Did you enjoy RVD's TNA run?

[Instant Classic]

If so what was his best feud and best match?

[Deleted]

Did anyone?

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

I didn't enjoy it. He clearly didn't give a f***, in particular once he lost the World Title and wasn't in the main event scene, and the way he won the title was stupid, and did a lot of damage to AJ.

[cabbageboy]

I enjoyed the first 6 months or so that he was there, and oddly enough I saw some hope in his X Division title run as well (though that ended up going nowhere since he left). The other 2 years though were pretty lousy for RVD. I think what his TNA run showed is that he's the worst possible wrestler to be involved in a bunch of wacky Russo storylines and goofy angles. Look at RVD's career before TNA. Other than his peripheral involvement in the foolish Kane 2003 storylines what really horrible angles had RVD done? He might have jobbed to some crappy guys in WWE (Kenzo Suzuki, Rene Dupree, etc.) but his character never really looked like a moron.

In TNA however? He was played for a sap and almost killed during the Immortal conspiracy. Bischoff played him for a fool during the whole "EV 2.0 mole" storyline, which sucked to high heaven. He actually jobbed to an out of shape Matt Hardy. He came up short time and time again in world title matches (vs. Sting, Anderson, even Roode). He had the idiotic feud with Jerry Lynn where Lynn cost him a bunch of BFG points. And the next year in the BFG Series all he needed was one win and he couldn't even get it over Robbie E. and then he choked his #4 position away. It wasn't just that he didn't care....he was made to look bad, like a guy that can't get it done anymore.

He really had no good feud exactly, maybe the Abyss stuff. As far as best match, I'd probably go with the match with Hardy on the show where he won the title. RVD actually had several good matches in TNA (Hardy, Styles, Joe, Abyss, Sabu, Lynn, tags with Beer Money, Aries, even Zema Ion), but he was booked terribly. I think had he stayed he would have wound up in the Sabin spot of getting the belt for a month, since he was X Division champ before he left.

[The Tank]

Rob Van Dam's TNA run was the exact reason I stopped watching TNA.

The night he won the title was the last time I watched Impact, and nothing they've done since has sounded good enough to come back for. (Or at least, the ratio of good stuff to unbearable crap has always swung in the favor of the crap since then.)

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Sept 14, 2013 10:21:04 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

I enjoyed the first 6 months or so that he was there, and oddly enough I saw some hope in his X Division title run as well (though that ended up going nowhere since he left). The other 2 years though were pretty lousy for RVD. I think what his TNA run showed is that he's the worst possible wrestler to be involved in a bunch of wacky Russo storylines and goofy angles. Look at RVD's career before TNA. Other than his peripheral involvement in the foolish Kane 2003 storylines what really horrible angles had RVD done? He might have jobbed to some crappy guys in WWE (Kenzo Suzuki, Rene Dupree, etc.) but his character never really looked like a moron.

In TNA however? He was played for a sap and almost killed during the Immortal conspiracy. Bischoff played him for a fool during the whole "EV 2.0 mole" storyline, which sucked to high heaven. He actually jobbed to an out of shape Matt Hardy. He came up short time and time again in world title matches (vs. Sting, Anderson, even Roode). He had the idiotic feud with Jerry Lynn where Lynn cost him a bunch of BFG points. And the next year in the BFG Series all he needed was one win and he couldn't even get it over Robbie E. and then he choked his #4 position away. It wasn't just that he didn't care....he was made to look bad, like a guy that can't get it done anymore.

He really had no good feud exactly, maybe the Abyss stuff. As far as best match, I'd probably go with the match with Hardy on the show where he won the title. RVD actually had several good matches in TNA (Hardy, Styles, Joe, Abyss, Sabu, Lynn, tags with Beer Money, Aries, even Zema Ion), but he was booked terribly. I think had he stayed he would have wound up in the Sabin spot of getting the belt for a month, since he was X Division champ before he left.

Pretty much this. I think he lost interest when they booked him like crap. His debut was terrible. Quick win on Sting followed by a 10 min breakdown by Sting. From day one it was horrible booking. And that likely made him not care.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I liked the absurdity of the time when Abyss kayfabed ruptured his spleen with Janice and then he recovered (and went on to beat him in a match) in three weeks.

[percymania]

It was almost unbelievable. He shows up, wins the top title as the bigwigs in TNA celebrate. Then in one of his first promos as champion he essentially admits to smoking weed and being happy he found a place where he's accepted. It further helped TNA's image of being the place for washed up WWE drug addicts.

Anyway, none of his matches stand out to me. He did have a few good matches early on. I seem to remember a cage match with Angle or Anderson or someone. I dunno.

[Deleted]

RVDs WWE return is proof positive that he was taking a paid vacation in TNA. He's looked really good since he returned. In TNA not so much, then again when you debut and get beaten with a bat by Sting for what felt like 10 minutes what do you expect?

[Stu]

His entrance video at least led to a good photoshop.

[grunt]

Sept 14, 2013 22:48:15 GMT -5 @akeem said:

RVDs WWE return is proof positive that he was taking a paid vacation in TNA. He's looked really good since he returned. In TNA not so much, then again when you debut and get beaten with a bat by Sting for what felt like 10 minutes what do you expect?

I'd say it's more a problem of "RVD is motivated as long as he's booked to win &/or to be in the running for a title". He's had plenty of good matches in TNA as long as he was pushed, and didn't have to job to "lesser talents" (in his first 10 months w/TNA, he had 34 matches, & only lost 7, all of those losses involving some sort of outside interference/distraction/cheating) ; and right now, in WWE, he's 18 matches in, 5 losses (well, 3, really, since 2 of them were multi-men matches he wasn't pinned in), only one of those losses being clean (to Orton in August), and he's pushed as a title contender.

Just wait until WWE decides that he's been pushed enough (maybe if he wins ADR's title, and Sandow cashes in) and you'll soon get auto-pilot RVD back in WWE.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

I think his t-shirt sums it up pretty nicely:

[Emmet Russell]

RVD was pretty much an RVD parody in TNA -- Same can be said for a lot of wrestlers who go over to their from the WWE.

Although I thought he was decent when he first arrived (not counting the "Match" with Sting), his first match with AJ was quite entertaining & although the feud was among the worst TNA have done, his 2 matches with Abyss were both really solid brawls where Abyss got to show he gelled really well with the smaller guys -- just like he did with AJ.

Overall though, his run was a ... well ... it didn't matter at all. I'm sure most fans didn't even know - or care - that he was wrestling in another company at the time. His entire time their meant absolutely nothing in the long-run.

[Mozenrath]

This redeems a lot of it. Yes, I know this is just reusing a spot from WCW, but it was still hilarious.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

No, I didn't like it at all. And a lot of it had to do with his attitude their. Even though he was a face, he had the personal attitude of a heel, which he never fixed.

[StuntGranny®]

Nah, he was pretty terrible in TNA. I'm fairly certain he was sleep walking throughout his entire time there.

I've seen him live at Raw and live at a TNA house show. I think his TNA house show appearance was the laziest display ever put forth by a professional wrestler.

[Johnny D]

Didn't enjoy it at all, especially his last match with King. Been awesome since he came back to the 'E but that just shows how unhappy he was in TNA.

[JTG Fan]

I thought his World Title run was okay even though I didn't like how he was the one to unseat AJ, but everything after that, from August 2010 until March 2013, was bad. So I'd give his TNA run a D+.

[Tony Schiavontay]

ROB VAN DAM! THE WHOLE F'IN SHOW!

[Kevin Hamilton]

He was phoning it in harder than ET. It's especially egregious considering how he's putting on really good matches in WWE right now.