Scotty Riggs reflects on being the first person to take one of the most iconic moves from Rob Van Dam, The VanTerminator.
Rob Van Dam is known for his innovative offense, but all first-time maneuvers need a test subject. In the case of The VanTerminator, a running dropkick where Van Dam kicks a steel chair into the face of his opponent, the test subject was Scotty Riggs.
Speaking with Jeremy Lambert and Stephen Jensen on The Spotlight, Riggs reflected on the first time he ever took the move and the souvenir he may still have from the first time outing.
"For as long as me and Van Dam have known each other, probably mid-92, 93, the amount of matches we worked starting off, we always trusted each other trying something new. Whether it was a split-legged moonsault, which he did for a finish back then, or a spot in a match. You might get tatered or a nice stiff chair shot, never meaning for it to be a stiff chair shot, it just happened to be that way at that time. I knew it would always come to a point where we had trust," Scotty said. "The first time I took it was on a house show in Kansas City. He blew my face up, broke my nose. All I can remember is putting my hands up to protect myself. He hit the chair and it went ‘boom.’ The bridge of my nose still has a nice bend in it. I sit back and think how devastating it would have been if I took it the wrong way on the pay-per-view and my face exploded. All I remember was a bright flash of lights, darkness, and then seeing red from all the blood. Could you imagine how that would have looked on pay-per-view? That’s all you need for that move. It would have been massive."
Despite the aftermath of the first VanTerminator, Riggs says he had zero reservations about taking the move again.
"Nope. Part of the match in California, it was our first pay-per-view out there, might as well give it the gusto. If we could have scripted it out and had my face blow up on that pay-per-view, it would have been better."
Fans can read Scotty Riggs' remarks on returning to the squared circle for TCW at this link.
Fans can watch the full interview with Riggs in the video above.
