Rob Van Dam Talks His 2006 WWE Suspension, Steve Austin On Why He Is Not A Fan Of Marijuana
Recently on The Steve Austin Show, 'Global Icon And National Treasure' Steve Austin was joined by Rob Van Dam. Among many other things, Van Dam talked about regretting his 2006 drug arrest in Ohio.
During the interview from 'Broken Skull Studios', Van Dam admitted that if he could have done things differently, he would have tried to avoid his 2006 drug arrest.
"I would have slowed down that night going through Ohio with 18 grams of weed in my bag. I was speeding, dude. I was so careless back then. Like, I've grown up so much since then, that when I think about when I worked with [WWE], I think it's a perspective that I had as a kid. I feel like I had to go through some real life emotion before my whole perspective changed. I used to be so careless I didn't even know there were speed limits." Van Dam continued, "the reason it made such big news was because I had the WWE Championship and the ECW Championship, so there was a lot riding on me at the moment because ECW just came back as a third brand, trying to get momentum, and I'm the champion."
Interestingly, Van Dam defended WWE, suggesting that 'The Whole F'n Show' was not held back as much as he would make regrettable decisions when given opportunities by the company.
"For everybody who says how much I was held back, and how wrong that was for my career, first off, I gave them plenty of chances to not put me on the forward foot and plenty of warnings that I would f–k it up. And then, when I did finally get the championship, I f–ked it up." Van Dam acknowledged, "I f–ked it up."
Following Van Dam's arrest in 2006, he was suspended and forced to drop his championships. Van Dam divulged that he asked current RAW Executive Director and former ECW boss to ask WWE Chairman Vince McMahon if RVD could have more time off. Heyman declined.
"I was suspended for 30 days," Van Dam recalled. "I had to drop both of the championships. And I don't know if I was fined on top of that or not. But I was pretty much in my own world. But at the end of the 30-days, I called Paul [Heyman] and I asked him if he would ask Vince if I could have some more time off. And he was like, 'I'm not going to ask him that – he'll be offended because [the suspension] is supposed to be a punishment,' but I was enjoying being home because I was sobering out."
Van Dam indicated that he started smoking cannabis when he turned 21 years old. The ECW standout said his first experience with cannabis was not exactly a positive one.
"My 21st birthday in Jamaica. Peer pressure from the boys, Jimmy Backlund, 'Gigolo' Jimmy Backlund, Mark Starr, Coconut Kid. I didn't know I was sitting in rotation by accident, by default, and he was like, 'hit it, hit it, hit it, you prima donna! It's not going to kill you! Hit it!' My 21st birthday, yeah." Van Dam said, "I wouldn't say my first experience was a pleasant one because I just remember staring at the wall and then feeling really [self] conscious about it, like, 'why am I staring at the wall?' Like, 'f–k, they're going to make fun of me! They're going to notice. I should turn my head and look at the TV. What the f–k?' And then, Ron Slinker was like, 'are you alright, kid?'"
According to Van Dam, he will unveil his own cannabis strain, presumably on April 20, 2020, the de facto international day for celebrating cannabis. Van Dam went on to express his excitement over the scientific discovery of Cannabigerol (CBG), and its potential application on concussion therapy.
"I'm actually coming out with my own strain, by the way, which I'll be debuting very, very soon on a special holiday, a special stoner holiday. I started a CBD line and it's a branch off that. In the legal states, we're licensed, and we'll have some THC products as well." Van Dam added, "I just started the CBD line and it has a lot to do with the movie and concussions because my main drive is I want to find whatever it is that – they're talking about CBG being able to regenerate dead brain tissue. That sounds pretty good to me."
Austin, who has had his own forays into the world of medical cannabis, shared that he used to track down cannabis in Vancouver, Canada for friends when he was filming movies there.
"They grow some killer stuff up there [in Vancouver, Canada]. And I only know because I used to make a couple of low budget movies up there and if I had someone coming in and whatever and [cannabis] was their thing, I would make sure that they could find some because this was back in the day. [Canadians] have a bit of a different stance on it up there." Austin explained, "I had a connection up there and I'll leave it at that, but the word on the street was they have some extremely potent stuff up there."
Austin shared that cannabis makes him self-conscious and it slows his processing speed. With that said, 'Stone Cold' told a funny story about getting the giggles at Burger King.
"The few times that I did partake in that endeavor, and I partook in many other endeavors, but I really wasn't a THC guy," Austin admitted. "Like, when I would hit that stuff, man, it would slow me down to the point where I would say something and then I would think, 'man, did that sound dumb?' or if someone would cut a joke, I'd be like, processing it, and I might giggle and I might not. But then, there was one time when I was riding with a Hall Of Famer and we stopped at a Burger King drive [thru] and we got the famous giggles! And we sat there at the damn ordering speaker for like eight minutes! Man, we were laughing our asses off and we never got the hamburgers! We finally just took off and it was great."
Listen to the show here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Steve Austin Show with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.