Original subtitles

[birds chirping]

- This is my wall of RVD action figures.

You know, I was signing autographs of so many figures,

I thought, well, I should I have my own collection.

I have the figures grouped, you know, by my career.

These are the original EC-dub, right here.

This is one of the more expensive action figures.

It's the, uh, variant Micro Brawler with red eyes.

[laughs]

Those go for several hundred dollars.

It shows how big my career was.

This is one of standard to measure success by.

- From Battle Creek, Michigan, Rob Van Dam.

- Oh, my God.

- What made Rob cool is that he was cool without

trying to be cool.

- Hey, whatever.

- He's not the Showstopper.

He's the show.

- His move set was revolutionary.

Those matches changed the game.

They became a blueprint actually for what you're seeing

in WWE nowadays.

- What an ovation for RVD.

- I think he could have gone to the moon and back if it wasn't

for a little speed bump.

- Even as a kid he didn't like anything organized and he didn't

wanna be told what he had to do.

- Unbelievable athleticism.

- RVD one of the most popular yet unorthodox competitors

we've ever seen.

- Everybody looks at me as being different and I loved it.

I did everything my way and I ended up at the very top.

I was born December 18th, 1970.

I would say that growing up I liked to risk safety.

I liked to thrill myself by jumping my bike.

We're always building ramps higher and higher.

- He isn't afraid of very much.

Never has been.

- When he was old enough, I'd say maybe three,

he would jump off the boat in the water.

He just- he just loved the water.

- He liked the diving boards.

You can't get hurt that way if you-

if you go off the diving board.

- He did all kind of stupid things off of that diving board.

I mean flips back, flips forward, flip, double flips,

you name it he did them.

- I'm a bit of superstar in my own mind trying to outdo

whatever I saw anybody else do.

- He was a great student at first.

- Academically gifted, is what one of his teachers told

us, but then he kinda slacked off a little bit later on.

- I think I always had issues with fitting in to structures

and categories.

I always I think pushed back against being forced to fit in

to a position that was predetermined for me.

Still do.

Some of my earliest memories of professional wrestling were from

the other kids that enjoyed watching it.

I thought that the idea sounded silly, but I watched wrestling

one time to hang out with everybody and right away

I was into it.

"Leaping" Lanny Poffo was a very big influence on me.

He became my favorite wrestler because he thought so far

outside the box that I just enjoyed watching him and-

and his moves.

- Beautiful maneuver.

Hooks the leg.

- Started watching wrestling every week, became a really big

fan and really enjoyed going to the live shows.

It was like the coolest thing ever for me.

One night Ted DiBiase was in the ring.

- Here he is, the self-proclaimed

Million Dollar Champion, Ted DiBiase.

- The Million Dollar Man's character was based on how much

more he had than everybody else.

One of the ways that he demonstrated that was he'd offer

money to people in the crowd to humiliate themselves.

- And, uh, Ted DiBiase points at me.

I jumped over the guardrail.

I was so excited.

Slid into the ring.

I already kissed his foot before he was done with the sentence.

I was so excited to be there.

- From my perspective, that was basically like the whole town

in the stands watching me when I was in the ring.

I was the center of attention and I knew that was gonna

be my platform, you know.

I wasn't gonna dance.

I wasn't gonna sing.

And this was a way to express myself and hold the spotlight,

entertain, show off.

From that moment on, I thought about nothing else.

- He built his own little gym thing to really bulk himself.

He took an old swing set and he had a-

a weight bench with weights.

I mean, he was really rocking it down there.

- Really studying wrestling a lot, you know,

like watching it.

Me and my buddies would wrestle each other and actually had

matches at one of my friend's houses and it wasn't too long

until we found out that there was a guy in town right there

in Battle Creek that had an actual ring.

So, that became our next step.

Our-our goal is we got to get in that ring.

- 10 o'clock at night somebody knocks on my door, it's these

two kids and they're like, "Dude, can we get in your ring?"

- We need to get in it, you know.

We're-we're gonna be wrestlers when we grow up.

This dude is like what?

It turns out he's a kickboxer promoter and

he runs kickboxing shows.

- I was like, we do kickboxing, karate and boxing.

We don't do wrestling, but I'll make a deal with you.

If you do karate, I'll let you guys practice in the ring.

He stuck his hand out and said "Deal."

So the next day they were there and they never left.

He fought just like my team.

Push-ups, sit-ups, a lot of actual sparring.

He's very skilled.

He's 15 whopping grown men in night clubs.

