Post by PCW on Jun 6, 2005 16:43:21 GMT -5
Special thanks to Tim Baines for providing great local coverage of important events once again.
www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/Sports/2005/06/06/1073453-sun.html
R-V-D's ready to rumble, injury or not
By TIM BAINES
Rob Van Dam's doctor may not clear him to wrestle until August. But that won't stop Van Dam from appearing at WWE's June 12 ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view.
After all, he is R-V-D, The Whole F'in Show. And it was he who initially pitched the idea to WWE big cheese Vince McMahon.
"I'll be involved with the show as much as I possibly can," says Van Dam, who is coming off knee surgery. "The doctors have told me lots of times before that I couldn't wrestle ... and I've proven them wrong."
Hardcore? You bet. Huge threshold of pain? Yep, he's bordering on maniacal. But he believes he owes so much not only to ECW, but to the fans.
"I started with ECW in 1996," says Van Dam. "And I was intimidated by the reputation of the company. Most of that was the crowd. The fans were so bloodthirsty and demanding. Expectations were high for the wrestlers.These fans would be just waiting for you to slip up so they could chant: "You f---ed up.'
"The fans totally ran the whole show. Since there were no rules in ECW, my thing was I wanted to get more creative with a chair. I would spin kick a steel chair into somebody's face. That became the Van Daminator. I realized I had to outdo the Van Daminator so I'd do it off the top rope ... then it came the Super Van Daminator. Then there was the Van Terminator. ECW was about always topping yourself."
He remembers a show soon after winning the world TV title from Bam Bam Bigelow in Buffalo. He was facing Mikey Whipwreck.
"(ECW owner) Paul Heyman told me to expect it to be totally different ... to expect my popularity to be tenfold. Everything turned for me that night.I felt like I ascended to be The Whole F'in Show. And from that night, the fans would chant: 'R-V-D!'
"I had to make sure they were happy they bought their tickets every night. And I never had a problem with that. That was the night that started the momentum that got me to where I am today."
It was that kind of nostalgia that sparked Van Dam to approach McMahon with the idea.
"I told him it could be for one night only. We didn't need storylines. The injury was the toughest pill to swallow, but I did not want to miss the show. Some of the WWE writers want to dip their hands into it, but we're not going to let them ruin the show ... and maybe we'll kick the snot out of those WWE wrestlers."
And what about the ECW hardcore style, the balls-to-the-wall, buzzsaw matches that left a trail of welts, cuts, bruises and broken bones behind.
"A lot of wrestlers wouldn't survive in ECW. Some came in and after one or two weeks, couldn't take it and got out."
Don't be surprised if Van Dam is once again The Whole F'in Show, at least for One Night Stand.
- Here are the results of the Premier Cup from the LID Nightclub in Winnipeg on Thursday night, in front of 300 fans: Mentallo beat Scorpio; Amazing Red beat Rawskillz; Kenny Omega beat Cisco Satanico; Chris Sabin beat Robby Royce; Amazing Red beat Mentallo; Omega beat Sabin, and Omega beat Amazing Red to win the Premier Cup and the NWA Canadian X Division Championship.
www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/Sports/2005/06/06/1073453-sun.html
R-V-D's ready to rumble, injury or not
By TIM BAINES
Rob Van Dam's doctor may not clear him to wrestle until August. But that won't stop Van Dam from appearing at WWE's June 12 ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view.
After all, he is R-V-D, The Whole F'in Show. And it was he who initially pitched the idea to WWE big cheese Vince McMahon.
"I'll be involved with the show as much as I possibly can," says Van Dam, who is coming off knee surgery. "The doctors have told me lots of times before that I couldn't wrestle ... and I've proven them wrong."
Hardcore? You bet. Huge threshold of pain? Yep, he's bordering on maniacal. But he believes he owes so much not only to ECW, but to the fans.
"I started with ECW in 1996," says Van Dam. "And I was intimidated by the reputation of the company. Most of that was the crowd. The fans were so bloodthirsty and demanding. Expectations were high for the wrestlers.These fans would be just waiting for you to slip up so they could chant: "You f---ed up.'
"The fans totally ran the whole show. Since there were no rules in ECW, my thing was I wanted to get more creative with a chair. I would spin kick a steel chair into somebody's face. That became the Van Daminator. I realized I had to outdo the Van Daminator so I'd do it off the top rope ... then it came the Super Van Daminator. Then there was the Van Terminator. ECW was about always topping yourself."
He remembers a show soon after winning the world TV title from Bam Bam Bigelow in Buffalo. He was facing Mikey Whipwreck.
"(ECW owner) Paul Heyman told me to expect it to be totally different ... to expect my popularity to be tenfold. Everything turned for me that night.I felt like I ascended to be The Whole F'in Show. And from that night, the fans would chant: 'R-V-D!'
"I had to make sure they were happy they bought their tickets every night. And I never had a problem with that. That was the night that started the momentum that got me to where I am today."
It was that kind of nostalgia that sparked Van Dam to approach McMahon with the idea.
"I told him it could be for one night only. We didn't need storylines. The injury was the toughest pill to swallow, but I did not want to miss the show. Some of the WWE writers want to dip their hands into it, but we're not going to let them ruin the show ... and maybe we'll kick the snot out of those WWE wrestlers."
And what about the ECW hardcore style, the balls-to-the-wall, buzzsaw matches that left a trail of welts, cuts, bruises and broken bones behind.
"A lot of wrestlers wouldn't survive in ECW. Some came in and after one or two weeks, couldn't take it and got out."
Don't be surprised if Van Dam is once again The Whole F'in Show, at least for One Night Stand.
- Here are the results of the Premier Cup from the LID Nightclub in Winnipeg on Thursday night, in front of 300 fans: Mentallo beat Scorpio; Amazing Red beat Rawskillz; Kenny Omega beat Cisco Satanico; Chris Sabin beat Robby Royce; Amazing Red beat Mentallo; Omega beat Sabin, and Omega beat Amazing Red to win the Premier Cup and the NWA Canadian X Division Championship.