
WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam (RVD) recently appeared on his “1 Of A Kind” podcast episode. He discussed several topics, including his WWE Title Match against 16-time World Champion John Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006.
RVD said, “I understand now the bigger picture of everything, because that’s what you do when you’re older. But this night, I would have rather Edge didn’t come out. I would have rather just beaten him by myself. I felt a little insulted. I just felt like this was another thing where they didn’t trust ECW, or thought that ECW needed some more. So, my ego was a little taken back by that.”
On breaking his rib at a show in Qatar:
“And as far as the most painful bump… Believe it or not a Samoan drop. That’s the last time. It’s definitely one of the most painful, and it was in Qatar. One of the Samoans… I can’t think of this guy’s wrestling name. He’s probably watching, and I’m probably insulting him… I had a match with him in Qatar. And yeah, I remember boom, up on his shoulders, and he did the Samoan drop and it broke my rib. And I knew like, right away, I was like, ‘Uhhhhh!’ when I hit. Which now, looking back at it, somebody — one person, I don’t remember who it was now, said, ‘Did you hook his arm?’ And I was like, ‘I bet I didn’t.’ Like, I didn’t even think about that. But that’s something that everybody should know to do, and that would have saved me from having my rib broke, but I didn’t hook his arm. And anyway — it wasn’t that long ago, like, 2021 or 2020. And it hurt so bad. I rolled out to the floor and was just sitting there, and Mark Henry came over. You know, ‘Hey, great match, great match.’ I’m like, ‘I broke my rib. It hurts so bad.’ I don’t know if you ever had a broken rib, but everything hurts because it’s part of your frame, so you can’t move anything. Can’t move anything without it hurting. Breathing hurts and that’s like the worst pain that I can remember. And man, the whole experience afterward, just trying to lay in bed afterward. And I was supposed to go to some horse races with the royal family, whoever that is. And I was like, ‘I can’t move!’ Every time I had to pee I was like, ‘No, oh my god!’ I’d had to go through this whole big thing where I’d hold my breath through the pain of trying to roll up to my feet. And on a flight on the way back home from Qatar, every single time the stewardess would come by, they could hear the way I was breathing. You know, that I was making these noises. And every single time they come by, they’d say, ‘Sir, are you okay?’ Every single time I look at them, I’d say, ‘No.’ They wouldn’t know what to do.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)