics? You got to be good at politics. That’s something I could never do. I forgot what I was going to say about some of the other P’s, but you have to be good at being a puppet sometimes because you’re a vessel for other people’s values, creative ideas, and stuff.
In a lot of ways, I wasn’t as flexible on a lot of stuff like that. I was more stubborn. So, having all that as details to answer that question, I don’t think it would have worked out as good for me if I wasn’t able to build myself in my more organic, natural environment. But in the end, if I would have been able to be, whether you want to see it as manipulated, but if I would have gone down some other paths and learned to like them, or deal with them, or whatever then, who knows, maybe a champion of the world right now.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Scott D’Amore Comments on “Maple Leaf Pro Always Tries To Maintain A Good Relationship With AEW & Every Other Promotion”

Fightful held a recent interview with Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling owner Scott D’Amore. One of the topics discussed included D’Amore’s thoughts about MLP working with different promotions for talents for their shows and trying to maintain a good relationship with other promotions.

“The fact is that when you look at this, making sure that we have Don Callis at desk next to Mauro Ranallo forming what I think, respectful to any other team, is the best commentary team in professional wrestling and having QT Marshall up here and being able to get Billy Gunn and the Kingdom and Serena Deeb. These things, these relationships take managing and we’ve always you know tried to maintain and have a good relationship with AEW and everybody else. That was kind of it, going there and just chatting, seeing where we can work together and what makes sense, might make sense now and what might make sense in the future. One of the legacies of Maple Leaf Wrestling, whatever banner they were under, WWWF, AWA, NWA, didn’t matter. They could come to Maple Leaf Gardens, they could come to Maple Leaf Wrestling and perform. That’s one of things I’m proudest about this when you look at it. You got Kiyomiya from NOAH, you’ve got Ishimori and Kushida and Kevin Knight from New Japan. You’ve got the folks I just mentioned from AEW. Unfortunately there’s no TNA representation. They had to go the very same night. So that’s not possible this time. But we have we have people from all over coming here. We have the NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion coming here anddefending the title. The last time that the NWA title was defended in Windsor was 20 years ago and it was a title change that I think sent shocks through wrestling, right. Ended up being known as controversy in Canada and it’s what launched the golden age of TNA Wrestling on Spike TV. We have WWE ID talent here in Kylie Rae and Zoe Sager. Having all these different brands and promotions come here and have people representing them I think is what makes wrestling really kind of cool and fun when it’s done, right? Like they all have their home base and they have their stuff they do there, but they can come here and intermingle and play in a different sandbox for a couple nights.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Saturday’s Rey de Reyes 2025 event for Lucha Libre AAA in Mexico City, Mexico featured Nueva Generacion Dinamita (Sanson & Forastero) defeating Jeff Jarrett & Sam Adonis and Laredo Kid & Pagano in a Three-way match to become the new AAA World Tag Team Champions. This was for the vacant belt following AAA stripping Raj Dhesi & Satnam Singh of the titles last week.

Saturday’s AAA Rey de Reyes 2025 event in Mexico City also featured Niño Hamburguesa defeating Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr, El Mesías, and DMT Azul in a Four-way Finals match to become the winner of this year’s Rey de Reyes tournament.

AAA talent Sam Adonis announced on Twitter that he had suffered a dislocated jaw and broken nose injury during the Vacant AAA World Tag Team Championship Three-way match at Saturday’s AAA Rey de Reyes 2025 event. Adonis suffered the injury following a botched moonsault spot to the outside involving his face hitting the apron on the way down.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that a new documentary based on the Von Erich Family has been produced for cable television network Investigation Discovery for their upcoming new Hollywood Demons series. Johnson reported that this upcoming Von Erichs episode will be airing on April 21st on the network.

DDT Pro Wrestling announced that Masahiro Takanashi recently underwent surgery for a neck and spinal cord injury he suffered at their March 20th event in Tokyo, Japan. It was announced that Takanashi had fractured the C5 and C6 vertebrae in his neck from his injury and his surgery was successful.

This past Friday’s Homenaje A Dos Leyendas 2025 event for CMLL at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico featured Zandokan Jr. defeating Star Jr. in a Lucha de Apuestas, Mask vs. Mask match. As per tradition, Star Jr. removed his mask and stated in a post-match speech that his real name is Isaías Hernández López. Lopez also stated that his war with Zandokan Jr. had just begun.

CMLL reportedly drew an attendance of over 10,000 for their March 14th Super Viernes event at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Smash Wrestling announced that they have recently pulled Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay from their Rebelmania event on April 20th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada due to unforeseen circumstances beyond their control. It was also announced that Leyla Hirsch will be replacing Lee for her scheduled a match against Jody Threat for the Smash Wrestling Women’s Championship at the event.

New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,069 for their March 14th New Japan Cup 2025 event in Sakai, 2,752 for their March 15th New Japan Cup 2025 event in Nagoya, 856 for their March 16th New Japan Cup 2025 event in Shizuoka, 722 for their March 17th New Japan Cup 2025 event in Koriyama, and 3,271 for their March 20th New Japan Cup 2025 Finals event in Nagoaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,378 for their March 15th Cinderella Tournament 2025 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TNA Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of around 3,000 for their March 14th Sacrifice 2025 event in El Paso and around 3,000 for their March 15th Impact! tapings in El Paso, Texas, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced one new match for the card of their Crockett Cup 2025 event on May 17th at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship – Rhino vs. Thom Latimer (c)