Kasey
Connoiseur of the MILF
RVD is exciting to listen to when he's uncensored and is able to be his original arrogant character, which is light years away from the harmless stoner that he's always portrayed in WWE. What Austin lacked in the ring, he made up for in mic work...however the writing is what saved his ass, bar none. Remember the skits and moments that made him a household name? Bedpan McMahon, throwing Rock's belt in the river, Bang 3:16, and a host of other moments that were brought forth by the writing. Not selling his ability short, but those moments weren't just done by Austin himself.This is true, a good point. While I agree with you, however, I can't help but note that some guys just may not be cut out for those "6 million dollar paychecks" like Austin or The Rock. Austin was in the right place, at the right time when the WWE needed a change and his new "attitude/don't trust anybody" gimmick was perfect for the WWE's new emerging marketing campaign at the time. Aside from that, he was exciting to watch in the ring, and he had great mic skills to boot.
Can we say the same thing about RVD? Sure the guy can wrestle, he's one hell of an athlete. But is he exciting to listen to? And if so, would you say he is any more exciting to listen to than say Tommy Dreamer or the Sandman? Austin was the creator of an era, RVD is part of an era. So lets remember that before we compare the two. Notwithstanding there is the fact that RVD got arrested for drug charges last summer and mysteriously lost his ECW and WWE world championships the next day. Hmm, who messed up there?
And CM Punk should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as Steve Austin or "6 million dollars" for that matter. I mean seriously the guy debuted in '03 which mean he's barely been wrestling for 4 years now professionally. Austin wrestled for 9 years before he won his first WWE title thats 5 years more experience, 5 more years of trial and tribulation through different gimmicks and personas.
RVD, when marketed right, would be the biggest thing since sliced bread. Hell, he was so over in ECW, Joey Styles was once quoted as saying "if you look in the dictionary under the word "over", you'll see a big picture of Rob Van Dam right next to it." And this was to the ECW faithful, which were bloodthirsty lunatics. Hey, I'd never be one to support a champion who got busted for weed, but my question to WWE is simple: You knew full well the guy had substance issues (plus a write-up in High Times a few years back), so why flip out now? The old company would've played it into an angle and ran with it.
Austin basically ran the same persona through all of those years as Stunning Steve wrestling in World Class in Dallas, WCW in Atlanta, and didn't find his niche until ECW in the mid-nineties. CM has already been well-known as a legend on the indy scene for one-hour encounters with Samoa Joe that tore the house down in a huge fashion and found a gimmick/niche that suits him fine. As far as I'm concerned, he's earned his stripes a hell of a lot more than the three jokes holding the World Titles at present, if you ask me. He's definitely no Austin, but he doesn't have to be. I'd just rather see him at the top of the business than a guy like Cena, Lashley or Batista is all.