"Weed, Wrestling, & Athletic Enhancement" By Rob Van Dam For Cannabis Culture

DBoone · 02-29-2008, 08:29 PM

"Weed, Wrestling, & Athletic Enhancement" By Rob Van Dam For Cannabis Culture
"Weed, Wrestling, & Athletic Enhancement" By Rob Van Dam For Cannibis Culture
Written by Rob Van Dam on Feb 29, 2008 - 10:20:00 AM

The following article was featured in the latest issue of Cannabis Culture and was written by Rob Van Dam. WNW reader Dan Framton and his girlfriend Rachel Wiegler transcribed it word-for-word so that it could be read by the readers of Wrestling News World. Below is the complete article:

"Weed, Wrestling, and Athletic Enhancement"

Intro:

Rob Van Dam is one of the world's best-known professional wrestlers. he has fought in over 1,000 events at Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), earning 19 championship belts and an array of accolades from 1997 to 2007. Though WWE wrestling is semi-scripted sports entertainment, it nonetheless relies on extreme athleticism and injuries are common: Van Dam has suffered broken ankles and limbs, concussions, and has had surgery on one of his knees. He also used cannabis throughout his entire professional career. Van Dam was caught with a small amount of marijuana in his car just days after a huge televised wrestling victory, and was stripped of his World Championship belt in 2006, but despite being temporarily expelled from wrestling, he has absolutely no regrets about his cannabis use and advocacy.

Article, by Rob Van Dam:

I believe cannabis improves performance in athletic and contact sports (such as wrestling, powerlifting, football), co-ordination sports (snowboarding, surfing, basketball), and finesse sports (golf, bowling) by providing a relaxed state of mind and agile body, I've wrestled professionally for about 18 years, won more championships than any WWE wrestler in history, traveled the world more times than I can recall – and cannabis has been a big part of it all. People might presume that athletes do not use cannabis during their sport event and only consume “off duty” away from the gridiron or snow slopes, but let me tell you: that certainly isn't my experience! Many athletes use marijuana before, during, and after performing. I recall one time during a show we were passing a doobie around back, and my dearly missed good friend Joe C said my music was playing – I had missed my entrance! I did get out there, though, and performed an awesome show.

While the subject of cannabis use is considered too controversial to really discuss on most mainstream platforms, once in a while it crosses over. For instance, sometimes a famous athlete gets busted amidst huge media coverage, such as Olympic Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati in 1998, NBA basketball star Carmelo Anthony in 2004, and Miami Dolphins football player Ricky Williams in 2005. Consequences can include a pressured and hasty apology, expulsion, or loss of a medal or award. I was a championship belt winning wrestling athlete... until the sport disqualified me after an enormous media coverage of my 2006 pot possession bust, which came only days after a popular televised bout and I was stripped of my WWE world championship.

During my first couple years of professional wrestling, which began in 1990, I didn't jave anything to do with marijuana. While other guys toked weed driving down the highways, I avoided the smoke by sticking my head out the window. I remained uninterested in partaking for a while, as I had accepted the prevailing ideology that it was destroying their health. I had been focused on chasing my dreams of becoming professional wrestler since I was 14 or 15 years old, and stayed clear from all drugs. I paid extra attention in health and fitness class, as I was dedicated to living the life of a pro athlete, and it was there i learned how protein s made of amino acids and is essential for muscle growth. It's also where I learned that marijuana was a “dangerous, hallucinogenic drug” in the same classification as LSD and herion. They told us that marijuana was a gateway drug, and people who smoked it couldn't stop themselves from falling down the destructive path they just put themselves on. I remember watching a movie in class with some guy on PCP tripping like he was possessed, and felt like I was watching The Exorcist!

The scare tactics worked. I remember promising myself that I would never allow drugs to take control of my life. Marijuana was only for losers, I believed. And sure enough, the kids that seemed to smoke pot behaved contemptuously of the athletic world I inhabited, and didn't appear to have too many goals in life. I was proud to be anti-marijuana while I devotedly pursued my wrestling career dreams and got into professional-league wrestling – a move that led me to trying cannabis for the first time!

