Should Rob Van Dam have won the WWF title in 2001?

[The Rick Jericho]

Watching back this period when you see him debut July 9th Raw and through the invasion. His pops got bigger and bigger and he might have even been the most popular guy in the company at that time.

The No Mercy triple threat with Angle and Austin was a pivotal point. Because I'm pretty sure that was booked months in advance and they just threw him in there because they were listening to the crowds.

So either at this show, No Mercy 2001 or even any other period in 2001, should the WWF have just hot shotted the title on RVD and let him run with it?

Austin meanwhile can do his thing, but without the title and still become the paranoid leader of the alliance, but not hold the title scene down.

Meanwhile RVD can go both ways feuding with heels and faces for the WWF title.

[fw91]

Not then. A year later, sure

[Mozenrath]

Not in 2001, but 2002 or 2003, I'd be down. The issues that'd bite him later would derail this, too, though, I bet.

[chazraps]

I'd only say 2001 if you find a way to make him the first ever undisputed champion at Vengeance 2001.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

No, but he should have won the WHC in 2002

[mc74]

Not in 2001, but you can definitely make the case for 2002.

[tirtefaa]

Winning the title in 2001 wouldn't have stopped the hemorrhaging of the fanbase, and I don't think that RVD was ready as far as being a leader, especially since there were a ton of guys who were better prepared, albeit maybe not as over. I just don't think it's ideal with the story they were trying to tell.

But like everyone else said? Yeah, he could have won the title in 2002 or 2003.

[johnnyk9]

I think he was ready

[salz4life]

I still remember going to No Mercy 2001 live and was actually thinking he might win that match with Angle and Austin. I was bummed he didn't.

[The Rick Jericho]

Mar 4, 2023 10:21:44 GMT -5 salz4life said:

I still remember going to No Mercy 2001 live and was actually thinking he might win that match with Angle and Austin. I was bummed he didn't.

I fell for it too. He was suppose to be no where near the title scene and only was put in the match because they actually listened to the crowd.

So I thought they were also going to strap him up leading into Survivor Series.

[ace]

I don’t know if he should have won in 2001…but he damn sure should have won it relatively soon after. He was so ungodly over. He just naturally connected with fans in a way they had trouble getting no matter how hard they worked. And 2002 was such a disaster for that title until Brock won it in the Summer. But then we got the big show after that? Ugh what an era.

[Aceorton]

It's really remarkable that he was even contending for the belt. It would have been the most WWF thing in the world to give him the Justin Credible treatment through the entire Invasion, no matter how fans were reacting to him. That said, I agree it would have been too soon to give him the title, even as a temporary swerve. Too many other big names needed story resolution for RVD to suddenly be the main focus.

Looking back, it's clear the top-tier guys were not happy about him encroaching on their turf so fast. There was a ton of chatter at the time about Angle and Jericho in particular complaining about his ringwork, claiming he was connecting for real on kicks and cutting them up. There may have been truth to that, but I'm sure there was also a political element.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Mar 5, 2023 2:38:04 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

It's really remarkable that he was even contending for the belt. It would have been the most WWF thing in the world to give him the Justin Credible treatment through the entire Invasion, no matter how fans were reacting to him. That said, I agree it would have been too soon to give him the title, even as a temporary swerve. Too many other big names needed story resolution for RVD to suddenly be the main focus.

Looking back, it's clear the top-tier guys were not happy about him encroaching on their turf so fast. There was a ton of chatter at the time about Angle and Jericho in particular complaining about his ringwork, claiming he was connecting for real on kicks and cutting them up. There may have been truth to that, but I'm sure there was also a political element.

Feel like those two in particular feeling threatened in terms of RVD coming up quickly is pretty rich considering Angle was champion within a year of his debut and Jericho while he took a bit longer was pretty much immediately an upper midcarder flirting with the main event scene.

[kingoftheindies]

If you look strictly at how over he was, either 2001 or 2002 should have had RVD winning the title. However, if you listen to him talk about how miserable he was with the schedule and politics? I'm sure he'll even say he's happy he didn't get the title... my favorite story basically being how creative wanted him to get mad for a feud he was doing with Jericho and spent all day trying to piss him off even with Jericho telling Rob right before they go out to picture him with Rob's wife

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I think they missed their window with that version of Jericho and would have elevated RVD that year with a world title.

[fg]

You have to remember that WWE was concerned that if he got the title, he would get arrested for drugs or get in trouble with drugs. That would have been bad PR for WWE.

In 2006, they gave him the WWE title…and he got busted for drugs.

[Jindrak Mark]

Mar 5, 2023 2:38:04 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

It's really remarkable that he was even contending for the belt. It would have been the most WWF thing in the world to give him the Justin Credible treatment through the entire Invasion, no matter how fans were reacting to him. That said, I agree it would have been too soon to give him the title, even as a temporary swerve. Too many other big names needed story resolution for RVD to suddenly be the main focus.

Looking back, it's clear the top-tier guys were not happy about him encroaching on their turf so fast. There was a ton of chatter at the time about Angle and Jericho in particular complaining about his ringwork, claiming he was connecting for real on kicks and cutting them up. There may have been truth to that, but I'm sure there was also a political element.

Yeah, I think it was more than just Angle and Jericho. I recall at the time it being reported that a bunch of people were unhappy at how sloppy he was. If you watch his matches during the invasion angle he was hardway cutting guys open on an almost weekly basis. In the space of just a couple months in 2001 he had a huge hit-list and a lot of them were important guys (Austin, Angle, Jericho, Hardy). I remember when he had a couple of matches with Rock the dirtsheets saying that Rock refused to take the Van Daminator due to his reputation. On top of that he also had extra heat for a Sunday Night Heat match he had with Jerry Lynn within his first month or so in the company. Lynn was basically a jobber and RVD was told to give him a bit of offense then quickly win strong but they went out there and went way overtime and went 50/50, trying to have one of their ECW epics and the match ended up being edited for TV.

He obviously learned to work safer because once we hit 2002 he stopped busting guys open all the time. Then just as the heat was dying down for that he crushed HHH's throat at Survivor Series, although in that case a lot of the blame goes to the structure of the chamber and the roof not being high enough. One of the rare instances were not being high enough would have been a problem with RVD.

[Celgress]

Yes, I voted yes. I think he could have had an interesting title run.

[The Rick Jericho]

Mar 8, 2023 23:10:29 GMT -5 Celgress said:

Yes, I voted yes. I think he could have had an interesting title run.

Even if it went like this.

RVD def. Austin and Angle at No Mercy. And if he has a small run and drops the title to Jericho at the Rumble who can then do the scheduled HHH program at Mania. It was worth a shot. Austin holding down the title after Summerslam 2001 really hurt other guys chances to do something with it. RVD was hot and fresh at the time.

[Instant Classic]

Nah, I feel he won it when he should have.