Within a relatively short space of time, Rob Van Dam went from being an undercard guy in WCW to a superstar in ECW. The Last Great ECW Headliner, as he is frequently called, would likely not have been given the chance to live up to his true potential had he started from scratch in WCW, or even WWF. In fact, WCW wanted to dress him up as a Mortal Kombat character, which gives you some indication of his probable career trajectory had he not been pushed BIG TIME in ECW. Since then, Van Dam has earned a handsome living from professional wrestling and he still main events WWE shows and Pay Per Views to this day. He has served as WWE Champion and TNA Champion and he is the only wrestler in history to have held the WWE, TNA and (original) ECW World Heavyweight Championships - a record that will probably never be broken. The three time World Champions biggest victory, however, was the negotiation of a contract that allows him to enjoy ample time off without being buried on television. Fairer contracts like this one (as well as those signed by Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar), will hopefully lead to a safer (and better) working environment for the next generation of WWE stars, as well as helping to prevent main event talents from stagnating in the absence of the territories. Rob Van Dam is a rare talent who bridges a lot of different gaps. He is beloved by the ECW fans that once flocked to see him wrestle Sabu or 2 Cold Scorpio. He is adored just as much by fans of Attitude Era WWE for his bouts with Eddie Guerrero (oh, THAT ladder match) and Chris Jericho. Even todays kids that dont remember ECW or Attitude, but who watched him wrestle Cesaro a couple of months back, love the crap out of him. Van Dam just has a unique, indefinable charisma, a type of unassailable hardcore charm that people of all ages cant help but respond to.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
