"You deserve no credit for tonight's success. The office might be blind to it, but these people are gonna let you know," Rob Van Dam said at 2005's ECW One Night Stand. Work, shoot, or something in between, his speech to the hardcore faithful was a breath of fresh air, as well as a prototype for CM Punk's "promo heard round the world." A year later, again at One Night Stand, RVD won the WWE title from John Cena. RVD, who had stuck with the original ECW until its demise, had turned the brand back around. For a brief, shining moment, all was well. Then Van Dam got busted with weed and Vicodin. That it happened so late in his career was all the more tragic. RVD would never get another chance to be a top guy in WWE. Fans will debate about whether the fault lay in RVD or in WWE's wellness policy, but the fact remains that, in the end, RVD got suspended, and the ECW fans got Bobby Lashley.
Check out "The Champ" by my alter ego, Greg Forrest, in Heater #12, at http://fictionmagazines.com.
I used to do a mean Glenn Danzig impression. Now I just hang around and co-host The Workprint podcast at http://southboundcinema.com/.
