Rob Van Dam On Pitching ECW One Night Stand to Vince McMahon

ECW Legend and Hardcore Wrestling Veteran Rob Van Dam joined the “That 90s Wrestling Podcast” where he revealed how he pitched the idea of an ECW show to Vince McMahon which was later turned into ECW One Night Stand.

RVD mentioned how the fans still use to chant ECW in WWE shows whenver any former ECW wrestler use to be in the ring. And those chants were more audible in the places like Philedelphia.

“The fans would still chant ECW at the WWE shows when there was an ECW wrestler in the ring. It wasn’t super loud like everyone doing it, but there was that point you could hear. And if you were in certain areas like Philly or something, then it was going to be the whole crowd. It was like a spirit that just, they didn’t die. And it didn’t die in us either.”

Rob Van Dam then revealed how he just went to Vince McMahon one day and asked him to have a show featuring just former ECW talent from WWE, later termed as the ECW Originals, and let them work like in ECW for just one night. To RVD’s surprise, Vince McMahon lapped up the idea.

“I went to Vince one day, and I just said… And I really thought he was never gonna give me an answer. I said why is it that you don’t have a pay-per-view where it’s just all the guys that you have on your roster that were on ECW.. like former ECW guys. Just let us go ECW style, just one night only.
I thought he was gonna give an excuse.. And he just went – “Well, I think that’s a hell of an idea Rob. I think I can make money with that.” I was like whoa.. really.. So, then next week or next day, I had a big list of everybody that worked for ECW. You got Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit… So, you wouldn’t even have to bring anybody in. Just let us do our thing.”

Vince McMahon surely worked on the idea and thus ECW One Night Stand was born. Unfortunately, RVD got injured before the event and could not wrestle. However, he did a shoot-style promo criticizing WWE’s booking for him. The same promo in turn helped in his stocks within WWE.

“Being injured and not being able to wrestle at it of course broke my heart. But at that time i gave a shoot speech that WWE was really impressed with. They’d never seen that side of me… Talking like I want to talk instead of trying to read one of their things that i wasn’t really comfortable with.”

After his return from injury, RVD went on to win the Money in the Bank Ladder match at WrestleMania 22 which he then cashed in for a WWE title shot at ECW One Night Stand 2006 against John Cena.

RVD believes that by sticking to his style of wrestling, his ideas and keeping ECW relevant, he created that spot for himself that WWE booked him for WWE Championship win at One Night Stand 2006.

“We came back the next year.. But what it was like for me was just like – Dude, I’m on top of the world because of sticking to my guns and because everybody at the Hammerstein Ballroom were all a hundred percent behind me and my values and everything that I
think about wrestling. And against everything that Cena stood for. Just because of that they put me on top. I’m the World Champion. It never would have happened if I hadn’t changed
the entire playing field and actually made ECW relevant enough. I was the logical choice, the best guy to put over. Otherwise, I believe that I probably never would have had that championship belt if it wasn’t just the right thing to do for the story of real life that I created.”

Rob Van Dam went on to defeat John Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006 and win the WWE Championship. John Cena got a hostile reception from the crowd at Hammerstein Ballroom.

RVD also shared his views on The Undertaker’s comments where he called modern wrestlers “soft.” You can check RVD’s reactions to Undertaker’s comments here.

If you use any quotes from this article, please h/t to this article or itnwwe.com.

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