It was my 21st birthday and I was lucky enough to be wrestling in Jamaica just days before Christmas, in 1991. The professional wrestlers that I looked up to for their amazing athleticism were all toking and telling me “this won't hurt you”. I was suprised to learn that these professional athletes smoked marijuana regularly. They were living the lifestyle I wanted to be a part of – and, apparently, smoking pot was part of that lifestyle. So after years of being anti-marijuana I finally decided to try it for myself. I hit the joint two times; that's all it took for me. I was so comfortable just staring at the wall, like it was a live sex show. I couldn't look away, no matter how concerned I was that the guys would notice and make fun of me – and, being fairly new to the scene, I was anxious to fit in. But the rest of the night was wonderful and I came to appreciate marijuana.

Professional wrestlers smoked in private and kept quiet about pot in order to stay out of trouble. But after learning more about marijuana science and research, I wanted to reach out to wrestling fans that were also stoners and knew the truth about cannabis and hemp. I helped spread awareness of “420” by wearing it on my inring gear and even naming moves, such as the “420 leg drop”. Soon, other wrestlers started coming out and capitalizing on their love for the grass gift: Godfather, X-Pac and Road Dogg were all on mainstream television with related merchandise and monikers. Godfather said things like “roll a big fatty for this pimp daddy” in WWE pre-match promos. We even filled a room up with smoke for a funny promo video of me getting ready for a match. My merchandise t-shirt that read “RVD 420 means I just smoked your ass!” got the attention of High Times magazine, which approached me to do an interview (over ten years ago now). Even though the other wrestlers warned me not to do it, I wasn't deterred, and after the article came out I was lauded as a warrior for the cause.

Other wrestlers said I was making myself a target by admitting to something illegal, and I understand that all the fish would still be in the ocean if they kept their mouths shut, but there's a greater cause at hand than personal enjoyment. terminally ill patients are arrested, families and lives destroyed, a world of people remain misinformed – just like I once was – people who don't know the truth and continue to demonize marijuana. I had to help change that. So as I continued to entertain wrestling fans all over the world, I advocated the healing herb as much as possible.

The crowning moment of my wrestling career was winning the WWE World Championship title. Holding the WWE belt on one shoulder and the ECW Championship belt on the other, all eyes were on me – I was basically, for the moment, the representative of professional wrestling. So that's why the media was interested in me when I got busted for possession of marijuana, and was stripped of my titles. I was traveling with my long time friend Sabu when it happened. After we were let go, I tried to explain that it wasn't a big deal, no one would find out, and he should relax. I've been busted many times before with no public mention, so there was no need to worry. Before we made it to the arena the next day, our cell phones were ringing like crazy and we learned that the news was out, big time. Within the next few days, our bust was in every newspaper, on every radio and television station, and all over the internet. Many say it couldn't have happened at a worse time, with me having to forfeit the World Championship titles and face a 30 day suspension – I say it couldn't have happened at a better time. I have always talked openly about cannabis and no change occured with my suspension. The reason that it couldn't have happened at a better time is that no one would have given a shit if I hadn't been the World Champion, so it was good for the attention the cause received. Not only could I talk openly about cannabis, but I was also free from a grueling schedule. Travelling with the WWE is a physically and mentally fatiguing job, where you're likely to live in a different hotel in a different town almost 300 days a year, if you're on top. That's in addition to the brutality of the matches themselves. The grueling schedule is why I chose not to resign when my contract expired, instead favoring an extended break.

After i left, bad news struck with the horrible tragedy of the double murder suicide case of Chris Benoit, who apparently killed his son and wife before commiting suicide. I can tell you that Chris wasn't a pot smoker, but I did talk to him often about the fucked up laws on the subject and he agreed they were wrong. I wonder if cannabis would have treated him and prevented tragedy. The peaceful persuasion of pot may have relaxed a violent, raging mindset, but that's not all I'm talking about – I've read about studies that describe how THC helps stave off plaque formation on the brain, a condition associated with Alzheimer's disease and which is similar to plaque build up from physical brain trauma. Indeed, the investigating coroner found Benoit's brain had damaged protein deposits built up from physical trauma, and his brain damage compared in some ways to that of an 80 year-old Alzheimer's sufferer.

