5 Worst-Timed WWE Wellness Policy Suspensions
1. Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam was one of the most over members of the WWE roster from his arrival in the summer of 2001. Despite being a member of the purportedly villainous Alliance, The Whole F*ckin' Show was cheered above even some of the WWF's top stars. Despite this being a thing over the next few years, WWE never ran with him on top.
He got the odd token shot at the WWE Title, sure, but he never won it, and was usually kept busy competing in the WWE Tag Team/Hardcore/Intercontinental Title divisions. This all changed in the spring of 2006, when RVD won the second ever Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 22, bagging himself a guaranteed WWE Title shot within the next year.
Van Dam decided to cash-in his shot at the second ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view in June. He defeated Cena on that night in a good match, winning the WWE Title and then, on the first episode of ECW on SyFy two days later, he was awarded the new ECW World Title by Paul Heyman, too.
So Mr. PPV was now a double World Champion, enjoying the most successful period of his WWE career. He even retained the WWE Title against Edge at Vengeance on June 25th, despite most people having him pegged as losing that one. Then, just over a week later, Van Dam's world went up in smoke when he (along with Sabu) were pulled over and arrested for drug possession.
Van Dam had been stopped for speeding when an Ohio State Highway Patrol officer discovered that he was in possession of eighteen grams of marijuana and five Vicodin pills. Rob dropped his WWE Title to Edge at the next set of Raw tapings and then dropped the ECW Title to Big Show the very next night.
Then he was suspended, without pay, for 30 days. There's no doubting that the high-profile bust threw him off of the track he was on. While he was always going to be a transitional WWE Champion, talk was that he was due to have a long reign as ECW's top dog. When he came back, WWE didn't push him in the same way they had before and Van Dam was gone from the company not too long after in May of 2007.