Old School Wrestling Legend Rob Van Dam is famous for a lot of things he did, but during WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era, he also drew some heat with the office for refusing to do the annual ‘Tribute To The Troops’ events and fly to Iraq & Afghanistan with the rest of the WWE (RAW & SmackDown) roster.
During a recent episode of his ‘One Of A Kind’ podcast, RVD revealed that several other WWE Superstars came to him and respected him for his decision not to travel to a legitimate war zone (at that time).
Here’s what Rob said about refusing to wrestle over there:
“I was stewing about it. And other wrestlers are coming up to me saying, ‘Man, Rob, I respect you for saying no. Like, I don’t want to go either, but I can’t say no. I’m not RVD.’ Dude. Why do I always hear that? Like there’s nothing in my contract that says I can get no heat. You know what I mean?”
After working for Paul Heyman’s ECW from 1996 until it closed its doors in January 2001, Rob Van Dam joined the World Wrestling Federation a few months later and became a household name and even a main eventer, several years before winning the WWE Championship in 2006.
Mr. Monday Night stayed with WWE until 2007, then wrestled for Dixie Carter’s Total Nonstop Action! (TNA) from 2010 to 2013 and returned to WWE for a 2nd run (2013-2014) with the company.
He returned to IMPACT Wrestling (fka TNA) for another run (2019-2020) and is now a free-agent, but recently told NBC Sports that he’d actually be happy to return to WWE.
Also Read: Rob Van Dam On Why He Wouldn’t Be A Good Trainer In WWE
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