Using Cannabis in Athletics

I have been around the good herb for many years, and as a pro athlete, I want to share some of my personally gained knowledge. I feel that anyone who reads about my experience is continuing research to some extent – at least by receiving information – and we need more cannabis research. Allow me to walk you through some important athletic benefits from cannabis use.

To be at it's best, the body needs to be as stress free as possible. pain from old injuries, swollen joints, and tired muscles are anchors that weigh down athletes. I've had my share of prescription painkillers, such as the common Vicodin, and it is helpful in dealing with pain. Many people have a hard time swallowing pills, get upset stomachs or feel woozy, and fear addiction. Vicodin is one of the many painkillers such as Percoset and Oxycodone that are popular in and outside of sports, and is often abused. I personally know some wrestlers who take over fifty 10-milligram Vicodin pills a day. To put that in perspective, doctors often reccomend two a day – so the rediculously abusive daily amount of 500mg equals a month's supply. No doubt, those wrestlers face serious liver damage as well as physical dependency. I've lost many friends and associates to fatal drug abuse over the years, and have even been a user myself. I'm thankful that I survived that destructive part of my life when many others did not. You don't have to be a disciplined athlete to understand the importance and validity of marijuana as medicine – science has shown that marijuana can replace or decrease the required amount or prescription drugs and still deliver the same effect or better. The fact that it is impossible to overdose is enough reason for many athletes to give it a try, and when thry realize how safe it is compared to pills and chemicals, they can feel good about what they're putting in their bodies.

Cannabis helps an athlete relax and get into the state of mind needed for complete connection with the body, and encourages the smooth execution of many athletic tasks in every sport. Athletes often stretch as part of a warm-up ritual before physical activity or a competition. Freeing the mind of distractions, such as stressful thoughts and annoying body aches, can be achieved much easier and to a higher level, so to speak, with some herbal love. While stretching the different body parts, an athlete needs to feel each seperate muscle that is being targeted. This action requires a sort of meditative state of mind that concentrates on the inner self rather than the world around. THC helps free up energy to put towards connecting with muscles and breath, while other cannabinoids (such as CBD and CBN) are physically relaxing. Taking a break to focus on oneself is a refreshing and rewarding experience, and during physical activity the brain releases endorphins making an athlete feel happy, fit, and ready for action.

Once an athlete is stretched out and warmed up, he or she needs to gert their mind “in the zone”. This could be mental preparation for lifting heavy weights, running a race, or performing gymnastics – any skillful and demanding physical effort. When competing or training, athletes often use a strategy called “visualization”: a calm, meditative mind-set quietly fixated on what is before them. the athletes who want to imagine performing a task in their mind so vividly that the muscles involved believe they've already done the movement, so once the action has been performed in the brain the body will be prepared for the actual physical movement. During visualization, there is no time for the lyrics of a favorite song or any other thought to be taking the brain's energy; being in the zone is all about being immediately present, fully ready for action, but also focused and relaxed. Athletes use the uplisting benefits of cannabis to get to a superior state of awareness. It's up on that level – away from the spasm in a leg, the bills that need to be paid, the screaming audience in the background – that an athlete can accomplish anything and everything.

After an athlete has visualized the game plan, what comes next is challenging: performance. Stress is the number one enemy to health, and comes in all forms and fashions. If you've ever had the attention of a huge croud of people, you may have felt it as nervousness. You're up at bat, looking at hundreds of people in the bleachers screaming your name, and you've got a bad case of anxiety – your adrenaline kicks into overtime and your legs feel weak. If you chok, you're done. Sometimes when an athlete just isn't feeling too well and it's affecting his physical performance, he can count on the magic of marijuana to give him the mental and emotional drive to change things around. not only will body aches and arthritic pains be much less of a bother, or gone altogether, but if he's smoking the right stuff he's prone to find himself happy, positive, and encouraged. Many athletes learn to count on cannabis' dependable properties to get them in the desired mood as part of their regular regimen, and also utilize reefer relief for paranoia, depression, anxieties and other nervous conditions and social disorders that keep pharmacies busy these days. Consuming cannabis is also an effective and reliable way to remedy jet lag which, for me and other frequently airplane-bound athletes and performers, waqs very helpful.