[crowd cheering]

- I could take a lot of abuse, I took a lot of hard shots and

was able to keep smiling while I was knocking guys out

left and right.

- Rob Szatkowski.

I learned that I was really good at kickboxing.

- He had all the physical stuff, but a lot of guys have that,

but what you can't teach is drive and

determination and willpower.

You got those or you don't.

But his-his total focus even when he was that

little was wrestling.

- I got into kickboxing through Kit because that was mandatory

in order for us wrestlers to use the ring.

I spent as much time in that ring as possible.

I lived in that ring.

I had it in my own yard for a very long time.

- He had a grant to go to Western Michigan University.

He turned it down because he says "I'm gonna wrestle."

- We made a deal.

I said, "Dad, give me two years.

I'm gonna know if I'm gonna make it or not.

If I don't make it, you know, I'll still be young enough

to go to college."

and he thought that sounded fair.

- I always told my kids, whatever you do,

be the best at it, be the best you can do it,

and I couldn't ask for anything more than that,

and, uh, he did.

[laughs]

- I ended up learning there's actually a wrestling school

not too far from my town.

It's not just some school because I had things that were

important to me, who's training, the longevity of the school,

who have they trained that's successful.

Turns out, the original Sheik was gonna be the guy for me

and he checked all the boxes.

The original Sheik was just that, OG.

He was a top box office attraction

in the 50s and the 60s.

It wasn't like a wrestling school, it was uh Sheik

throwing us in the ring and

telling us to beat each other up.

It was only rougher, squeeze harder, bring the bodies

in closer to each other because Sheik was old school and we were

taught the number one rule is to protect the business.

- Ladies and gentlemen our next match,

let me introduce the first, Rob Zakowski.

- I wrestled under many different names.

Rob Zat, Robbie Z,

different forms of my last name.

- Back flip out of the corner.

There came that savate kick.

A karate move with a flash of brilliance from Zakowski.

Eventually, a wrestling promoter named Ron Slinker gave me

the name Rob Van Dam.

Pretty sure because he thought I looked like the actor.

- Jean-Claude Van Damme was an action movie icon

who could do amazing martial arts, kicks, he could do splits

and could do all kinds of stuff.

So, in comes this wrestler, he can also do splits,

he can also do kicks, and he kinda looks like

Jean-Claude Van Damme.

- It could have just been for the night as far as I was

concerned, but it stuck.

[Japanese language]

Rob Van Dam

[Japanese language]

- Pretty soon, I'm wrestling all over.

I'm wrestling in Japan.

Everything is about getting your name out and your reputation

at that point.

- I saw a couple of matches that Rob had had in Japan and knew we

really had to get our hands on him.

[crowd chants "ECW"]

- I remember one time flipping through the channels and

I caught a commercial for ECW, and I couldn't believe

that this was professional wrestling.

[crowd cheers]

- ECW was very raw,

gritty, in your face.

- ECW were the renegades, they were the misfits.

It was everything that

WCW and WWE wasn't at that time.

- WCW sucks.

- It was a breath of fresh air for the wrestling industry.

- Oh, my God.

- They broke the ring.

- Paul Heyman was running ECW,

and he calls me and he talks about me coming up

to work for him.

- Rob Van Dam making his ECW debut,

a well-travelled world-class wrestler.

- I thought he was a tremendous talent that needed a little bit

more seasoning, but that he certainly had

main event potential.

- Fans here in the ECW arena not sure what to make

of Rob Van Dam yet.

- It was not what I was used to when it came to pro-wrestling.

The crowd just waiting for you to slip so they can jump on you.

- The ECW fans don't take to newcomers too well.

- You had to be a really good wrestler by the standards of the

ECW crowd, it was intimidating.

- Split-legged moonsault,

Press two, he got him.

Rob Van Dam is now extreme.

Welcome to ECW.

- Here you go.

Five, four, three-

- The Eliminators,-

- Stop.

- -you're a great team.

- Ok, shh.

Alright here we go.

- When I first got to ECW, I didn't wanna go anywhere near

the camera to cut promos.

Eliminators, you're a great team.

--

Sorry.

I was just too green, uncomfortable with it,

didn't think that I could convince people

that I believed in myself.

- When Rob first came in, his promos weren't the best,

but he grew into that character and he had the best coach

in Paul Heyman.

- My advice to Rob Van Dam was just be authentic.

Just be yourself.

Just be Rob Van Dam.

