Rob Van Dam has always been Rob Van Dam.
When RVD joined WWE in 2001, he came in as part of the ECW invasion and was arguably the top star to come over as part of the group. RVD stayed true to himself during his WWE run, but did have to tone things down due to the difference in philosophies between ECW and WWE.
Speaking on 2 Scoops Of...., RVD was asked if Vince McMahon ever wanted to make changes to his character.
"It wasn't Vince, but I felt like a lot of the other people would try to get me to change a little bit and bend more towards conformity. I always had issues with that. That part was a struggle for me, especially transitioning into the company. There were several times where I felt like they were particularly messing with me with bad intentions, and sometimes I wanted to fight just to defend myself in the industry. There would be weird things they would have me do that I wouldn't do. It's weird when you're in charge of your character because you're known as this person. It's not like playing an acting part on a soap opera, people know of me as Rob Van Dam, have for however many years, and now I have someone else writing what I would do, my actions, my conversations, and my thoughts, and they don't get me. They never understood me and they were always confused because I'm different. One time, Michael Hayes said, 'The other people don't get you, but I get you. You're a surfer dude, right?' 'I'm not a surfer, what are you talking about?' They want me to wear different outfits. They didn't like the airbrushing, that was a thing at one point. There were a few times where they wanted to pull me aside and work on me with my promos. At the time, I was just too big-headed. 'Look, you guys hired me because of what I do, just let me do it, let me be me.' They wanted me to get angry, so angry, grrrr. They thought that's where the money is. I'm like, 'You have everyone else than can be angry, I'm sending a message to people, people look up to me. I don't believe you should let anger get the best of you.' They would be like, 'this guy is lost, we're going to get someone else to talk to him.' There was a lot of that," recalled RVD.
RVD went on to have a successful run in WWE, winning multiple championships, including the WWE Title. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
RVD recently appeared on AEW Dynamite, challenging Jack Perry for the FTW Championship. He also appeared on the Hey! (EW) with RJ City, where he gave orgy advice. You can find his comments by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
