10 WWE Midcarders Who Broke The Glass Ceiling
5. Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam was a big deal in ECW (probably the biggest star they had towards the end), but he had a bit of a tough time of it in WWE. As soon as he debuted on WWE TV, he was incredibly over and continued to get more and more over with each passing week.
He was so over that WWE felt they had to inset him in the main event of No Mercy that year, having him compete for the WWE Title in a triple threat match also featuring Kurt Angle and Stone Cold. He was the one to take the pinfall, naturally, and then he began to slide down the card.
In the spring of 2002 he kind of settled into the role of perennial Intercontinental Champion. Not a bad spot, but not a spot his popularity and work warranted. Really, being as over as he was, he needed to be challenging for, if not holding, the WWE Title.
That's something that wouldn't happen until 2006, after years of frustration wasted opportunities. Van Dam, on the back of the revival of ECW as a full-time third brand, upset John Cena at One Night Stand to capture the WWE Title.
As is so often the case with these sort of things, Van Dam's reign was only a transitional one. He lost the WWE Title after only a few weeks, and was then forced to drop the ECW Title following his and Sabu's notorious highway drug bust.