Rob Van Dam Explains Why ECW Was Crucial To His Wrestling Identity

WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam (RVD) recently appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He discussed several topics, including how he would have started his pro wrestling career in WWE or WCW if he never met fellow WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman.

RVD said, “Okay, so if I hadn’t met Paul Heyman, I would have jumped probably right up to WWE or WCW because, at the time, they were the top two. There was no seeing one of them going down and the other one sticking around. I wouldn’t have developed the way that I did. I wouldn’t have probably been as comfortable or fit in, because before 96 when I came to ECW, I was hardcore and I was doing things that I hadn’t seen done in the ring. When me and Sabu would wrestle we were diving out to the crowd and breaking tables and stuff and then when I wrestled Sabu in ECW the crowd had never seen anything like that, what we were giving them, but we had. So I feel like if I hadn’t come to ECW, I wouldn’t have found a proper voice, and I probably would have been much, much different; whether I was as comfortable or not, it might have been better for business. I have a lot of things that work against me. To be the absolute best pro wrestler, what would that mean? You have to include not just your moves and you got a lot of P’s, not just your promos. What about politics? You got to be good at politics. That’s something I could never do. I forgot what I was going to say about some of the other P’s, but you have to be good at being a puppet sometimes because you’re a vessel for other people’s values, creative ideas, and stuff. In a lot of ways, I wasn’t as flexible on a lot of stuff like that. I was more stubborn. So, having all that as details to answer that question, I don’t think it would have worked out as good for me if I wasn’t able to build myself in my more organic, natural environment. But in the end, if I would have been able to be, whether you want to see it as manipulated, but if I would have gone down some other paths and learned to like them, or deal with them, or whatever then, who knows, maybe a champion of the world right now.”

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

(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)