What if Rob Van Dam didn't have to drop the WWE & ECW titles?

[CM Steel]

2006 was the best year of the career of Rob Van Dam! Winning the Money in the bank ladder match at Wrestlemania 22 in Chicago. And then cashing it in at the second annual ECW: One Night Stand pay per view on then WWE champion John Cena. At the hammerstein ballroom in New York City, the EXTREME RULES match between the two was epic in that hostel element. RVD was the EXTREME favorite for the night while John Cena was given hell by the pro-ECW crowd.

When it was looking like John Cena hand the upper hand on RVD. Edge came out and interfered in the match-up wearing all black with matching motorcycle helmet when he speared Cena. Rob Van Dam hits the 5-star-frog splash, this match is over! New WWE champion ROB VAN DAM!!! first time-ever! With an EXTREME celebration at the end!

Two nights after the PPV on the debut of the "new" ECW on the SyFy network. Rob Van Dam came out and was awarded the original ECW world championship by Paul Heymen who acted as the GM for the ECW brand for a short while before getting fired by WWE chairman Vince McMahon. So RVD had both WWE & ECW title's at one time. First in history! But after a decent feud with Kurt Angle on the ECW brand. RVD's downfall began.

Not to far from RVD's hometown of Battle Creek, MI. Rob Van Dam (with Sabu) was busted by the feds while driving a car full of pounds weed & drugs. And both were detained for a short while. When the news got to the WWE. Rob Van Dam had to be punished. So with a suspension from the E, RVD had to drop both belts. The WWE title on RAW to Edge, and the ECW title to the Big Show on ECW. What a way to fall from the mountain top! Rob Van Dam had become what Chris Jericho was in 2001...an undisputed world champion!

Now what if none of what had happen never happened? And what if Rob Van Dam didn't have to drop the WWE & ECW title's? Did RVD play himself?

 

[justin71]

Being a old ECW mark I have a bad feeling he would have had a more drawn out burial the purpose for the entire ECW re-boot was to kill "ECW" chants. He would have likely kept the title for about 3 months before dropping to Cena/Triple H/Edge and it would have played out just the same...

 

[THTRobtaylor]

There is one person who may well have ended up differently, well 3... The Benoits... Not saying that Chris already wasn't in major trouble by that point. But the RVD stripping led to the merry go round of ECW champions and poorer ratings, that necessitated Benoit's "move" to ECW. It's entirely possible that Benoit would not have been in the situation he was... He may have been feuding with RVD for the title, he may have gone nuts sooner... but he wouldn't have been wrestling for the ECW title that weekend, and that alone might have been a major difference in his mindset.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

RVD, as talented as he is, got the chance to be world champ and blew it. But over the years there was a lot of matches he had with blown spots and he injured opponents. You have to have a reliable worker as champ (as champ - Cena was rubbish at selling but at least he rarely hurt anyone).

That being said- it would be interesting to see CM PUNK v RVD

 

[daddyJ_t]

he still wouldve dropped the wwe title in favor of the ecw title cause they were trying to cash in and rebrand ecw around rvd. granted he wouldve held on to the title and beat the wwe implants, but it wouldve served the purpose of him dropping the title to a ecw new breed like elijah burke or kevin thorn

 

[asiatic7]

he still wouldve dropped the wwe title in favor of the ecw title cause they were trying to cash in and rebrand ecw around rvd. granted he wouldve held on to the title and beat the wwe implants, but it wouldve served the purpose of him dropping the title to a ecw new breed like elijah burke or kevin thorn

I agree. I think the only reason for RVD winning the WWE title was to catapult him to being a top star (since he was over for years on RAW) for their new brand. They needed an RVD to do it. He was the only former ECW guy on the whole roster with authenticity who could pull it off., hence why he was awarded the revamped version of the ECW title. They would have taken the WWE title from him in a matter of weeks to months anyway, but now people would tune in to see The Whole F'N Show... You wanna know why ECW was doomed to fail anyway? According to RVD himself, when he told Vince people wanted the "Original" ECW back, Vince told him "NO!", "I'll Tell them what they want."

 

[biziorek]

the original plan was for him to capture the world heavyweight title as well! he was going to be the 1st and possibly only to hold all 3 major world titles at once! but yes then the ecw curse kicked in and they gave up on that brand within months and didn't hide it! the curse would have whoever joined the brand to leave rvd, angle, big show, lashley, etc!

 

[hlhbk]

the original plan was for him to capture the world heavyweight title as well! he was going to be the 1st and possibly only to hold all 3 major world titles at once! but yes then the ecw curse kicked in and they gave up on that brand within months and didn't hide it! the curse would have whoever joined the brand to leave rvd, angle, big show, lashley, etc!

Lets get this story straight! McMahon didn't give up on it, he never even gave it a fighting chance! Everything was setup to be successful, all they had to do was let Heyman run it in front of the ECW crowds and its ratings would have easily rivaled smackdown.

Instead McMahon made it a B show that warmed people up for Smackdown in front of family friendly crowds! It was terrible because McMahon got in the way! There is a reason that Heyman left shortly after the ECW reboot occured!

