Rob Van Dam has had a very successful career over the last few decades, and he managed to win numerous titles during his time with WWE. RVD was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, but many would argue that his legacy was created in ECW.
The first ever ECW pay-per-view, Barely Legal, aired in 1997 and during the show Rob Van Dam faced off against Lance Storm in a singles match. However, original plans called for Chris Candido to face Lance Storm, but RVD ended up replacing Chris Candido after he was pulled from the show due to injury.
Van Dam opened up about his feelings on Barely Legal during his WWE Icons documentary special, and he admitted that he was offended when Paul Heyman originally left him off the show.
“I was very offended that the first chance ECW has to put its foot forward and show everybody what extreme is about, you’re not gonna have RVD?” RVD said. “Because my ego did tell me that I was one of the best, most entertaining wrestlers on the card. I did believe that.”
Paul Heyman also revealed his reasons for leaving RVD off the card during WWE Icons, and Heyman claimed that he wasn’t sure how long RVD would be with the company.
“Rob Van Dam was not booked on Barely Legal because I did not know how long we were gonna hold on to Rob Van Dam. I needed that first pay-per-view to be very ECW-branded, and I didn’t know how long Rob Van Dam was going to be associated with the ECW brand.”
Ultimately RVD picked up a victory over Lance Storm at Barely Legal, so it seems that all’s well that ends well.
H/T Sportskeeda