You may justifiable wonder about the dangers of performing after smoking cannabis, but that depends on the athlete, and the reaction to the ganja. Marijuana should be given credit for assisting many athletes through highly successful careers. I've held the claim of being one of and perhaps the most athletic wrestler in the industry for years because my acrobatic flips, my gracefully balanced manuevers off the ropes, and martial arts swiftness have always stood out. I'm no longer suprised when I hear about pro athletes getting caught with pot because I understand why they use it, and I always hope that it helps change public perception. NFL super star Ricky Williams made big news when he decided not to continue his football career because he would not be allowed to smoke marijuana; NBA star Rasheed Wallace's endorsement of nature's high is public knowledge; and once when basketball legend Charles Oakley was interviewed, he claimed that 60 percent of NBA players were regular pot smokers. At the Pride 33 mixed martial arts competition in Vegas, Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Nick Diaz fought a hard battle with Takanori Gomi and scored a well deserved victory. However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission reversed the decision months later when they declared that Diaz failed a post-fight drug screening. They gave Nick a $3,000 fine, suspended him for six months, and overturned the fight decision because they say his THC level was so high that it gave him an unfair advantage. Isn't that a flat-out acknowledgement of the benefits of cannabis?

Following the passing of superstar and friend Eddie Guerreo, a “Wellness Program” was institutes in the WWE. Eddie, known for his drug abusive past, had an enlarged heart, and it was heart disease that ended his life early. In reaction, wrestlers on contracts were given an enormous list of banned painkillers, fat burners, steroids,growth hormones, sleeping and waking drugs that were no longer tolerated, in addition to random piss-tests. Penalties for use included suspension without pay. When they took away the pharmaceuticals, most of the wrestlers switched to cannabis – which was not being tested for at the time – and many of the non-partaking peers started asking me for advice as they chose the safer pain-relieving alternative. There's a reason that marijuana is the most commonly tried illegal drug – it rates high in safety and effectiveness. If more people knew just how incredibly it compares to prescription painkillers, anti-depressants and muscle relaxants in safety alone, we could see a change in the law. I personally know boxers, body builders, cyclists, runners, and athletes from all walks of life that train and/or compete with the assistance of marijuana, but they might not feel comfortable sharing this information. Demonization by the government has made it possible for them all to be kicked out of their profession for the use of marijuana – but not expelled for the use of alcohol, tobacco, or prescription drugs.

This seems to be the reason Mark Stepnoski retired after 13 years of NFL superstardom. As a Dallas Cowboy and a Houston Oiler, Mark won two Super Bowl rings before he shifted his energy in 2001 to become the president of the Texas chapter of NORML. Mark specifically wanted to dispel the myth that cannabis will prevent users from attaining their goals, and he uses his career as an example.

People ask me how I, as a role model for kids, can be so open about marijuana. I say: How can I not be? I'm in a high profile position and reach a lot of people – don't I have an obligation to tell them the truth? Shouldn't they know that 18% of annual American deaths are from smoking tobacco cigarettes (435,000 in the year 2000)? Or alcohol killed 85,000, adverse reactions to prescription drugs killed 32,000, vehicle crashes killed 26,500 and even aspirinlike non-prescription tablets killed 7,600 people that year? All are legal, as are the guns that are responsible for the 29,000 gun deaths that year. And wouldn't everyone be interested to know that the number of recorded letal cannabis overdoses in the history of the planet is zero? There are no cases of lung cancers, respiratory cancers, or Alzheimer's in anyone who has smoked marijuana exclusively – even for decades. That's important information about a weed that White House drug czar John Walters calls “the most dangerous drug in America”, and I think it would be selfish to keep that kind of information to myself. Despite government resistance, we are continually learning more about the benefits provided by marijuana.

