Rob Van Dam is one of the most iconic stars who rose to fame in ECW. Plenty of remarkable performers called the legendary promotion their home and helped put it on the map. Names like Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, The Sandman, Rhino, and many others are still referred to as “ECW Originals.” Two decades after the end of the promotion’s initial run, it’s fair to wonder which stars could be considered all-time greats in ECW history.
During a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, when asked about who he’d put next to himself on the promotion’s Mount Rushmore, RVD first gave the honor to Sabu and Taz, but he made it clear that it was difficult to pick.
“Sabu, of course there’s so many guys, you know that it’s hard to decide, between Dreamer, Sandman, and Taz, Raven,” said RVD. “Let’s put Taz up there.”
Rob Van Dam then explained that ECW originals like Sabu and Tommy Dreamer, among others, built the foundation of the company, so they carried more weight in his consideration about the promotion’s Mount Rushmore. He emphasized how hard it was to limit the answer to three or four picks before he chose Tommy Dreamer as the third member of the group.
“It would be really hard, but if Dreamer’s not up there already, I would go with him,” said RVD. “Honorable mention to Sandman, Raven, well you can go on and on and say what about The Eliminators, what about these guys, that guy? But I’m trying to think of who’s been there the longest and who’s had the most impact on the company. And it’s a pretty good three or four, but I’d rather be able to put six on.”
RVD then described how, though he doesn’t view staying loyal to ECW as a mistake, he was wrong to believe that the company would “take off” and reach new levels of success once it got a national TV deal. That being said, he made it clear that he still wouldn’t have jumped ship and signed elsewhere, even knowing what he knows now.
“The belief that it was gonna take off obviously was a mistake,” said RVD. “You know, the belief that you know what, once we get on a national TV channel, boom! And I thought, in my mind, all the sudden, we’re in all these different homes, and I also thought they were gonna promote it. I thought we were gonna be on the sides of buses, going through downtown, telling people about us. Eyes are gonna be pointed our way and that’s all we need because we’re so f—— cool. And I believed that it was going to take off.
“Do I think that was a mistake, in retrospect? Sure. And going through it again, I wouldn’t have changed it. I wouldn’t have jumped ship. That’s part of who I am. It’s part of my real character, in real life, as much as it is the wrestler, RVD.”
The full episode is available here:
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