Rob Van Dam's last extended run with a major pro wrestling promotion came with WWE in 2014 and he's been mostly working the indies since then. But RVD made his return to a major promotion when he joined Impact Wrestling earlier this year.

RVD discussed his Impact deal and what brought him back since leaving in 2013 when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"The obvious answer is business. When business is good, I'm always happy to consider it. I have a really good deal from every standard with Impact and I don't mind talking about it as it should give them some credibility," said Van Dam. "I have a very favorable schedule because I don't wanna be on the road all the time. It seems like I'm on the road all the time but I'm really not; it's just how they do their TV...

"The reason I'm there is because of the love [Impact] puts in my pocket to be honest."



RVD then talked about how over last three years he's been off TV in the states. He's mostly been wrestling overseas but that was just 10-12 matches a year and he is not priced to be on the market because he doesn't want to wrestle 5-6 days a week. He noted that he will be with Impact until January.

"I'm a premium wrestler that not everyone can bring aboard," admitted RVD. "Way back in April, one of those 10-12 bookings I did was me and Sabu wrestling the Lucha Bros and then afterwards [Impact] kept both of us around for a little bit. I agreed to a handful of matches and then another handful of matches that will keep me with Impact until January."

RVD's last Impact run came to an end in 2013 and he compared the backstage environment back then to now.

"It's so good this time. Last time it felt like everyone in the dressing room was competing with me. I don't know if I made it up in my head, but they all knew I was making more money than them, not Sting or Hogan [but others]," said RVD.

"This time around everyone is so cool and a lot of them grew up watching me. Sometimes they tell me that I'm the reason they're wrestling right now. That means a lot even at the risk of marking out. The boys treat me with love and respect even though I'm not a locker room leader or anything. If somebody wants advice, I'll give it to them. Otherwise I'm in the corner stretching and doing my ninja thing.

"In the office as well, they treat me with respect As far as what I'm interested in with a lesser workload, it's perfect for me."

Even while signed with Impact, RVD still made an appearance at the RAW Reunion in July and he talked about how he was able to work that out.

"They gave me written permission to do it and they just said they were curious about it. I could only imagine that they probably thought it was cool," stated RVD. "Scott D'Amore is the guy I deal with  he's the one that hired me. He said before when promoting my movie Headstrong, which you can watch on iTunes, that anything that helps you helps us. So I think that's the attitude there."

RVD can be seen every Friday night as part of Impact Wrestling on Twitch and Pursuit. For more tickets and more info please visit ImpactWrestling.com.

RVD's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it RVD discusses what brought him back to Impact Wrestling, the injuries that are still nagging him, his upcoming stem cell surgery, working with Impact management, Ken Shamrock's return to Impact Wrestling, moving to Las Vegas and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.