Feel free to stop by my webpages, Imitated often. Intimidated never! or www.myspace/5starcomics to read my blog entries about cannabis, sports, and my current plans and whereabouts. You'll also find RVD TV there, where you can watch for the upcoming episode of my marijuana prohibition discussion with Cypress Hill's Sen Dog, Man Mellow Mace and UFC's Justin McCully. I hope you've learved something from my experience with pot in sports, and I hope you'll share it with others. If we don't try to change the perception, aren't we condoning lies?

mjp1083 · 09-12-2008, 01:27 AM

Wow. Awsome article that really opened my eyes. I knew that marijuana was much safer than pain killers, and anti-depressents, but i did not know the athletic enhancments. I partook in a little before hockey pot smokeing when i was in high school and but i didn't really like it mostly because my coach was there i didn't want to get caught which relates to the government demonizing cannabis. But when i was on the ice i was much more focused as i was only thinking about the present and nothing else.

Thanks for the article I enjoied reading it

Legalizeit215 · 09-12-2008, 02:27 AM

Great article! now that i think of it...rob van dam kinda looks like a stoner

DBoone · 09-12-2008, 04:31 AM

another great article from high times in 1999.

HIGH TIMES ARCHIVE - MARCH 1999:

Rob Van Dam ‘420’: I Am The Fucking Show

by Andre Grossmann
Wed, Jul 05, 2006 2:11 pm
more: entertainment exclusive

Rob Van Dam is just your average, long-haired, pot-smoking hippie who’s always at peace with himself—especially when he’s kicking somebody in the face!

By John Holmstrom
Photos By Andre Grossmann

Rob Van Dam struts towards the wrestling ring. As usual, he’s wearing his trademark psychedelic t-shirt with “420” stenciled on the back, and his long hair is tied into a ponytail. While the ring announcer tells everyone Van Dam “weighs 235 pounds” and is “from Battle Creek, Michigan,” hundreds of Rob’s fans chant: “Let’s Smoke Pot! Let’s Smoke Pot!” Rob’s tag team partner Sabu (“from Bombay, Michigan”), is dressed in an Arabian headdress and removes the safety mats from around the ring. This way, when someone is thrown out or jumps out of the ring, there will be nothing to break their fall against the hard concrete.

As the match proceeds, Rob Van Dam and Sabu wear down their opponents, “bad guys” the Dudley Boys (Buh Buh Ray and D-von, dressed in matching tie-dyed t-shirts but definitely not your typical peace-loving hippies), with several high-flying acrobatic maneuvers that have the packed crowd “ooohing” and “aaahing” in disbelief—usually because Sabu and Van Dam are jumping off the top ropes, flying 15 feet in the air and landing three rows into the audience! Finally, with their two opponents dizzily sprawling on a long wooden table, Sabu and Van Dam climb up to the top ropes, and leaping high in the air, execute simultaneous aerial flips, and crash-land on the Dudley Boys with a loud “CRUNCH!,” breaking the table into several pieces and scattering bodies across the ring. As all four wrestlers recover from the mayhem, the crowd chants, “ECW! ECW! ECW!”

‘Politically Incorrect... And Proud Of It!
This is not your typical World Wrestling Federation (WWF) or World Championship Wrestling (WCW) event (both of which are so popular that they dominate the cable-TV ratings every week and are eating away at Monday Night Football). No, I’m hanging out at an Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) event. And everything they do is hardcore—from staging bizarro events like Barbed Wire Death Matches and Texas Chair Matches, to wearing HIGH TIMES t-shirts during their promos.

Although ECW is a smaller wrestling promotion compared to Vince McMahon’s WWF and Ted Turner’s WCW, their anything-goes attitude has completely changed the sport/artform of pro wrestling. For instance, their pay-per-view broadcasts are expanding from four to six next year, and according to owner Paul Heyman (a.k.a. Paul E. Dangerously), they’ve signed a deal with Fox Sports Channel to broadcast their weekly programs in selected markets.

