Rob Van Dam is taking another look at one of the most infamous nights of his WWE career, and he now believes the story everyone has called an “arrest” for the last 20 years may not have been a legal arrest at all.
During the One of a Kind podcast, RVD revisited the July 3, 2006 incident in Ohio involving himself and Sabu. The traffic stop became a massive story at the time and came just weeks after Van Dam captured the WWE Championship, but RVD says there is one part of the story he wants cleared up immediately: he wasn’t driving around high and smoking marijuana. RVD said some fans still look at the incident as something he must regret, but he pushed back on the idea that he and Sabu had been smoking before they were stopped.
“A lot of uh Marks Mark wouldn’t understand that. I’m living my best life. And and for them, they want to think, man, you know, he’s just regretting everything, making, you know, he shouldn’t have been high while he was driving and smoking, you know, which none of that happened.”
Van Dam said marijuana was inside the vehicle, but according to him, neither man had been smoking it that night.
“We hadn’t We weren’t smoking. We weren’t high. We just happened to have the weed in the uh center console. you know, if we had a pre-roll, maybe we would have been smoking, but we didn’t. We were uh it was just that that strong that you could smell it.”
That’s where RVD’s story took a much different turn. Looking back at how everything actually played out, he now questions whether he was legally arrested in the first place. Van Dam admitted he was speeding, but said police searched their belongings, put everything back and then allowed him to drive his own vehicle to the police station.
“And so anyway, um as I’ve said many times, looking back at it now, the arrest wasn’t even a valid arrest. There was no legal detainment. Uh, I followed him in my car and him meeting the police officer who pulled us over for speeding. I I was speeding. Um, after they went through all our luggage and everything and then uh put everything back together, I followed him to the police station. And then when we got there, we used his ATM machine and got money out and gave it to him and then we [ __ ] left.”
RVD says things got even stranger when he and Sabu were getting ready to leave. According to Van Dam, the officer suddenly remembered he still needed their mugshots and took them outside in the police station parking lot.
“And then he came out uh when we were getting in the car actually. and he said, ‘Oh, I forgot to give you guys uh g get the mug shot of you guys.’ And he took it right there of us standing in the parking lot like right by our car. Are you serious? And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I just need just, you know, look at me. Just, you know, just look to the side.’ It’s like, ‘Okay.’ You know, look to the side and he took it right outside there.”
After reconsidering those details years later, Van Dam said he no longer views what happened the same way he did in 2006.
“So looking back at it, you know, one of the most famous arrests in the uh sports world entertainment history was really not even a [ __ ] legal arrest.”
RVD’s reasoning is based on the fact that he says he was never handcuffed, drove himself to the station and was photographed outside rather than being processed in the way he now associates with an arrest.
“You can’t you cannot drive. You’re not free to go when you’re arrested. You know, you’re usually handcuffed and you definitely um um and they don’t take picture mug shots out in the parking lot, right? Yeah, it was weird.”
Van Dam admitted that he never questioned it at the time. He simply accepted that he and Sabu had been arrested because that was how the incident was presented to him and everyone else.
“And I wish I would have known that, you know, like a long time ago, but it’s just something I accepted as an arrest because I was like, ‘Yeah, I guess we got arrested.’ But, you know, looking at it now and knowing a little bit more than than I knew then, as that’s what happens the longer you stick around.”
Now RVD wants to see what was actually documented that night. He said he has considered digging into the public records and making another attempt to obtain the paperwork connected to the incident.
“Um, I am interested in looking back and uh going to the public files, maybe putting a foyer request in if that I tried once and they didn’t get I didn’t get a call back, but someday I’m going to get around to doing it again. Just for the record of it, I’m very curious what was written down in his report, you know.”
RVD isn’t denying that marijuana was found during the 2006 stop, and he openly admits he was speeding. What he’s challenging nearly two decades later is whether one of the defining controversies of his WWE career was actually handled like an arrest at all. After years of simply accepting the story as it was told, Van Dam now wants to see the paperwork for himself.
Do you think RVD’s description of what happened raises legitimate questions about his 2006 Ohio arrest, or does it change nothing about how you view the incident? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