- I got the idea of actually posing, showing my awesome arms

without it looking like I'm posing because I saw

Jean-Claude Van Damme do it in a movie, he knocks the guy

out, he looks up at the promoters and he says,

"I want Tong Po."

- I want Tong Po.

Give me Tong Po.

- I ripped it off a little bit, but I never knew that I was

making anything special.

I just thought, you know, hey, I'm just posing and the fans

started doing this back to me.

Then I realized that that's me, like they're identifying me

with 'cause I do that.

It was just something that I was doing that became me.

You know, I really discovered who RVD was in ECW.

I learned how to just bring myself out.

9 out of 10 of viewers agree, Rob Van Dam's face belongs

on a television camera.

- It was Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High meets

Jean-Claude Van Damme.

- Rob Van Dam is a spectacular, breathtaking,

world-class athlete.

And he knows it.

- For the time, like, what-what were you even watching?

You know what I mean?

It was so different from how anybody else had ever wrestled.

- The more I understood ECW and the crowd,

it flowed in my blood.

I mean, I understood it, I knew what was a good decision

and what wasn't.

Being called the whole -- show-

- Whoa-ho, yeah.

- -put a lot of pressure on a guy, you know.

- Look at the belts, baby.

Luckily, I back it up.

Always outdoing myself.

Always getting better.

- Oh, my God, there it is.

- Ron Van Dam was an artist.

I knew that if Rob Van Dam was in the main event,

the audience would go home satisfied with the ECW product,

and that our main event would be different than anything else WWE

or WCW could offer.

[crowd cheers]

[crowd chants "RVD"]

- I was married since a couple of years after I started ECW,

and of course, that makes it a lot more challenging

to be on the road, but I believed in loyalty.

I believed in commitment and it was important to me

to see all that through.

At the same time, this was a very good part of my career.

It was pretty apparent everybody was watching our product.

- Rob did have opportunity to go other places.

He could have went to WCW, he could have went to WWE.

- There was interest in signing Rob.

Rob had a very unique look, a very unique style and was

someone that we felt would really fit on our roster.

- I think it was assumed that I was just gonna go

'cause that's what you do.

You go and get more exposure, bigger crowds, bigger TV,

bigger money, but I really didn't want to.

I felt like they-they could erase my entire history of

everything that I've done and start me over as a new character

because they did business in that kind of way.

- I wasn't afraid of losing Rob to WWE or WCW because

the constraints that they were going to put on him betrayed

an artist's sensibility.

And as long as he had the opportunity to be an artist,

Rob Van Dam would stay with ECW.

- This is my perfect showcasing, this is where I wanna be.

I don't wanna go somewhere else.

I wanna bring all the eyes here so everyone can see me being

the whole effing show here in ECW.

[crowd cheers]

- Rob Van Dam.

[crowd cheers]

- I can stay here the rest of my career,

but ECW is headed downhill.

[crowd chants "ECW"]

- I was the guy.

I was the king at the time.

Sitting in the throne.

I am ECW.

[crowd cheers]

- Damn he's good.

- But then checks started bouncing.

Paul didn't have the, uh, funds to finance the company.

- The last year of ECW was

a brutal struggle to stay alive,

so we all had a little bit of time to prepare for the

inevitable, but once you hit that flatline,

it's still shocking.

[crowd cheers]

- In April of 2001, ECW officially declares bankruptcy.

That was only a month after WWE had officially acquired WCW.

The Sports Entertainment industry had gone from

three major players to just one.

- When ECW went out of business, it really gutted me,

so ultimately, I knew that if I wanted to be

a TV wrestler in the United States, that meant going to WWE.

[crowd cheers]

- Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Monday Night Raw.

- I actually came in representing ECW

which was great for me.

- Hey, wait a minute.

What the hell?

That's-

[bell rings]

- That's Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer.

They're former ECW guys.

- Yes, they are.

- What the hell are they doing here?

- When WWE acquired ECW, fans still wanted to see

the battle play out, and Rob Van Dam was brought in

to fight for ECW's side.

- It's a Five-Star Frog Splash from Rob Van Dam.

- The invaders are supposed to be heels,

but he was the babyface within the heel group who stood out.

You kinda had to like that guy.

- And here comes Rob Van Dam.

This guy is the real deal.

No doubt about it.

- Jeff Hardy,

steel chair in hand.

And look at that.

That's the Van Daminator.

- What made Rob cool

is that he was cool without trying to be cool.

I remember they're doing this thing where Austin's backstage

and he says, "The next person that comes through that door,

I'm going to fight tonight."