Their success has not gone unnoticed. Just a few years ago wrestling was solely designed to sell wrestling toys to preteen boys. But when ECW initiated their politically-incorrect, adult-oriented TV programming in 1995, they changed the rules. The WWF and WCW have been imitating ECW by running more adult story lines to appeal to 18-to-35-year-old fans (a more valuable demographic than preteen boys that attracts better advertising and tripled their ratings). The Big Two also compete against each other by stealing ECW’s most talented wrestlers. Some of the biggest names in WWF and WCW created or re-created their image in ECW: The WWF’s Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Terry Funk and Al Snow, and WCW’s Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Raven, Saturn and even the ECW’s “Extreme Icon,” The Sandman.

When I saw that one of ECW’s top stars, Rob Van Dam, was using “4:20” in his interviews, I tracked down his Web site and sent an e-mail asking if he’d be interested in doing an interview. He replied:

“I am very familiar with HIGH TIMES Magazine, and furthermore was proud when I was mentioned in the Hemp 100! I look forward to talking to you in the future. As for now, my clocks are all frozen. It’s 4:20 here, time to work on one of my amazing skills… sssssmmmmmoooookkkkkiiiiinnnnn!”

420 at Route 420
A few weeks later, I meet up with Rob at his motel room right before an ECW Arena show in Philadelphia (which just happens to be at the intersection of Route 420 in a nearby suburb). While his tag-team partner and roommate, Sabu, sleeps through the entire interview, Rob rolls and lights one after another after another while munching on a turkey sandwich and peppers me with questions about being a judge at the Cannabis Cup and the possibility of a pot-smoking contest with the editorial staff of HIGH TIMES. But I want to know what it’s like to land on a concrete floor. “It feels exactly like what it looks like,” he tells me, as if I just asked a really stupid question. “When I jump over the top rope and land ten feet down on my head on the cement, it feels like I just landed on my head on cement.”

At various times Van Dam’s been a kickboxer, toughman-contest winner, weightlifter and action-movie actor. He set a USAWA world weightlifting record for a lift he invented called the Van Dam Lift, which involved straddling two chairs in a leg split and lifting a 166-1/2-pound dumbbell off the ground. He also appeared in two movies, Blood Moon and Superfights, and begins filming his third in a few months. But he has spent most of his career as a pro wrestler. He’s made many appearances in the WWF and WCW, but chooses to stay with ECW because he has more creative control over his character, and he’s given more time to do what he enjoys the most—wrestling and fighting.

He explains how Extreme Championship Wrestling’s ring action, unlike the WWF and WCW, involves real fighting and an even higher tolerance for enduring pain—like getting hit in the head with a chair. “I’ve been really hit hard, where they just crack the chair and it wraps around your head and it makes this loud noise,” he explains. “While that is ringing my bell and I’m seeing stars for a couple minutes—at the same time I like it because I’m hearing the crowd say, “OOOOH!” and my job is being an entertainer. I’m trying to please the crowd at the expense of my body. And trying to win.”

Van Dam then gives me the lowdown on his slogan, “Rob Van Dam 420.” Being a big-time burner, he always wore 420 t-shirts to the arena, and explained the 420 thing (in short, “It’s smokin’ time!”) to the other ECW athletes who were always asking him “What does 4:20 mean, anyway?” So when ECW’s t-shirt designers came up with a new Van Dam t-shirt, they put a few of Rob’s favorite things on: “420” and some yin-yang symbols. When TV commercials started plugging the t-shirt, ECW’s pot-smoking fans put 4 + 20 together, and the “Rob smokes pot!” chant began. A few months later, he took it a step further when he announced during a TV interview that “Rob Van Dam 420 means ‘I just smoked your ass!’” (This is Rob’s takeoff on the WWF’s most popular wrestler, Stone Cold Steve Austin, whose slogan is “Austin 3:16 means I just whupped your ass!”)

‘Hey, Rob! Wanna smoke some herb?’
Now everywhere Rob goes fans offer him free weed. He explains, “While I’m walking from my car to the building, the fans say, ‘Rob! I got some herb! Wanna smoke some herb?’ And definitely I hear it when I walk into the ring—the fans hold up signs ‘RVD 420’ and they’ll chant ‘Rob smokes pot!’ or ‘Let’s smoke pot!’”

