Rob Van Dam considers Bret Hart an all-time great in the ring, but is curious how his style would have meshed against the “Excellence Of Execution.”
On the latest episode of “1 Of A Kind With RVD,” Van Dam covers his storied rivalry with Jerry Lynn, but did get asked about an opponent he never got to face in the ring, Bret Hart.
“I love Bret, and in my opinion, he’s definitely one of the very, very, very best, if not the best, arguably, maybe the best that I’ve seen….
“I also know that he prides himself for never hurting anybody in the business. I don’t really have that same claim … I got trained very snug and then went to Japan and got trained to be even snugger, you know?”
Rob Van Dam “Would Be On His Very Best Behavior” Wrestling Bret Hart
To Mr. Monday Night’s point, Van Dam was trained by another “one of a kind” talent in the original Shiek, who was notorious for being snug in the ring. Early in his career, RVD ended up working with the legendary Giant Baba under All Japan Pro-Wrestling who played host to many snug American wrestlers, including names like Gary Albright and Dr. Death Steve Williams.
With admiration RVD has for Bret, he knows he’d be super considerate of his fellow WWE Hall Of Famer if that hypothetical dream match ever happened.
“A lot of people say that they don’t find me excessive at all during our matches and I would be on my very best behavior with The Hitman, you know what I mean? Out of respect, but I just don’t know that, you know, he wouldn’t be like, ‘wow!'”