Legendary wrestling superstar Rob Van Dam recently took to social media to share a hilarious story about how, during the early portion of his career, he worked as a jobber for WWE thanks to the help of Pat Tanaka.
“So… in. 1992 Pat Tanaka hooked some of us boys from the Tampa Sportatorium up with jobs while the WWF was touring through,” he said in his post. “I think I got paid but didn’t work, then booked the following week in Biloxi. $150 bucks a shot was AWESOME compared to the $35 bucks I was making every Thursday at the Sportatorium.”
Van Dam went on to say that he didn’t want anyone to recognize him while he was doing minor work with WWE, seeing as how he had been getting some level of exposure already. It’s because of this that the pun-filled named of Matt Burn was born.
“My problem was I didn’t want anyone to recognize me. I knew I was there to make the other guy look good, and although I hadn’t been wrestling long, I had a little magazine exposure as Rob Van Dam and I was planning on running with it. So, I wore a shirt (inside out) and my OG blue trunks, let my hair down and called myself Matt Burn for an inside joke.
“After a quick match with the Mountie, some agents were complimenting my bumps when Gorilla Monsoon noticed my shirt. ‘We’re you wearing that in the ring? What’s the matter with you?!’ He was pissed and wanted to boot me in the ass! Lol They never did notice the irony of the name though.”
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