Did no one try to steal RVD from ECW?

[Dave the Dave]

They had to try right? Did he turn them down because he was loyal or what? I've never really heard stories about it.

[Joe Neglia]

I know he was in talks with WCW at one point (just as Taz was) but I can't remember why he never went through with it.

[Deleted]

I think that he was about to join WCW, but then they went out of business. Not sure why he didn't make a move earlier or if there wasn't interest for some reason though.

[Capt Lunatic]

I always thought he just enjoyed the "big fish/small pond" thing. Plus he pretty much had total freedom in ECW to do whatever drugs he wanted and wrestle for 45 minutes.

Maybe he thought if he stuck around he might get some of the money owed him.

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

His price was too high

[Mozenrath]

Wasn't he injured for an extended period too? I remember something like that being virtually the only reason he was never ECW champion, as Paul clearly saw him as a huge deal.

Keep in mind, it wasn't just his highflying moves and flexibility. By ECW standards, he was also much more muscular than most of the guys, and was sort of like an equivalent to Brock for them, excelling at everything.

[Ryushinku]

Jul 23, 2014 7:40:54 GMT -5 Brood Lone Wolf Funker said:

His price was too high

Insert joke here.

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

Jul 23, 2014 7:43:41 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Wasn't he injured for an extended period too? I remember something like that being virtually the only reason he was never ECW champion, as Paul clearly saw him as a huge deal.

Keep in mind, it wasn't just his highflying moves and flexibility. By ECW standards, he was also much more muscular than most of the guys, and was sort of like an equivalent to Brock for them, excelling at everything.

He did have a broken ankle

[Sephiroth]

I think WCW was looking to pick up RVD, Sabu, and Kid Kash right before they went under

[Dave the Dave]

Jul 23, 2014 9:01:53 GMT -5 Brood Lone Wolf Funker said:

Jul 23, 2014 7:43:41 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Wasn't he injured for an extended period too? I remember something like that being virtually the only reason he was never ECW champion, as Paul clearly saw him as a huge deal.

Keep in mind, it wasn't just his highflying moves and flexibility. By ECW standards, he was also much more muscular than most of the guys, and was sort of like an equivalent to Brock for them, excelling at everything.

He did have a broken ankle

That's right. I bet someone would have scooped him up right when he was HUGELY over as TV champ but he went down with that injury. That could have pushed it back.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

He said in his shoot that when WWF was booking him as Mr. Monday Night they just assumed he was jumping because WWF is obviously a bigger deal than ECW and they wanted him. He turned them down to stay in ECW and he was phased out shortly after.

[kingoftheindies]

Jul 22, 2014 20:52:11 GMT -5 @akeem said:

I think that he was about to join WCW, but then they went out of business. Not sure why he didn't make a move earlier or if there wasn't interest for some reason though.

Sabu was supposed to jump in May of 2000 but Heyman threatened legal actions after the Mike Awesome fiasco so WCW stopped negotiating with him. Only reason they were able to get Lance Storm was because Lance made sure he had a contract when he came to ECW and he knew when it expired.

[cabbageboy]

Storm was also one of the few guys that Heyman managed to pay more or less on time, at least according to him on the Rise and Fall DVD. As far as RVD goes, I think he had that cup of coffee with the WWF enough to see that it wasn't really what he was after circa 1997. Politically the fed was a chaotic situation. Once Heyman committed to pushing him in early 1998 he really had no reason to go. I think he also realized he could be presented as a big deal in ECW, whereas in WCW he would be one of a 100 guys lost in the shuffle.

The only injury he had that I know of was the ankle injury in March 2000 that forced him out of the match with Mike Awesome. That match would have likely prevented a ton of negative crap from going down, stuff like Awesome bolting for WCW with the title, the whole idiotic situation with Taz coming back, Justin Credible getting the belt at all, etc. The injury was a dagger for ECW on so many levels. Not only did RVD not take that final step to the ECW World title, but he never even jobbed the TV title to anyone so no one got a serious rub from beating him for the belt. RVD's whole year of 2000 sucked to be honest. Once he got back from injury he mostly screwed around with Scotty Anton, jobbed to Rhino, and then late in the year was on the outs with the company over money.

You know the ultimate irony of Van Dam's career? He always preferred being in ECW where he could wrestle for however long he wanted, yet his early WWF work showed how much better he could be when he had to focus everything on a 9 minute TV match. RVD could get lost out there if he had to go 30 minutes, but once you distill his wild moves into a shorter TV match he got massively over.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

On the Steve Austin show, I think Heyman said something to the effect that he sold part of ECW to either Akklaim (I think I'm the only one who liked the ECW games) or the company that did their action figures, just so they could pay Rob.
Also idk if RVD signed a contract or not, that's how Sabu got screwed in 99, those contracts were a piece of work, Stevie Richard said that Paul handed him a blank piece of paper and said "sign it, why you don't trust me?"
Heyman's DVD comes out just as the statue of limitations ran out, it's actually a quote from the ad.

[________ has left the building]

Jul 23, 2014 9:05:40 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

I think WCW was looking to pick up RVD, Sabu, and Kid Kash right before they went under

They did sign Kash and EZ Money weeks before WCW went out of business. Corino was suppose to join also round by the time of their demise. 