 

[thebarber]

2006 was RVD's best year in WWE, but not in his career. His 20 month reign as ECW TV Champion was special and elevated that title to more importance at the time than the ECW Heavyweight Title. His matches with jerry Lynn defined him in North America and was why he got he continual big money offers to go to the Big 2.
As for trying to predict the future, whilever McMahon woulsdnt have Heyman having direct control of ECW, he would have still found a way to bury RVD as he was massively over without being a company guy. RVD a self made man, Vince hates that.

 

[CM Steel]

2006 was RVD's best year in WWE, but not in his career. His 20 month reign as ECW TV Champion was special and elevated that title to more importance at the time than the ECW Heavyweight Title. His matches with jerry Lynn defined him in North America and was why he got he continual big money offers to go to the Big 2.
As for trying to predict the future, whilever McMahon woulsdnt have Heyman having direct control of ECW, he would have still found a way to bury RVD as he was massively over without being a company guy. RVD a self made man, Vince hates that.

22 month reign actually (in my Booker T voice) as the ECW TV champion.

You really think that title reign with the ECW TV championship alone surpasses more importance than as his reign as the WWE & WWECW champion? Unless your the barber who knocked out Suge Knight, your dead wrong.

Rob Van Dam was duel champion in one wrestling company, the biggest wrestling company in the world! The ECW TV title didn't even make it in the WWECW. There's a TV title in TNA now. But who really watches TNA/Impact Wrestling?

 

[Dagger Dias]

If RVD did not have to drop the titles then I think he would have held the ECW Championship for roughly the rest of the year. He could have walked into December to Dismember as ECW Champion, then Lashley's title push could still have still begun at the Extreme Elimination Chamber. Big Show's ECW Championship reign would most likely not have happened. RVD would easiy have carried the brand as champion.

The WWE Championship on the other hand.... That is a completely different story. Edge and Cena were in the middle of a huge feud so Edge would likely still have won the title to convert it to his Rated R Spinner that summer. This would have happened regardless of RVD having to give up the titles. The brand extension was still in full effect at the time too so the WWE Championship needed to be won by a Raw wrestler sooner or later, and Edge was the perfect choice at the time. If RVD did not have to give up the titles it would have significantly extended his ECW Championship reign but probably not his WWE Championship reign.

 

[whoopin' ass]

i think his reign would have been a little longer but otherwise not much would have changed. even he said that vince didn't really care about ecw and rob was champ mostly to get the new ecw over. that is the problem with the new ecw - so many "what if's". what if rvd hadn't lost, what is angle never left, what is heyman was left to run it,...... had these things not changed right at the beginning of ecw, it would have been a very different show.

 

[midgensa]

If RVD had not fucked himself over with this ... I believe he was on his way to MEGA stardom.

He was going to keep those straps "together" for a VERY long time I think. They would use this as a launching point for the ECW Championship gaining a ton of credibility while being paired with the companies top prize. We definitely would have seen a feud with Edge and Cena and both would have been epic and had a chance to put RVD in the stratosphere as far as popularity goes.

But alas, sometimes you just can't get out of your own way.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

22 month reign actually (in my Booker T voice) as the ECW TV champion.

You really think that title reign with the ECW TV championship alone surpasses more importance than as his reign as the WWE & WWECW champion? Unless your the barber who knocked out Suge Knight, your dead wrong.

I would say there is an argument for his ECW title reign being more important than his WWE/ECW titles. Here is why.

That epic TV title reign (only ended by injury, he was going to be a 2 year champion) is what MADE Rob Van Dam in professional wrestling. He was on fire throughout that title run, and in his absolute prime. There were few, if any, wrestlers in the US performing more consistently and were more over than RVD in ECW.

By the time he won the WWE title at ONS from John Cena, Van Dam was way past his prime. Yeah, the ECW crowd loved it, and he was still over with the WWE fanbase also, but his in-ring performances were far below what he used to be able to produce. The time for RVD to be Champion had been and gone, they should have pulled the trigger on a WWE title run back in 2001-2 when he was on fire and was still innovative and exciting.

It's true that we will never know just what Vince was planning to do with RVD and the WWE/ECW titles, but I believe it was likely that he would have dropped the WWE belt pretty quickly, with it being just a feel-good moment for the ECW fans before the belt ended up back round the waist of HHH or Cena. Van Dam would have held the ECW belt for a while, being one of the mainstays of the brand, which would have been cool to see. Van Dam v Punk, Angle, Sabu or Morrison would have been a great match.

However, because of his own stupidity he was stripped of the titles and prevented us from ever seeing what he could have done with them. His reigns ended up absolutely worthless, there were no classic matches or moments other than him actually winning the belt. For that reason, and because he was so good during his ECW TV title reign, with that belt even outstripping the ECW World title in the eyes of the fans (RVD was the hottest talent in the company), I believe that his TV Title reign back in Philly were more important in the career of RVD. It made him a star. His failed WWE title reign was the sign of his star fading. Never again has he looked a real SUPERSTAR.