Rob Van Dam worked with some of the biggest names WWE had to offer, but he says backstage politics and broken promises made it difficult for him to ever sit back and appreciate just how much he was accomplishing.
During his conversation with Inside The Ropes, RVD was asked about his early WWE run and the fact that he was immediately put in the mix with names like Chris Jericho, The Rock, Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon. From the outside, it looked like obvious proof that WWE planned to make him a major part of the show.
RVD said things did not feel nearly as secure from his perspective. Even when he was doing well and getting strong reactions, he had already been disappointed enough behind the scenes that he stopped believing plans until he actually saw them happen.
“You would think so. Somehow my memory of that time period was such that even if I was totally crushing it and doing really well, whatever I was promised let me down enough to really not believe anything was going to happen until it happened.”
RVD said every positive development seemed to come with another frustrating moment, which made it difficult for him to even recognize how strongly he was being featured at the time.
“At the same time that certain things were happening, it seemed to balance off pretty good with times of frustration. So it’s almost like I didn’t even really notice what was going on.”
That is why RVD said he sometimes has trouble remembering accomplishments that fans immediately associate with his career. People will remind him about working with or beating major stars, while his own memories are tied much more closely to what management told him would happen compared to what actually happened.
“Sometimes people will talk about, ‘Do you know you beat this Kurt Angle and The Rock and this guy and that?’ And I’ll be like, ‘I did not.’ Some of it, I don’t remember because what I remember is them talking about, ‘We’re gonna do this with you and this with you,’ and then instead, you know, I’m putting Luther Reigns over.”
RVD then pointed to his WWE trip to Japan as one of the examples that stuck with him. Japan had been an important part of his career before he became a major WWE star, so returning there under the WWE banner carried real significance for him. Instead of getting a moment that felt like a major homecoming, RVD found himself losing to Luther Reigns.
“No offense to Luther Reigns, but he was known as not being a great wrestler. And I was so pissed when I went back to Japan with WWE because, you know, I just told you that was a big part of my career. And now I get to go back as a big WWE star.”
RVD explained that returning to Japan as an established star should have felt like a major career milestone. Instead, the booking left him questioning what WWE actually had planned for him.
“I was wrestling Luther Reigns and got beat by him, and it just — there were always things like that that would not only piss me off, but also make me feel like they don’t have good intentions for me.”
Those frustrations also kept RVD from becoming caught up in the excitement of beating major WWE stars. While another wrestler might have treated a victory over someone like The Rock as a dream-come-true moment, RVD said he simply did not have that mentality by that stage of his career.
“Because all that was always going on, I didn’t have time to mark out. Not that I would also, because that’s not in my nature, but I can see where a lot of wrestlers would.”
RVD said some wrestlers would have stopped and soaked in a major victory because it fulfilled something they had dreamed about before entering the business.
“They would take that moment and allow themselves to really soak in the moment if they were such big marks that that was like a fantasy or part of their dreams. You know what I mean? If they were like, ‘Oh my God, I beat The Rock. Oh my God.’”
That was never how RVD viewed wrestling once he actually became part of the industry. He said whatever fan mentality he once had was removed from him early, turning wrestling into a business rather than something he approached as a fan living out childhood fantasies.
“For me, after I got into the business, I wasn’t allowed to be a mark. That was stripped from me right away, and it became all about business.”
RVD said the constant frustrations and political battles backstage ultimately affected how he viewed what fans were watching on television. Even when something huge happened in the ring, there was usually something going on behind the curtain that kept him from treating it like a career-defining moment.
“Like I said, I was experiencing all these frustrations and politics backstage. So what you were seeing out in the ring happen was just, you know, night by night. It could be whatever to me.”
RVD’s WWE résumé includes matches and victories against some of the biggest stars of his generation, but his memories of that period clearly go far beyond what happened after the bell rang. The promises, booking decisions and backstage politics made it difficult for him to appreciate moments that fans still consider some of the biggest of his career.
Do you think WWE backstage politics stopped Rob Van Dam from enjoying a run that was bigger than he realized at the time? Let us know what you think in the comments.
