Rob Van Dam wasn't sure about joining WWE after ECW went out of business.
He discussed his fears on The Steve Austin Show, he was reluctant because of the differences in philosophy between ECW and WWE.
"With WWE I felt like, when I went there -- there was nothing else left, right? I hadn't gone anywhere between ECW and WWE. I hadn't. Some indy shots, very few, I do them very selectively, and I did a movie, whatever. There was no other option if I wanted to continue being a professional wrestler on TV in the United States, WWE was all there was.(Paul Heyman) was already there. When I went there, I looked at it at the time as artistically selling out because my perception of what WWE was. It seemed like the Disney-fied version of wrestling because here we were in ECW nobody ever asked us, 'hey, do you guys really hit each other?' because we beat the f-ck out of each other (in ECW)," said Van Dam.
ECW folded in 2001. WWE being the only big company around at the time, Van Dam went there but he was not exactly excited.
"I did look at it like 'okay, basically, I was doing this for the business, for the money, not for the art, because they're probably going to call me Robot Van Dam, they're going to recreate my character, erase my past because that's what I thought about them. Plus, while we were beating the shit out of each other (in ECW), I would see the WWE guys, like, tap each other on the back with a chair and go down and it was insulting to me," said Van Dam.
He last appeared on WWE television at the 2014 Slammy Awards. Currently he wrestles on some independents and has been doing stand-up comedy.