- The first sumbitch walks through that door,

I am going to take to my ring and I'm going to whip his ass.

- Everyone is-

-just wants RVD to walk through the door.

- Oh.

Hey, Steve, what's up?

[crowd cheers]

- RVD with a suplex to Austin on the steel ramp.

- And then you're seeing RVD mix it up with top WWE stars that,

as an ECW fan, you would've never imagined.

- Five-Star Frog Splash to The Rock.

- And Van Dam-

My God, with a crossbody.

- I'm wrestling some of the top stars there.

- Rob Van Dam has pinned The Undertaker.

- And I'm beating these guys.

- This is what happens when you get hardcore with Rob Van Dam.

- Cool.

- Wait, wait.

That's all you have to say, is cool?

Don't you understand this?

This is pressure, man. This is pressure.

- Yeah.

Hey, everything is cool when you're Rob Van Dam, you know?

- So, for the next few years, when I'm out in the ring,

I'm happy.

I'm doing my thing.

I'm connecting with the crowd.

[crowd yells "Rob Van Dam"]

- But at the same time, it was a total different style,

total different agenda.

Now, I'm not the whole effing show.

I'm part of the show.

- In the early part of his run here,

Rob was underappreciated and underutilized.

It's not a proper assessment of what Rob Van Dam had to offer.

- Every single step of the way felt like a battle.

I'm fighting the conformity of fittiing in pre-notioned ideas

or prepackaged storylines.

I didn't want to change because I really enjoyed what I was.

- He wasn't going to compromise himself,

even if it meant advancement in his career

and higher-profile matches.

He knew what he wanted to do and what he wanted to be and he

wasn't going to be pushed into being something that he wasn't.

I think if he really, really cared about pleasing certain

people he would have changed, and he never did.

- Sometimes wrestling can be a little tricky.

- During this time, I know he's not as happy as he could be.

It could have been backstage politics that prevent you

from reaching the apex of your career.

- I always felt like producers never understood me.

Everybody wants to talk in my ear and

tell me something different.

"The other people don't get you, but I get you.

You're a surfer, dude.

Right?"

Everyone's always trying to fit me into a category.

Why can I just be me?

I was longing for something, feeling unfulfilled.

And I ended up pitching an idea to Vince McMahon.

That idea would end up changing everything.

The fans that knew ECW never let the spirit die.

The fans would chant, "ECW, ECW."

[crowd chants "ECW"]

- And a lot of those fans did that because they missed ECW.

They preferred ECW and so did I.

and I thought we could have an ECW reunion, just one night,

all of us wrestling ECW style.

The wrestlers would love it.

The fans would love it.

And so I asked Vince McMahon, "Why don't you do this?"

Instead of telling me no, he loved the idea.

- Rob just kept telling Vince,

"ECW. Bring back ECW, it's still got legs.

People will love it. It will be successful."

And Rob was right.

[crowd chants "ECW."]

- ECW was all these people standing right in front

of the arena from 8:30 in the morning till 8:30

at night just to get in there.

- Hello, everyone.

And welcome to ECW One Night Stand.

[crowd chants "ECW"]

- ECW One Night Stand was a hell of a night.

- Ay, Dios Mío!

Air, Sabu.

Tommy, no, no.

He's on fire.

- Of course, I was extremely disappointed that I had a torn

ACL when it came time to actually do the show.

[crowd chants "RVD"]

- I don't have any creative geniuses writing

my script tonight, folks.

And I'm gonna take you back to a time before RVD's vocabulary

was limited to, "Whatever" and "Cool."

That is how you showcase RVD.

[crowd chants "RVD"]

- Rob Van Dam made that all possible.

He made that possible for the fans.

He made that possible for me.

And he gave opportunity to a lot of guys who deserved it.

[crowd chants "ECW"]

- It was a perfect send-off.

- The first ECW One Night Stand was such a success,

we're doing it again, but this one leads

into opening up ECW as a third brand.

- The first ECW One Night Stand was a very special show,

so doing it again was going to feel exploitative.

What could we offer that had never been offered before?

- RVD is in the main event against John Cena.

This is even bigger than anything we did the year before.

I'm wrestling for the championship

in the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Six days, John, before that title is the round my waist.

[crowd cheers]

- Me and my buddies watched

the first One Night Stand, uh, from home.

We thought it was amazing.

We were so into it, so when they announced the second one,

we were like, "We're going."

Everybody in that arena wants RVD to win the title.

It was such a wild atmosphere.

