Rob Van Dam and Vince McMahon have famously never seen eye to eye too much. The former WWE and ECW Champion has spoken many times about butting heads with McMahon in the WWE and claimed that he could have “picked a hand” (an act where Van Dam offers someone to pick one of his hands that he would then punch them with) at one point in time, although the pair have never come to blows.
Van Dam spoke recently about McMahon leaving the WWE. He wrestled under the Chairman in the WWE from 2001, when ECW closed down, until 2007 when he was released due to being caught by police while in possession of marijuana. Due to this there has been tension between the pair ever since, although that did not preclude him from returning to the company twice more, in 2013 and 2014.
While on “NBC Sports Boston“, Rob Van Dam spoke about the recent retirement of Vince McMahon and firing of Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis. The pair left the company after being at the head of a huge sexual abuse scandal which saw nearly $20 million paid out to women allegedly abused by the Chairman and Laurinaitis.
“John Laurinaitis … he was my guy. I know a lot of people didn’t get along with him … I don’t like Vince being gone, but it might be, if it’s better for business then that’s awesome. I know that a lot of people don’t feel the way that I do about it, you know, but I feel more like I probably lost, you know, one of my only people I could imagine stopping by to want to say ‘Hello’ to.”
Any chance of a WWE return seems to have gone for RVD. He appears to be on good terms with Vince and John Laurinaitis, claiming that they some of “my only people” who he would stop by to say hello to in the WWE.
Luckily for Rob Van Dam, he already received one of the greatest honors in WWE whilst McMahon was still in power. He was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 for his career in ECW and WWE, putting a cap on the end of a wonderful career in WWE.
However, later in the interview he did mention that he would love to return and be part of the long rumoured RVD and Riddle tag team. Both men are known for their laid back approach and their love for smoking weed and would be a perfect duo to team together in the company.
Even with McMahon gone, Rob Van Dam signalled that it “would be awesome” to return to WWE to start a tag team with Riddle, but quelled any rumours by admitting “if they wanted me there, I would be there”.
“That would be awesome, yeah. You know what, I kinda feel like if they wanted me there, then I would be there. They would make it so that I would want to be there. Without having any, just being on the fence and not feeling hungry or either way, just whatever happens happens, like RVD is, I kinda feel like that.”
“I don’t know what they wanna do, what their plan is, what their agenda is for all their talent now. Seems like they want more normal-looking people that normal-looking people can relate to, maybe, but I really don’t even know. It’s whatever, but I’m around,”
Despite no longer wrestling in WWE (for the past 8 years), Rob Van Dam still wrestles regularly. He is a member of the Impact Wrestling roster as of 2022, and he has also recently turned back the clock by wrestling in Japan in Pro-Wrestling NOAH, putting on some excellent matches despite being aged 51.
Although he showed interest in returning, without Vince McMahon in charge Rob Van Dam seems unlikely to return WWE, especially with the tension between himself and Triple H over their careers affecting his employment with The Game now the head of creative.
