10 Wrestlers Who Were Only World Champion Because Of The Brand Split

6. Rob Van Dam

JBL title
WWE.com

Even though he's one of a kind, the chances of the WWE ever putting enough faith in Rob Van Dam to be their solo World Champion were miniscule at best.

There's no denying how ridiculously over RVD was during his run in the WWE from 2001 until 2007. At this point in time, he was one of the most popular performers on the roster and one who many wrestling fans deemed worthy of a main event push and a spell as "the man".

Unfortunately for Van Dam, his outside-the-ring pursuits meant that the WWE were hesitant to pull the trigger on RVD as a World Champion.

With the success of the One Night Stand shows and the plans to relaunch the ECW brand, Van Dam was the perfect person to be given the WWE Championship when he took home the gold in 2006. RVD was simultaneously the WWE Champion and ECW Champion, but his run with both would be cut short after he was suspended for a drug arrest.

The fact that the WWE was so hesitant to give Van Dam the ball even with two brands (technically three when ECW relaunched) meant that he would have had no chance had the roster split never happened.

In this post: 
JBL
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.