2. He Injured Triple H In The First Elimination Chamber Match; Did Not Want To Do The Move
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnrip7wrlEU If you've seen it then you know the spot. RVD was standing on top of one of the Elimination Chamber pods in the first ever EC match at Survivor Series 2002. Triple H was out on the mat and RVD was feeling froggy except that the roof of the cage prevented him from really extending himself. He had to change it to a regular splash, but they didn't space it out well and RVD's knee ended up driving into the throat of Triple H. You could see that Triple H was in a lot of pain immediately after it happened and even though he made it through the finish of the match he was seriously hurt. Following the match, Triple H did an interview with WWE.com where he explained what happened: "When Rob Van Dam hit me with the Frog Splash off the top of the cage, his knee went across my throat. It caused swelling on the inside of my throat, which closed my airway down. I don't know the percentage, but they (the medical staff) said your throat's normally at two, and it was at less than one... They needed to keep me overnight because they were afraid that if it swelled anymore, my airway would close off, and before I would be able to tell anybody, I wouldn't be able to breathe and I could die. While they were making sure that didn't happen, they were also trying to find out whether or not I had torn my trachea, which, if I did, I couldn't drink or swallow. I basically sat bloody in the hospital with my gear on until about eleven or noon today. I was still in my gear. I was still covered in blood with confetti on my back. It wasn't his fault, it wasn't my fault. It just happened. " For his part, Rob said he
felt bad about it and he didn't want to even try the splash off the top of the pod: "That was the only night that Vince McMahon ever called me, to tell me Hunter was ok. He knew I was concerned for a lot of reasons. I was visibly upset about it. I knew that it was a real big deal, and I never want to hurt anyone anyway. This was something that was an accident. I wasnt comfortable jumping off of there, it wasnt my idea to do it. Just being off like that, BAM. Yeah and it's Hunter, it wasnt good, and they wanted me to know they understood. Vince was super cool about it." The interesting note is that he didn't even want to do the move, but somebody in WWE convinced him it would be a good idea. Triple H was able to recover within a couple of weeks and he won back his World Title from Shawn Michaels at the Armageddon PPV about one month later.