Mixed signals led to Rob Van Dam walking out on WWE almost 20 years ago.
The former WWE Champion was a recent guest on The Steve Austin Show. Van Dam talked about his booking during his recent WWE run and also discussed the situation in 1997 where he walked out on WWE.
"I walked out on them (WWE) in '97 during that invasion angle because I was there for the betterment of ECW, and that's what Sabu and I thought. And Vince thought that I was there for a different reason and Paul kept us in the dark about that. He told us the whole time, 'if there's anything you don't like, just say the word - we'll go, we'll walk.' And it came to a point, we're there to put ECW on the map on their TV. Well, he did mean it. He wanted us to get heat with WWE, so he could keep us. That's the way Paul was. And I told him, 'dude, they wanted me to put over Armstrong, Brian Armstrong. And what's that going to do for ECW?'" Van Dam said.
The 45-year-old Battle Creek, Michigan native was in WWE at that time to get ECW over. He had no plans to stay with the company long term. That confusion led to Vince McMahon’s admission that had he known RVD's intentions, McMahon never would have put RVD on TV.
“That's where I learned from Vince that he never would have put me on his TV if he didn't think I was going to stay with WWE and he was going to put me in an aggressive babyface role. And I was like, 'what?' Like, I had no idea this was the plan and apparently, Paul, he did know, so that's why that blew up. And then, I was there for ECW and it was like, 'we've got to go,' and, boom, we left," Van Dam said.
Van Dam is doing a week long stand-up comedy tour which starts November 15 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