But Van Dam is not about to carry a bong with him into the ring and toke up on TV, since he sincerely doesn’t want to send the wrong message to any kids who might be watching. “ECW isn’t aimed at kids,” he says, “so it doesn’t send a bad message to kids.” Since ECW usually airs at 2:00 AM on weekends, he has a good point. And he has this warning for anyone underage in the audience: “Kids can’t look at Rob Van Dam in HIGH TIMES magazine and think it’s cool to go ahead and smoke pot. It’s not cool for kids to smoke pot.”

Rob didn’t start smoking until he was 21 years old, and thinks people should wait until they are adults to drink or smoke. “When I was a kid I thought pot-smoking was for skinny, long-haired hippies who don’t want to do nothing but sit on the couch all day. I would stay away from any drug when I was a kid. For any kid, pot-smoking is going to get in their way and be an obstruction.”

When I mention to Van Dam why he’s taking a risk in announcing to the world that he’s a cannabis consumer, he says, “People say, ‘Hey, you can buy pot right down the street, pick up a bag on the corner, why do you care if it’s legal? It’s not hard to find.’ But who wants the threat of cops bustin’ down your door takin’ all your shit, your house and your cars, just because you’re smokin’ a little herb?”

A Visit from the FBI
Just as Rob finishes giving me his opinion on the police—and munching on the sandwich—the door bursts open and the FBI storm into the room. No, not the police agency, the professional wrestling tag team known as “The FBI” (The Full-Blooded Italians). I recognize Tracy Smothers, the bigger half of the tag team, from his days with the WWF, when he played a good ol’ country boy. His partner, Guido, is the comic relief of the group, since he’s only about five feet tall. Their manager, Tommy Rich, is a jovial, beefy guy who resembles Mussolini, was once a world champion and now waves an Italian flag with his face on it during the FBI’s matches, which usually inspires the crowd to chant, “Where’s my pizza!?!”

Pro wrestlers and their fans are definitely a weird subculture. It’s reminiscent of the beatniks in the 1950s, the early hippie movement or punk-rock. Wrestling is a lot like rock’n’roll without guitars. Like a lot of rock musicians, wrestlers don’t resemble “normal” people. They perform their art in front of enthusiastic, mostly young crowds and their popularity depends on how successfully they can project their rebellious image. “We have our own set of rules,” Van Dam says. “We travel like gypsies. Sometimes we’re on the road for four weeks at a time together, and we stick together because that’s the one place we do fit in. No matter where I go people stare at me, and come up and ask, ‘Are you a wrestler?’ So I’m used to being a freak.”

Peace, Love and Zen
Van Dam is a bit different from your average wrestler—a bit more intelligent, a bit more ambitious. Where some professional wrestlers can come off as loud, belligerent and indifferent about whether they accidentally kill you or not, Van Dam is soft-spoken, polite, calm, cool and professional. He seems like your typical peace-loving hippie, even though he kicks people in the head for a living. “People who know me will tell you I’m mellow,” he explains. “I’m peaceful. I’m very Zen.”

“I have a the symbol of the Yin and the Yang on me at all times. I wear it in my earring, I have it airbrushed on my wrestling outfit. Part of achieving inner peace is solving all your problems. I look at each problem as a stick that’s stuck in my stream of yin and yang. Like, if I get in a car accident, and I’m OK, I can just look at it and be Zenful and say, ‘Like wow, that kind of sucked.’ I realize that it sucked, so I’m going to say that the car accident is a negative thing. OK, then there’s no reason to get all emotional about it. There’s no reason to beat up the other driver, there’s no need to scream, there’s no reason to pound my fist. This comes from my comfort with Zen.”

I ask him if he’s calm even when he’s in the ring, in front of thousands of screaming fans and fighting someone who wants to wrap a metal chair around his head. “Anyone who really knows me knows I don’t get angry,” he says calmly. “I’ll be completely Zenful and peaceful during the time I’m kicking his ass, and afterwards, I’ll still be peaceful then.”

