Back in 1997, the ECW promotion storyline invaded Monday Night RAW. This would have led to several ECW stars going head-to-head with WWE stars. However, RVD, one of if not the top ECW talent at the time, decided to walk out when he was asked by Vince McMahon to lose to Road Dogg.
The former WWE and ECW Champion believed that him losing to the Hall of Famer would be a bad look for ECW. In the years since, he has regretted his decision. In a 2016 interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin, he revealed that Paul Heyman, the then owner of ECW, told him to refuse any booking decision he did not agree it.
RVD termed it bad advice on Heyman’s part. He even speculated that it may have something to do with the advocate wanting to reduce his stock in front of WWE and make them not want to snap him up.
Jim Ross laments “bad advice” that led to Rob Van Dam refusing to put WWE Hall of Famer over
Jim Ross, who is also a WWE Hall of Famer, discussed RVD walking out of the WWE on his Grilling JR podcast. JR, who worked as a commentator on screen and an executive backstage, did not agree with RVD refusing to lose to Road Dogg and described the whole situation as awkward and unfortunate.
“I thought he got bad advice. Should he have put Road Dogg over? If that’s what the booker wanted, yeah.
JR questioned if RVD losing would have been the right decision but argued that if it were him, he would have stayed put and done what was asked of him.
He also discussed RVD explaining why he chose to make the decision he did, saying that there should have been better communication between both parties.
“I think it’s just hard to do business with people that are not forthcoming, and I think we had a little issue there. Everybody involved in the equation wasn’t forthcoming.”
RVD went on to join the WWE permanently back in 2001. Just like in ECW, he went on to become one of the most popular acts on the roster. He was also the first and only person to hold the ECW and WWE Championships simultaneously.
RVD was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
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