[Rob Van Dam's music plays]

[crowd cheers]

- It is a true injustice that Rob Van Dam is perhaps

the greatest wrestler never to hold a World Championship.

- I was in the Hammerstein Ballroom.

It was special.

[crowd chants "RVD"]

- They were not going to let Rob Van Dam lose.

If he loses, I really did think there was going to be

a riot that night.

They hated him.

- Everything about that night was so exciting.

Could have a 25-minute contest with my t-shirt.

That would've been amazing.

- I don't think John Cena understands these ECW fans

want no part of him whatsoever except maybe his head.

- This is a way for them in our house to show us

that they are really the boss.

It was so fun.

- I don't think this one's rocket science,

Cena represented everything that these fans disliked.

and RVD was the legitimate embodiment of everything

they do like.

[bell rings]

- That night is completely irreplaceable.

That match was fantastic.

[crowd cheers and boos]

- Oh, down goes the WWE Champion.

[crowd yells "Rob Van Dam"]

Rob Van Dam using its entire body as a weapon.

- John Cena was great.

The crowd was great.

- Van Dam fights out of it.

- Stay Up.

- Oh.

- It was awesome.

I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it.

- Van Dam up top.

Rob Van Dam with the Five-Star Frog Splash.

[crowd counts "one, two, three"]

[crowd cheers]

[bell rings]

- Rob Van Dam is the new

Heavyweight Champion of the World.

[crowd chants "ECW"]

- When I won the championship at the end of the night and that

crowd erupted, that was a payoff that I worked so hard for.

You know, I blazed my own trail, I followed my own path,

even though a lot of people wouldn't have and I ended up

at the very top.

- I was so happy for Rob.

I was so happy for all the ECW guys.

It's not about winning or losing.

It's about the moments.

- I am the World Champion.

I did it by the way that fit me and here I am.

- Hello, everyone, and welcome to the world

premiere on ECW on Syfy.

- Two days after I won the World Championship, Paul Heyman

presented me with the ECW Championship.

So now I had two title belts, and everything was going great.

My mind, body, and spirit are aligned.

I'm feeling like I'm at my best in every which way,

but the higher you are, the further you have to fall.

[sirens]

- What's he doing?

You're rolling pretty hard.

What do you go by?

- Rob Van Dam, RVD.

- Can you explain to me why your car smells like dope?

[crowd chants "RVD"]

- I bet it's about 4:20 right now, I got some time to burn.

In ECW, I started being known for the cannabis community.

I remember seeing a sign in New York and I just connected

with it and I loved the thought

of them associating me with that.

A lot of the cannabis references when it came to my character was

like tongue-and-cheek or if you get it you get it.

They're all going to see their favorite wrestler Rob Van Dam

smoking Tazz's ass, and just because this match means so much

to me, Tazz, I plan on getting in a couple of extra hits.

When I was in WWE, I used marijuana and I thought

that it was okay.

Dude, what have you been smoking?

You know, I never felt like I was really doing anything wrong.

I had that perspective like these people are drinking,

and alcohol is way worse.

They're smoking cigarettes.

What am I doing that's so wrong?

And that's how I felt.

Looking back, I think it's fair to say I spent so much time

trying to convince everybody that marijuana was something

that could be used responsibly when at the same time

I was pretty irresponsible.

We were on our way to Philadelphia

and I see the Christmas lights go up.

- We have our bags, suitcases on the ground open

with our clothes, the championship belt laying

there in the grass.

All these cars are driving by,

it was a pretty humbling experience.

I was quite embarrassed by it, by the whole thing.

We weren't busted for driving under the influence

or driving and smoking.

I got a ticket for possession of marijuana and speeding.

That's it.

I've been busted plenty of times before

and it had never went anywhere.

Just because I was World Champion,

that's what made it different.

By the time we got to the arena,

our bust was all over every form of media.

Everybody knew.

Vince McMahon was upset.

We had a little talk, he said you're going to be

suspended for 30 days.

Tonight, you're going to lose the WWE Championship.

- Rob Van Dam has lost the WWE title.

- Ugh.

Tomorrow night, you're going to lose the ECW Championship.

- Cover him.

- I was so disappointed in myself,

broke my heart

and the fans were so bummed.

They booed.

- We've got near riot conditions here in South Philly.

- They all started throwing their cups, and why?

Because I'm the cause of it.

So I had to eat that-

-and wanted to find a gutter to crawl into.

- At the time, the legality of it and the arrest is what

really made it bad.

