Rob Van Dam was working with The Rock, Chris Jericho and some of WWE’s biggest names almost immediately after arriving, but behind the curtain he says things felt a hell of a lot less promising. RVD says WWE disappointed him with enough plans that never materialized that he eventually stopped believing anything management told him until he actually saw it happen.
During his conversation with Inside The Ropes, RVD was asked about his early WWE run and whether being thrown into the mix with The Rock, Jericho, Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon made him feel like the company was clearly committed to making him a major player. RVD said that might have been the obvious conclusion from watching television, but his experience backstage had already taught him not to get too excited.
“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 explained that every big moment seemed to come with another frustration, leaving him unable to fully recognize just how prominently WWE was featuring him 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 frustration is also why RVD says some of the biggest victories of his career don’t immediately jump out in his memory. Fans will remind him that he beat names like Kurt Angle and The Rock, but RVD says what stuck with him more were the things WWE told him were coming that never actually happened.
“Sometimes people will talk about, ‘Do you know you beat 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 pointed to WWE’s trip to Japan as one example that still bothered him. Japan had played an important role in his career before WWE, and returning there as an established WWE star should have been a major moment for him. Instead, 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.”
For RVD, it wasn’t simply about taking one loss. Moments like that piled up and made him question whether WWE actually planned to follow through on the things they were telling him backstage.
“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.”
RVD may have been beating top stars and getting featured heavily on WWE television, but behind the scenes he had already learned not to count on anything until it became reality. The promises that fell apart stuck with him far more than some of the victories fans still remember today.
Do you think WWE missed opportunities with Rob Van Dam by constantly changing plans for him, or did his run still live up to its potential? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
