TNA Impact Wrestling star Rob Van Dam was recently interviewed by the Miami Herald. In the interview he had a few issues with the way young talent related to veterans:
“I feel like I get respect, but not in that way, I’m open to it. Most of the guys, I don’t know if they don’t feel welcome to ask me or any of the other veterans or what. That is probably an issue that we have is the young guys should ask some of the older guys. They should be saying, ‘Hey, watch my match. Let me know what I can improve on.’
That never happens enough. Some of the young guys who are or were there, I don’t want to mention any names. There were two young guys who just left and looked like they were out of high school. The whole time they were there, they never introduced themselves or shook my hand. Things are way different than they used to be.”
Many on the internet have taken this to infer he was talking about the recently released Generation Me. The team has responded to questions about this from their Twitter accounts:
Nick Jackson, “Apparently were young guys straight out of high school who don’t respect veterans. Well that’s what RVD says at least. Unreal!”
Matt Jackson, “I never introduced myself to @therealrvd? Then who was that guy who wore jean shorts & Golds Gym tank-tops, that I met & always said hi to? I’m a 26 yr old, married man w/a child on the way & have been wrestling 8 yrs around the world. I’m not a kid but thx for the compliment!”
Well there is definitely a difference in opinion between the two camps. My personal opinion is the truth may be somewhere in the middle as everyone sees things a little different from their own perspective.
Not that I would fall on either side of this “argument,” but when Nick Jackson was hired by the promotion, he was 19 years old. Considering that most people graduate high school at the ripe old age of 18… it would seem that RVD is dead-on accurate with respect to his “out of high school” comment.
But what’s even more interesting is that RVD didn’t say that these guys were younger or green or immature. He said that they looked like they were right out of high school. In other words, they looked young! That’s a compliment! And it seems that Matt Jackson took the compliment for what it was worth (good for him).
By the way, Nick Jackson responded to TNAStars.com regarding this particular entry via Twitter. You can read the brief exchange here:
http://twitter.com/NickJacksonYB/status/95286914663452672