WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam (RVD) recently appeared on his “1 Of A Kind” podcast episode. He discussed several topics, including how he enjoyed his run as ECW TV Champion more than his WWE Title run.
RVD said, “I loved my television championship, running ECW. That was the most fun — part of the fun was being at that stage of my career, building my name, exuding my brand, getting it out into people’s minds. So you know, hopefully that is a temporary moment because you want to grow past that to reach a bigger star status. That was part of what was so fun back then was being hungry, knowing that we were part of a company where all of my efforts were going straight into the pocket of the company where I wanted it to. In other words, in a big conglomerate, global, universal company like WWE, how much is my contributions going to affect the whole company? Do they care if I’m here or not, or am I just a bug they can squash out and replace? Whereas with ECW, if I’m drawing fans to see me it’s helping the company. It’s growing the gate, it’s growing the interest in ECW. As I was putting my skills together and becoming a better wrestler, it was rewarding in a way where the whole company was rewarded. We were all getting better. We were all growing and so that’s why a lot of it was really fun for us. When I had my TV championship in ECW for almost two years, I had my most fun matches. I felt the most comfortable. I felt like I was in control as an artist. I felt like I had a big blank canvas and could do whatever I wanted to. And I felt like I was expressing myself and that everyone loved what I was giving them. And it was different than what other people give or what I’m told to give.”
On his WWE Championship reign:
“I enjoyed the Television Championship reign, and of course in 2006 when I won the WWE Championship and was the ECW Champion, it’s easy to remember that title run because it was so damn short. I actually don’t remember all the matches that I had within those couple weeks or whatever. But regardless of that, the reason that I was so vindicated, validated, so happy at that moment to be the number one guy is because I did it my way. And my whole career was the build-up for that moment. So for me, that was just great. It would never have happened if I hadn’t changed the entire playing field by talking Vince into bringing ECW back as a pay-per-view. Then that led to this and this, and boom, I’m the best foot to put forward now. Who would have thought that? A lot of guys would never have thought that, I was one of them. But that was a big disappointment when I lost that championship in 2006 as well. I felt like I let a lot of people down. But in the end, you know, I can’t really apologize for being myself.”
On Sabu:
“I loved it whenever Sabu and I were Tag Team Champions because I love working with him best out of everybody, whether he’s my opponent or my partner. But I definitely loved it when we were partners, because it’s just so damn real. Like we’re out there like brothers. A lot of teams that are brothers, or grew up together or whatever, they have a huge advantage because of their bond. And you don’t think of that when you’re just watching entertainment, you know? But when you’re out there, and there’s a real relationship there, it’s especially in certain situations.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
