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Former WWE General Manager Teddy Long recently discussed Rob Van Dam's AEW appearances and the happenings leading to this. He believed this became possible because RVD sought WWE's permission and was cleared.
Rob Van Dam shocked the world when he appeared on AEW almost a month ago on Dynamite. He was handpicked to confront the then-FTW Champion, Jack Perry. A week later, the master of the Five-star Frog Splash was booked for a match against Jack Perry for the FTW Championship in his first match for the promotion.
On an episode of The Wrestling Time Machine, hosted by Mac Davis, Teddy Long, alongside Sportskeeda Wrestling Senior Editor Bill Apter, discussed the Stamford-based promotion's role in making RVD appear in AEW.
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They were unsure if the former Mr. Money in the Bank had an exclusive legends contract with WWE because this might have prevented him from appearing in AEW.
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"If he has one of those legends deals, legends contracts, or whatever, I don't know whether he does or not, I'm pretty sure that he would have went to them [WWE] and gotten their permission. You know, because with the legends deal, I don't know if you are allowed to work with any other company or whatever you're allowed to do."
Long mentioned how after getting WWE's permission, there wouldn't be anything else holding RVD back, and AEW probably offered him an amount to make an appearance.
"And my thing is this, what about it? The man has a family, the man has to eat, the man has bills to pay. So anybody who's gonna pay this man to go to work, you know, to make money, you know what I mean, why not him? This is what he does, this is his job. So I don't understand some of these people, I mean, it's just the haters is all they are. If they call one of them to go to AEW, see how fast they shoot over there." [1:55-2:40]
Teddy Long thinks WWE won't make Shinsuke Nakamura a world champion except for one situation
Teddy Long recently gave his honest take on whether Shinsuke Nakamura would take the title away from Seth Rollins at Payback, which is happening in a couple of days.
Long admitted that he thought this would not be the case, unless Nakamura were to win the belt in his home country of Japan.
"You don't build careers with the world titles. I mean, Nakamura - great athlete, a great wrestler. The only way I see him winning is if there's a tour coming up in Japan. That's the only way I see that. It doesn't work like that. You can't put a world title on someone to build their career. Their career has to be built. Because you are now the guy who has to sell tickets. I look at it that way."
Teddy Long has been in the business for decades and has had his fair share of several situations about segments, management, and booking, so there is substance to his words.
What are your thoughts on more WWE legends appearing on AEW? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you use any quotes from the first half of this article, please credit the Wrestling Time Machine by Sportskeeda and embed the first YouTube video.