Hemp For Victory
Van Dam has one topic he wants to be sure we cover—hemp. He remembers an article HIGH TIMES he read a few years ago about using hemp for fiber-board production. “The arguments were just so overwhelming,” he says, “I was so impressed I did more reading. I read The Emperor Wears No Clothes, and I’ve learned there are so many uses for marijuana and for hemp, from clothes to rope to food. I can wash my hair with it, there are even protein bars made out of hemp! I’m learning every day about new stuff we can do with it.” Rob then tells me about how he tries to check out the local hemp stores when he’s on the road.

“Not to mention the medical uses,” he adds, “which is one of the strongest arguments for legalization.” He then mentions how he’s known people who needed cannabis to fight the nausea caused by chemotherapy sessions, and how crazy it is that the government keeps cannabis from sick people who need it for medicinal use. “I really just can’t believe that the government wants this plant to be extinct,” he says.

“I’m not one to fight the government but in this interview, I’d just like to say if it came to a vote you know which way I’d vote.”
As we wrap up the interview Sabu (who up until now had snoozed through the whole interview, the run-in with the FBI, and the turkey sandwich), begins to stir, and pokes his head out from under a blanket. Although he has never spoken one word in the ring, Sabu needs to make one thing clear before I leave. He motions to Van Dam, then whispers in his ear. Van Dam says to me, “Right, Sabu. He says that he was smoking pot before I was.”

I leave the motel and drive to the arena, thinking about the amount of physical abuse that wrestlers take in the ring, and about some of the health problems they suffer. It’s brutal. Recently, Louis Spiccoli and Brian Pillman died from prescription-painkiller reactions.

It seems like a no-brainer: pro wrestlers’ use of cannabis should be classified as medical use. Marijuana’s ability to help people deal with pain is well documented, and who needs this more than a wrestler who spends his evening getting a chair bashed on his head and jumping 20 feet onto concrete floors?

This might also explain Jesse “The Body” Ventura’s unabashed support of marijuana legalization. Rob Van Dam is obviously not the first pro wrestler to light up—just the first one with the guts to talk about it, as anyone who remembers the infamous Iron Sheik/Hacksaw Jim Duggan incident from the 1980s. (Shortly after the Iranian hostage incident, these two were in a blood feud, but were busted when they were caught sharing a joint together before an arena show.)

Meanwhile, Back at the Ring...
A few hours later, I’m at the world-famous ECW Arena, a converted bingo hall that holds about 1,500 people. It seems to have about 2,000 people crowded into it tonight. During one match, tie-dyed acid casualty Spike Dudley, who’s about as big as the FBI’s little Guido, struts out to the ring (unlike his much bigger Dudley “brothers,” Spike is a “good guy”). He is up against the biggest person I have ever seen in real life: Big Sally Graziano, who weighs 600 pounds and looks like he eats people Spike’s size when he gets the munchies. As Spike runs around the ring getting revved up to fight, the crowd chants, “LSD! LSD! LSD!” Spike perks up as he hears the crowd’s chant, and opens his mouth and points inside, waiting for the crowd to deliver on their promise. When they don’t, he waves them away in disgust and turns his attention to the much weightier matter at hand.

Big Sally lunges forward, trying to put Spike away quickly, but the smallest Dudley brother runs up the ropes, grabs the big guy by the neck and slams his head into the canvas (Spike’s patented move—the “Acid Drop”). After he pins the man-mountain for the three-count, Spike jumps up and down on his defeated enemy and marches all over Sally’s big belly to the sound of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”

Did Spike Dudley really beat Sally Graziano? Was it planned? Scripted? Fake? Real? Who cares. There is no other entertainment form that blurs fantasy and reality like this.

Those who charge that wrestling is “fake” miss the point. It’s exactly that Twilight Zone edge that keeps people entertained. Whether Spike would win the match in real life is beside the point. True wrestling fans understand that there’s a fine line between madness and reality, that beauty and reality are in the eye of the beholder, that the whole world is completely insane. Sometimes things go according to the script and sometimes you improvise. Our greatest philosophers have often debated predestination vs. free will. Wrestling is the only art form to have sharpened the debate to a physical matchup.

Besides, as we all know, “Reality is for those who can’t handle drugs.”

"Weed, Wrestling, & Athletic Enhancement" By Rob Van Dam For Cannabis Culture

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