[kingoftheindies]

Jul 23, 2014 22:33:37 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

Storm was also one of the few guys that Heyman managed to pay more or less on time, at least according to him on the Rise and Fall DVD. As far as RVD goes, I think he had that cup of coffee with the WWF enough to see that it wasn't really what he was after circa 1997. Politically the fed was a chaotic situation. Once Heyman committed to pushing him in early 1998 he really had no reason to go. I think he also realized he could be presented as a big deal in ECW, whereas in WCW he would be one of a 100 guys lost in the shuffle.

The only injury he had that I know of was the ankle injury in March 2000 that forced him out of the match with Mike Awesome. That match would have likely prevented a ton of negative crap from going down, stuff like Awesome bolting for WCW with the title, the whole idiotic situation with Taz coming back, Justin Credible getting the belt at all, etc. The injury was a dagger for ECW on so many levels. Not only did RVD not take that final step to the ECW World title, but he never even jobbed the TV title to anyone so no one got a serious rub from beating him for the belt. RVD's whole year of 2000 sucked to be honest. Once he got back from injury he mostly screwed around with Scotty Anton, jobbed to Rhino, and then late in the year was on the outs with the company over money.

You know the ultimate irony of Van Dam's career? He always preferred being in ECW where he could wrestle for however long he wanted, yet his early WWF work showed how much better he could be when he had to focus everything on a 9 minute TV match. RVD could get lost out there if he had to go 30 minutes, but once you distill his wild moves into a shorter TV match he got massively over.

Mike Awesome was actually Hulk Hogan's nephew and Horace Hogan's cousin. He was very close to Horace and was frustrated about how far back he was on getting his money, Horace told Hulk, and Hulk asked Awesome why he would continue to wrestle for a guy who wasn't paying him. So I think that Awesome was out no matter what because Hulk got him in contact with Bischoff for a contract

Of course, a lot of the issues also goon Heyman pissing TNN executives off at every turn to the point they pulled support of ECW after a month on their network (still had the show, but stopped helping because of dealing with Heyman)

[Dave the Dave]

Jul 24, 2014 6:46:42 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Jul 23, 2014 9:05:40 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

I think WCW was looking to pick up RVD, Sabu, and Kid Kash right before they went under

They did sign Kash and EZ Money weeks before WCW went out of business. Corino was suppose to join also round by the time of their demise. 

Yeah it was either the 2nd to last or last WCW ppv where EZ Money had a really good match. It's a shame both companies went down. WCW probably wouldn't have turned a corner but they had some new talent that could have helped.

[cabbageboy]

Jul 24, 2014 7:34:23 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

Jul 23, 2014 22:33:37 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

Storm was also one of the few guys that Heyman managed to pay more or less on time, at least according to him on the Rise and Fall DVD. As far as RVD goes, I think he had that cup of coffee with the WWF enough to see that it wasn't really what he was after circa 1997. Politically the fed was a chaotic situation. Once Heyman committed to pushing him in early 1998 he really had no reason to go. I think he also realized he could be presented as a big deal in ECW, whereas in WCW he would be one of a 100 guys lost in the shuffle.

The only injury he had that I know of was the ankle injury in March 2000 that forced him out of the match with Mike Awesome. That match would have likely prevented a ton of negative crap from going down, stuff like Awesome bolting for WCW with the title, the whole idiotic situation with Taz coming back, Justin Credible getting the belt at all, etc. The injury was a dagger for ECW on so many levels. Not only did RVD not take that final step to the ECW World title, but he never even jobbed the TV title to anyone so no one got a serious rub from beating him for the belt. RVD's whole year of 2000 sucked to be honest. Once he got back from injury he mostly screwed around with Scotty Anton, jobbed to Rhino, and then late in the year was on the outs with the company over money.

You know the ultimate irony of Van Dam's career? He always preferred being in ECW where he could wrestle for however long he wanted, yet his early WWF work showed how much better he could be when he had to focus everything on a 9 minute TV match. RVD could get lost out there if he had to go 30 minutes, but once you distill his wild moves into a shorter TV match he got massively over.

Mike Awesome was actually Hulk Hogan's nephew and Horace Hogan's cousin. He was very close to Horace and was frustrated about how far back he was on getting his money, Horace told Hulk, and Hulk asked Awesome why he would continue to wrestle for a guy who wasn't paying him. So I think that Awesome was out no matter what because Hulk got him in contact with Bischoff for a contract

Of course, a lot of the issues also goon Heyman pissing TNN executives off at every turn to the point they pulled support of ECW after a month on their network (still had the show, but stopped helping because of dealing with Heyman)

Hold up. Awesome very much did wrestle at Living Dangerously 2000 (vs. Kid Kash, which I had forgotten), which was the original show RVD/Awesome was planned for. They did the angle on TV to set it up and everything, but RVD got hurt. That PPV was actually a tourney show for the TV title after RVD vacated.

[auph10imitated]

He was too high to care where he was, I bet he didnt even know what company he was wrestling for most of the time. He would have been another WCW waste though

[Dave the Dave]

Same question for Nova and Chetti