10 Times WWE Hurt Itself By Punishing Its Stars
4. Rob Van Dam Is Busted For Possession
2006 may have been the best year of Rob Van Dam's wrestling career, and certainly the most lucrative. He'd won the Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 22, and cashed in his briefcase two months later to beat John Cena for the WWE Championship on home ground, at the Hammerstein Ballroom's One Night Stand pay-per-view.
That week, he was handed the ECW Championship by Paul Heyman when the TV show was revived under the WWE banner, making him a double world champion. He'd defend both championships during the next few weeks, but the good times didn't last long. On 3 July, Van Dam and Sabu were pulled over in Ohio for speeding. Once the highway patrolmen smelled weed, they searched the car, finding eighteen grams of marijuana, five Vicodin pills, nine unidentified pills, and 'drug paraphernalia'.
Does 'drug paraphernalia' mean a lighter? A crack pipe? No one knows. Whatever the case, RVD dropped both titles in quick succession over the next two days, and was suspended without pay for thirty days. When he came back, it wasn't to the same level of support he'd had before the arrest. Despite the same fantastic crowd reactions, WWE kept RVD at arms length until he left the company the following year.