Rob Van Dam slammed AEW’s creative decisions. He thinks the wrestlers there have too much control over their own storylines and that “the inmates are running the asylum.”
Van Dam used that same line in March 2025, shortly after Jon Moxley was suplexed onto Spike, Adam Copeland’s weapon covered in nails, in a Street Fight on Dynamite. Back then, he also said he would rather be associated with WWE, and a lot of fans called him a hypocrite because of his time in ECW.
Van Dam recently appeared on Wrestling with Rip Rogers, where he returned to the subject and said he has always considered that type of match garbage wrestling. He still doesn’t believe AEW creative came up with the idea for the Moxley spot.
“I don’t buy that because I think the inmates are running the asylum,” Van Dam said.
Van Dam believes that’s how the company has always operated.
“I think that’s the idea with them,” Van Dam said, adding that the wrestlers have more control and power.
Van Dam said things got out of control in AEW for a while. He was talking about the segment where Hangman Page set Swerve Strickland’s childhood home on fire in September 2024.
Van Dam recalled how he was written off TNA TV himself in 2010. His contract called for 75 matches a year, and he would get paid extra if he went over that number. Van Dam said TNA did not notice until he was around 80 matches in, at least five more than planned.
“They found out, and so they killed me,” Van Dam said. “They had Abyss. He had Janice.”
Janice, a board covered in nails, was used by Abyss in an attack that took Van Dam off TV, and Van Dam compared it to the weapon from the Moxley spot. But he made sure to note that it wasn’t his idea and that he thought it was a stupid angle even then.