RVD Admits ECW Was Never Built For Mainstream Wrestling Success

Rob Van Dam in WWE
Rob Van Dam | WWE

WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam (RVD) recently appeared on his โ€œ1 Of A Kindโ€ podcast episode. He discussed several topics, including how he always knew ECW was going to be a niche promotion.

RVD said, โ€œWhen I was in ECW, I just wanted to get the exposure so that we would have enough people watch it so I wouldnโ€™t have to leave ECW and go to one of the other companies. But now I realize it was always going to be a niche crowd that was going to โ€” and I was part of that niche crowd. And all of us that were in ECW feel like that was the superior form of entertainment. But I know now that mainstream would disagree, and so we would never be able to โ€” I shouldnโ€™t say we wouldnโ€™t be able to be taken seriously. But we definitely couldnโ€™t get up to compete with one of the top big dogs that weโ€™re doing at mainstream style. That never would have happened, if we were given everything lined up perfect for us to work out it still would have been just a certain niche part of the majority of people that were like-minded like us. Theyโ€™ll be like, โ€˜Ooh, that was so cool!โ€™ And most people you know need, need things simplified, explained out more cartoonish and โ€” you know, just more mainstream. When youโ€™re mainstream, youโ€™re reaching a lot more people. So you gotta take kids into consideration. Thatโ€™s a big part of it.โ€

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.