A fan who got into it with Rob Van Dam at an ECW show didn’t just come after RVD afterward — he also tried to get money out of WWE over the same incident.
During the One of a Kind podcast, Van Dam pulled out paperwork from a 1999 arbitration case stemming from an ECW show in Allentown, Pennsylvania. RVD said he was working heel against Bobby Duncum Jr. when a fan in the front row dumped water on him while he was outside the ring with a microphone. Van Dam said he believed the bottle also hit him in the head, so he turned around and grabbed the fan by the shirt.
“I turned around and grabbed this f*cker by the shirt. I wanted really bad to heel on him, but he was frozen stiff.”
RVD said he then used the microphone to rip into the fan before calling for security to remove him. The fan was removed and Van Dam went on with the match, but the situation followed him long after the show ended. RVD said the fan later brought a lawsuit over the confrontation, forcing him to fly in for mediation and give a deposition.
“I had him and I had the mic, and I just said, ‘What the f*ck are you doing, man? You just poured f*cking water on me, f*cking dumbass. If anyone needs a shower here, it’s you. Security, get rid of this piece of shit right here.’”
“Security came and got him and he left. I had my match with Bobby. The guy brings a lawsuit from it, and I had to fly in to go to a mediation and give my deposition.”
Van Dam said the fan brought witnesses, but claimed their versions of what happened did not match. He also said the fan accused him of a much more violent attack than RVD remembered.
“His story was that I picked him up over my head and I spun him around clockwise one and a half times, and then stopped, half a clock the other way, and I threw him down against the guardrail and just all kinds of shit.”
The bigger twist came when Van Dam explained that the fan had also tried to hold WWE responsible. RVD was appearing on WWE television at the time through his Mr. Monday Night storyline, while also representing ECW. According to Van Dam, the fan went after WWE first and received $5,000 before then pursuing ECW over the same incident.
“This guy was so confused. He sued WWE first and they just gave him five grand. Didn’t even look into it, nothing. Gave him the five grand. Then he sued ECW and ECW gave him the five grand.”
Van Dam said the ECW side of the dispute was also settled for $5,000, even though he believed the fan’s story did not hold up. RVD was pissed about the outcome, even though he said he personally was not responsible for paying the settlement.
“Somebody suggested, ‘Hey, what if we settle this and give you f*ck-off money for five grand?’ And they said, ‘Okay, fine.’ Boom, the ruling against me. He gets five grand, he gets to walk away.”
“I’m pissed because I just feel like I got f*cked. Not that I have to pay anything. It was coming from Paul and ECW, but I felt screwed. I felt like, f*ck no, that guy shouldn’t get any money.”
Looking back, Van Dam said he eventually understood why companies sometimes choose to pay a smaller settlement rather than spend more money fighting a case.
“It’s called f*ck-off money. It’s cheaper to do that than to actually do any investigating and look into it, just to make it go away.”
What started with a fan dumping water on RVD at an ECW show eventually turned into legal action involving Van Dam, ECW and WWE. More than 25 years later, RVD still had the paperwork and clearly remembered how wild the whole situation became.
What do you make of the fan trying to go after both RVD and WWE over the same ringside incident? Leave your feedback in the comments and let us know.
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