RVD - 2001 - The World Championships

[543Y2J]

Everyone knows how over RVD was in his initial run, especially in the early years, but would you put RVD as far as overness in the company during his debut/Invasion/late 2001 with Undisputed Championship? Was he close to the Austin/Rock levels? Taker/Kane/Angle/Jericho/Show/Booker etc level? Was he below or do you feel that he was just as over as anyone else would be due to it being attitude era? Could he have been even bigger during that time, despite the amount of talent vieing for the top spot in the company both new (WCW/ECW mid and uppermid card) and old?

Also with him being an entertity to himself in The Alliance on overness/match quality/being a tweener (an over face in the Alliance group). Could they have given him one of the World Championships during that year successfully even though he was new to the company, but still a veteran? (The WCW Championship/WWF Championship/Undisputed Championship)

[Instant Classic]

I liked the position he had in the Alliance. HE at least got a shot at the title against Angle and Austin. However I wouldn't of given him the title.

[Deleted]

He was over as HELL in 2001-2002, his popularity was such that he'd get cheered over just about anybody. As far as that went, he was definitely over enough to be WWE, World, or Undisputed champion. He was such a breath of fresh air, everyone else on top was a long-winded promo guy but he was the epitome of cool that barely needed to talk and had the most exciting matches and offensive repertoire in the business at the time. I know I was rooting for him to win every match, no matter who he was in there with.

[JTG Fan]

I would easily put him in the Austin/Rock category in 2001. The fans just immediately bought into everything about him and seemed to see him as a breath of fresh air from the 'old guard' of main eventers. I'm not a huge RVD fan, but the WWF massively dropped the ball by not listening to the fans and instead shunting RVD back down into the midcard.

[Amazing Kitsune]

Wasn't there some sort of rumor that Jericho held him down or something?

[Feyrhausen]

I don't know about Jericho but Angle (and even his wife) complained that RVD was too stiff.

[dreamer75]

Oct 27, 2013 12:45:39 GMT -5 Amazing Kitsune said:

Wasn't there some sort of rumor that Jericho held him down or something?

I am pretty sureahh the their was a gameah played. And it was his time because it would be best for business...

[OGBoardPoster2005]

RVD should have won the title at WM 18. I would've accepted that.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Timing was against him really. By the time he became hot, Austin was leading the Alliance, so he couldn't be the number 1 guy, he couldn't be the WWE number 1 guy, when the Invasion finished, Jericho got th big push, which is the only time they could have given him a big push, then HHH returned at the Rumble to have his big win at Wrestlemania, which needed HHH as a face.

There just wasn't really a good chance to give him the belt until a year later.

[pepsitwist]

That, and booking DDP as the stalker are some of the biggest errors in the Alliance storyline.

[Deleted]

RVD was Jeff Hardy before Jeff was, in terms of just somehow connecting with the audience through mannerisms without saying much.

[pepsitwist]

Oct 27, 2013 16:24:10 GMT -5 @bootytime said:

RVD was Jeff Hardy before Jeff was, in terms of just somehow connecting with the audience through mannerisms without saying much.

Wait, I thought Jeff Hardy got over by taking his shirt off for impressionable teenage girls?

[thegame415]

I always felt he could've jumped from the Alliance o the WWF.

[rapidfire187]

Oct 27, 2013 13:03:09 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

RVD should have won the title at WM 18. I would've accepted that.

Hell yes, they could have let Regal and HHH have a personal blood feud too and let Edge vs Booker T be over the IC championship. With Jericho vs RVD as the main event. Would have been a much better show that way IMO.

[cabbageboy]

Oddly enough Jericho and RVD did have a mini feud on Raw when Jericho was champ. In fact Flair taught RVD the Figure 4 leading up to it. The whole thing went nowhere though. RVD has done interviews detailing Jericho's ham fisted attempts at playing politics (complaining about RVD getting pushed, trying to insert spots into a match to make himself look good at RVD's expense). So really if HHH came back and buried Jericho I'm not all that saddened by it.

Van Dam's timing was off. He was hugely over but this was during the fiasco of the Invasion angle and his push ended up being a casualty of it when they killed the storyline. I still remember to this day how jarring it was to go to a Raw leading up to Survivor Series 2001 and seeing RVD job clean to Edge. This was right after he had just main evented a PPV. What they should have done is had Austin pin Angle in that 3 way at No Mercy, then do Austin vs. RVD at Survivor Series for the title. Between PPVs they could have even had RVD officially turn face and join the WWF side, with the idea being him bringing the belt back to the WWF side.

Ironically from a character standpoint I always kinda liked that RVD never sold out and joined the WWF side. He had the Hardcore title and was grandfathered in after the Alliance broke up. He never cut some pro WWF promo either. I think the fact that RVD has never really been booked like a total goof or loser is a major reason I view him better than Jericho, who has more title wins but also has been booked like a total joke at times over the years.