• OLD SCHOOL HISTORY (October 29, 2001) – WWF RAW IS WAR
On this day in 2001, the World Wrestling Federation aired another LIVE episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF RAW IS WAR’.
It was broadcasted from the Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky and featured matches, interviews & segments, on the road to the ‘WWF Rebellion 2001’ PPV.
Here’s the card:
1. Edge vs. Rob Van Dam
2. Hurricane Helms & Mighty Molly vs. Tajiri & Torrie Wilson
3. WWF World Tag Titles: The Rock & Chris Jericho vs. Booker T. & Test
4. Lita vs. Stacy Keibler
5. Kurt Angle vs. William Regal
6. Dudley Boyz vs. The Undertaker & Kane
7. Street Fight: Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon
• Backstage Story On Former WWE Champion Refusing To Do A Romantic Storyline With Stephanie McMahon
Vince McMahon once wanted to do a romantic storyline between former WWE Champion Rob Van Dam & Stephanie McMahon.
Old School WWF Veteran Bruce Prichard (a.k.a Brother Love) explained this storyline and you can read the entire conversation below:
Host: They started teasing on-screen romance with Rob Van Dam and Stephanie McMahon Helmsley, who is the on-screen owner of ECW and in storyline married to Triple H. At this time Triple H is out with the torn quad but they’re not yet married in real life. This feels like a Vince McMahon idea. Who came up with Rob Van Dam being in a romantic relationship with Stephanie?
Prichard: It was Vince McMahon’s idea because he wanted more emotion out of RVD and he felt that Rob was too one-dimensional. (He) felt that if there was a love interest or a relationship, that we could get more out of Rob. So it was up to me to make that pitch.
Host: So the pitch happens and Rob at the time was married and he himself would say he had an insecure wife, who was giving him sh*t anytime an attractive woman was even nearby.
So now that there’s gonna be some sort of romance on TV while she’s not there, maybe that’s not the best idea. And allegedly he shares that with you and you say, “Oh that’s good. I don’t know unless you tell me. So now that I know what you’re comfortable with, I know we have something we can work with. We’ll figure it out.”
So he gets to the building the next week and Brian gives him the script and it’s the exact same thing. And it even goes a little further than what he was told it would be at first.
Prichard: Rob wanted to kill me. Rob wanted to do the famous pick-a-hand with me and knock my head off. But the story that has never been told on the other side of that was, I did go back and shared Rob’s concerns. Because when you go to a talent (and) you ask him, “Okay, do you have any problems with this angle or this story that we’re gonna tell?” And Rob had concerns.
He didn’t want to do it. And his real life situation, he didn’t feel comfortable doing it. He didn’t want to do it. And Vince’s reaction to that was, “We make movies, dammit. This is make-believe and he’s an actor. He’s portraying a character and it’s not real.”
Well, that’s tough to explain to the significant other on the other side, that’s sitting at home, that has seen their real-life husband on a reality type television show interacting with another female.
Again, when you mix reality and fantasy, it’s a tough mixture. But I had brought it up and Vince was going to talk to Rob about it. However, Brian got to Rob before Vince got to Rob and before I got to Rob.
Host: So allegedly when he sees this, he takes great offense and feels like you guys are just trying to with him. And he says something to Brian like, “Who do I have to smack across the face? Is it you?” And allegedly Brian can’t wait to say: “no, this is Bruce’s (idea)”. And Rob says, “Where is he at?” And Brian said, “Please don’t smack Bruce!” And Rob again says, “Where is he at?” And allegedly he says he’s gonna come find you and say pick a hand.
Part of the backstory on that (pick-a-hand) is, once upon a time Taz, who was a locker room tough guy, allegedly had a little bit of a skirmish with Rob Van Dam and Rob said, “Pick a hand!” And when he did or didn’t, he slapped the sh*t out of Taz and they were cool after that it. (It) sort of just hit the reset button on the relationship and there was mutual respect.
Allegedly, he’s looking for you here because he has told he doesn’t want to do this (and) you said you’d take care of it and now it’s still happening and it’s worse. So he wants to play pick-a-hand (with you). Did you see him that day?
Prichard: I did see him that day and thank God I didn’t play pick-a-hand with him. I don’t wanna get slapped by Rob Van Dam especially when he’s pi$$ed.
I think Stephanie got to him first. I think Vince got to him (too). And he had calmed down by the time he ever got to me. But I was actually looking for Rob first before Brian even got to him to let him know (that) I’m gonna bring him in to Vince and let Vince explain it to him because Vince had his vision of what he wanted Rob to do and I had explained Rob’s position and why he didn’t want to do it and Vince was adamant that he wanted Rob to do this and he would talk to him.
So I wanted to get to Rob first, bring him in to Vince. Brian got to Rob first kind of thinking that we had already gotten to Rob and then he was cool with it. But yeah, thank God cooler heads prevailed because I’d probably have had picked the left one and that would have hurt the right side of my face.
Host: Even Stephanie was trying to sell it like, “Hey, this is just acting and we’ll do it funny. I’m after you but you’ll be sort of you know in your own world. Meanwhile Jericho is trying to get in my pants and she’s all about RVD.” But RVD is all about RVD. And then the angle just sort of fades away. Where was this going? I mean, were they gonna make little RVD babies?
Prichard: No, it was a love triangle and it was a story to play out on television. But Rob wasn’t comfortable with it and we didn’t do it. That was the end of it and we moved on you.