- Representing the WWE, we're riding on your back

as World Champion, we have faith in you and then that faith

is shattered and it derailed RVD's career and it could have

derailed the WWE as well at that time.

- I think he probably could have gone to the moon and back.

If he didn't get arrested, Vince has to take a step back,

he has to reassess because he has a brand

to be concerned about.

- Now looking back at it, I can clearly see that it was

a very risky move, having me represent the whole company,

because I was a little bit of a wild card.

Anybody that thought that going with me might not be the right

move, because I might blow it,

well, I proved them all right.

Once I came back from the 30-day suspension, things had changed.

I didn't have the inspiration that I had.

I was so burnt out from all the non-stop

traveling and wrestling.

I was ready to go.

My contract expired with WWE in 2007.

At the same time, I didn't care if I ever wrestled again.

That's how burnt out I was, and I took some time away

from the business.

- Rob was tired of the grind.

Rob was tired of people telling him where to go,

when to be there, and how to do it, and needed a break.

- It takes a lot to walk away, and you know, it doesn't take

a whole lot to stay, and when someone does that,

they're doing it for themselves.

- I did a lot of meditating, building up my relationship

with the universe.

I opened up like a new part of me, a new Zen ninja RVD spirit

became my priority, and that started a whole new era

of post-WWE wrestling where I wasn't priced to work every

single weekend 'cause that's not what I wanted.

So when it got to the business end, everything was great.

However, at the same time, my marriage was going downhill.

At the end of 2015, we were officially separated.

And now I got this big cold empty house

then I got very depressed.

And I had this little dog and that dog was my source

of happiness and of positive energy and of love.

And when the dog died, you know, I was completely lost.

And then my dad was getting sick and I told myself,

"What if this happens?

Now what are you going to do?"

And, you know, that happened.

- He was pretty close with Dad and then for Dad to just go,

it was very hard for him.

- I hadn't really felt that kind of pain before.

I knew I'm always going to be RVD, I'm always going to be able

to go anywhere and find love.

People love me, but it didn't matter-

-when you're just like,

surrounded with darkness, none of that matters.

So I got to go through that and feel that, and moving forward,

I rebuilt myself and that gave me a new purpose.

I met Katie towards the end of my rock bottom.

And you know, at first, I felt like she should run

'cause of the place that I was in.

You know, a lot of times they say it's one day at a time,

but I was at a point where I couldn't imagine getting

to the end of the day and someone very wise said to me,

"Well, sometimes it's one moment at a time."

And that's what helped me because being with Katie has

been one happy moment that I just decided

to throw myself completely into.

- He was coming out of a dark time in his life,

so he wasn't looking for love at that time,

but I could just feel that it was there and meant to be.

- Rob Van Dam is headed to the WWE Hall of Fame.

- Please welcome Rob Van Dam.

[crowd cheering]

[Rob Van Dam's music plays]

- Every step of the way I had so many people trying

to change me because I was different,

but you understood me.

When I get up on the top rope and I look out to the crowd,

I don't know of a better high.

It seems like I would know, so thank you.

A lot of people feel like I was kicked out of the WWE,

like I was unaccepted, but I'm now up there with

the legends that I used to watch,

that inspired me to follow my dreams.

- For better or worse?

- No, in the best way.

- Oh, thank you.

- Yes, it's really cool.

- Yes.

Absolutely.

- Awesome.

- Do I have the drive that I used to have to prove

to everybody that I'm the best in the world?

No.

But where I'm at right now, I'm fulfilled.

[crowd yells "Rob Van Dam"]

- From the top to the floor.

- When you ask people some of the most exciting talent

of all times, Rob Van Dam is in that argument every single time.

- Rob Van Dam is an amazing human being.

- To ECW fans, he was our Hulk Hogan.

He was our Ric Flair.

- Is he thinking about going coast-to-coast?

- Those matches became a blueprint actually for

the independent style that morphed eventually into even

what you're seeing in WWE nowadays.

- Oh, my goodness.

What a collision.

- As he grew physically in his style, it all grew.

And the person on the inside started coming out,

and the person on the inside is a wonderful, wonderful human

being who loves to have fun and he's just-

you know, you want to wrap your arms around him.

- Rob Van Dam, the whole damn show is here.

[crowd chants "RVD"]

- I think the way that I've gone through life

kind of following own path,

has just been the only way that I could have lived my life.

[crowd yells "Rob Van Dam"]

- It's not about trying to be different, it's about not

bothering to try to be like everybody else.