IMPACT Wrestling Star Rob Van Dam Admits He Has Suffered "Hundreds Of Concussions"
A long career has taken its toll...
Throughout his 30 year career, Rob Van Dam has wrestled a risk-taking style across numerous promotions including ECW, WWE and IMPACT Wrestling. Doing moves like the Van Daminator, Split-Legged Moonsault and the Five Star Frog Splash.
RVD's wrestling style and his long career have taken a toll, however, as during a recent appearance on The Steve Austin Show, The Whole Dam Show admitted he has suffered "hundreds of concussions." RVD explained there have been times in the ring when he has been unable to hear anything, perceived everything in slow motion, or the room has been spinning. His vision also hasn't been right for a number of years because of repeated chair shots to the head.
The former WWE Champion confessed that he used to ignore concussion symptoms earlier in his career because they would often only last overnight and he felt he had to continue wrestling. This meant he didn't tell anybody, not even medical personnel about his problems. This only changed recently when filming a documentary as he started experiencing symptoms associated with CTE and decided it was time to be checked out.
RVD said: "Like I've had hundreds, seriously hundreds of concussions and I've never had symptoms last more than overnight, maybe one day...Usually, it's a couple of seconds and I shake it off. Sometimes it's like Balls Mahoney would hit me with a chair, sometimes everything would be in like slow motion or sometimes the sound goes out. Sometimes everything's like spinning. And I had double vision but I couldn't just shake it off and I kept thinking it'll be gone tomorrow and so I'm not going to let anybody know. The show must go on."
He later added: "But I ended up coming back and getting my brain looked at…My vision still isn't the same as what it was before. I'm normal by tests but I can turn my head a certain way and you can split like in two and I don’t remember it being like that before."
RVD's wrestling style and his long career have taken a toll, however, as during a recent appearance on The Steve Austin Show, The Whole Dam Show admitted he has suffered "hundreds of concussions." RVD explained there have been times in the ring when he has been unable to hear anything, perceived everything in slow motion, or the room has been spinning. His vision also hasn't been right for a number of years because of repeated chair shots to the head.
The former WWE Champion confessed that he used to ignore concussion symptoms earlier in his career because they would often only last overnight and he felt he had to continue wrestling. This meant he didn't tell anybody, not even medical personnel about his problems. This only changed recently when filming a documentary as he started experiencing symptoms associated with CTE and decided it was time to be checked out.
RVD said: "Like I've had hundreds, seriously hundreds of concussions and I've never had symptoms last more than overnight, maybe one day...Usually, it's a couple of seconds and I shake it off. Sometimes it's like Balls Mahoney would hit me with a chair, sometimes everything would be in like slow motion or sometimes the sound goes out. Sometimes everything's like spinning. And I had double vision but I couldn't just shake it off and I kept thinking it'll be gone tomorrow and so I'm not going to let anybody know. The show must go on."
He later added: "But I ended up coming back and getting my brain looked at…My vision still isn't the same as what it was before. I'm normal by tests but I can turn my head a certain way and you can split like in two and I don’t remember it being like that before."
Written by Aidan Gibbons
Editor-in-Chief of Cultaholic.com Twitter: @theaidangibbons