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Rob Van Dam


Grimmas

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RVD is my least favorite wrestler of all time, but I can separate favorites from best. Therefore, he will be #1012 on my list of best wrestlers ever, just ahead of Moppy and Pepe the hobby horse, but hey, if he's on your list and all, that's cool, because we're open minded.

 

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RVD for me is a wrestler who might not be the smartest but is just flat out fun. The best two years of his career are 2001 and 2006, with 2001 being his best year.

 

'01 saw real strong matches and performances against Jeff Hardy, Jericho, Austin, Angle, The Undertaker and Kane. His 2006 featured decent stuff with Cena (twice), Rey Mysterio, Test and the best match of Bob Holly's career. His WWE work in other years could be seen as good if somewhat flawed.

 

Outside of that I enjoyed the hell out of the 6/9/95 Dan Kroffat match from All Japan, and his ECW work has the matches with Doug Furnas, Jerry Lynn, Sabu, Bam Bam Bigelow and Lance Storm.

 

He was off more times than when he was on, but he a blast when he was having a good night.

 

Where I stand right now, he has a chance at making my list, but he's not set in stone (just like The Great Sasuke). I guess it comes down to how others do for me over the next year and a half.

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Yeah, I really like his 2006 too. Once ECW was revived he must have been really motivated and it showed. ONS with Cena is great, there's a great little three way with him and Edge on Raw at that time too. There's a fun sprint with Rey on the Head 2 Head special. And once ECW TV began he was really putting in work on a weekly basis. Really good matches with Angle, Show, Holly, Test, and really holding down the fort as the ECW Original babyface ace for the brand, especially once they lost Angle. That year is definitely a feather in his cap.

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I may have to rewatch his 2006 run since I tend to fall on the side of not liking RVD at all. I will say that I like RVD/Orton from One Night Stand 2007 and think he does a great sell job in that one if anyone hasn't seen it. When I get started on viewing for this (should be soon), I'm going to explore the tag runs of a lot of workers and I'm interested to see how the team with Sabu holds up and even the run with Kane which I remember spawning some fun matches. As far as people who have jumped off high things in the past, I'd definitely put Matt Hardy on the list ahead of him but I'll rewatch his matches, for completion sake.

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RVD in 2006 worth watching:

 

Money in the Bank II - Wrestlemania 22

vs Rey Mysterio - WWE vs ECW Head to Head

vs John Cena - One Night Stand 2

w/ Angle vs Edge & Orton - ECW 20th June 2006

vs Edge - Vengeance 2006

vs Kurt Angle - ECW 27th June 2006

vs Cena vs Edge - Raw 3rd July 2006

vs Big Show - ECW 4th July 2006

vs Bob Holly - ECW 26th September 2006

vs Test - ECW 3rd October 2006

w/ Holly vs Show/Test - ECW 31st October 2006

w/ Holly vs Show & Heyman - ECW 7th November 2006

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RVD in 2006 worth watching:

 

Money in the Bank II - Wrestlemania 22

vs Rey Mysterio - WWE vs ECW Head to Head

vs John Cena - One Night Stand 2

w/ Angle vs Edge & Orton - ECW 20th June 2006

vs Edge - Vengeance 2006

vs Kurt Angle - ECW 27th June 2006

vs Cena vs Edge - Raw 3rd July 2006

vs Big Show - ECW 4th July 2006

vs Bob Holly - ECW 26th September 2006

vs Test - ECW 3rd October 2006

w/ Holly vs Show/Test - ECW 31st October 2006

w/ Holly vs Show & Heyman - ECW 7th November 2006

 

Thanks, this is great. The Mysterio match will be my first port of call since I'm on a real Rey kick atm.

 

RVD vs. Rey Mysterio - WWE VS. ECW Head to Head

 

I now remember how weird a year 2006 was for WWE between the ECW revival, the Rey title run and the period where Ric Flair was working crazy hardcore matches. Anyway, this is the RVD that I do enjoy, which is, him being a gigantic prick, showboating and posing as a heel which I think he does really well. The press slam into a moonsault looks really nasty since his knee comes right down across Rey's face. There's a slight fuck-up where RVD slips on the barricade before a leg-drop and re-does it again, only to quickly get in his little pose which I would normally hate but Rey moves so it's cool. Like I say, this is the RVD that I find entertaining since he fully leans into being an asshole. RVD is now in the crowd but Rey follows up with a springboard dive into the first row which looks so great. We come back from the break with the match still moving fast as they continue the running theme of RVD having the power advantage over Rey when RVD reverses a bulldog attempt and crotches Rey on the ropes. He follows it up by hitting a kick from the top rope that sends Rey crashing to the outside in a nice bump. There's a guillotine leg-drop from RVD that looks really nasty as Rey's selling and bumping remains great, especially when he takes a drop-toe hold straight into the turnbuckle at real speed. RVD grabs a chair and dropkicks it right into Rey's face in a spot that I wish the camera had picked up slightly better but Rey sells it incredibly and RVD follows it up by bowing to the audience. Rey is now in the corner and RVD tries a strange Rolling Thunder attempt whilst holding a steel chair but Rey moves and this time, hits a bulldog from the top straight onto the discarded chair. I'm not sure what RVD was going for there but the bulldog spot was a nice callback. Rey lays RVD onto the chair and goes for the West Coast Pop whilst groggily walking to the ropes in a great little bit but RVD moves and plants the chair into Rey's chest before heading to the top and hitting the Five Star. Strangely, right before impact, Rey throws the chair off of his chest. Maybe that wasn't the planned finish? Well anyway, RVD wins going into the PPV and yeah, that's a really good match. I think Rey is the better of the two in it because it lets Rey sell a lot which is what he's great at but RVD is good here, acting the dick, even selling the knee immediately after the tumble into the crowd. This is well worth a watch for both guys, not just Rey, even though there's that one spot where RVD derails it slightly.

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His very best match was the Ladder Match with Eddie.

 

I was a huge fan as a teenager but now he represents everything I hate about wrestling. He got marginally better when he got to WWE, but that only eliminated about half of his annoying tendencies. He seems like someone who should be on dancing with the stars.

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Awful pro-wrestler. I did enjoy some RVD, especially from the early years. But he's part of the "I'd be happy never to see another match of his" club.

No. He's a guy that offers a ton of potentiality to do cool things. He just needs the right opponents to be able to have a nice dance. He's also very singular, there really isn't anyone working like RVD.

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  • 8 years later...

I wonder if Rob has the most "one of my least favorite wrestlers ever" comments in his PWO thread. He still got a top 20 vote in 2016 by anonymous (who I dont blame for staying anonymous). Van Dam is not someone I'm considering or even particularly enjoy but I understand the appeal and I don't think he looks crazy on a list. He does have some stuff I really like so I don't think he's the worst or my least favorite wrestler. I think the famous match with Bigelow is fantastic and one of the best US matches of 1998. There's a match with Little Guido from 6/00 that I thought was awesome. Its been a while since I've watched it but I remember loving the big match with Cena. I think he has surprisingly good chemistry with The Rock. There's even an RVD & Sabu vs Eliminators match I liked when I watched it a lifetime ago. 

He's an insane bumper and definitely a unique wrestler. Like I said he's not someone I'm not considering, but I think he's worth re-nominating. 

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I'll also vouch for RVD by saying that he was a guy who brightened up any AJPW match that included him, though that's speaking for a version of RVD that was more reserved, actually sold and got over stuff. He also made AJPW Shiga watchable, which is not a easy task! I also feel like Sabu is just a better version of him in all aspects, including the crazy spots. One thing I'll give him is that he's always entertained me somehow in every match he's been in, even if that's mostly due to just doing cool stuff for the sake of it. He's a fun videogame-like wrestler who just goes full tilt most of the time, that definitely can be appealing for a lot of people.

 

 

 

 

 

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