• WWE Hall Of Famer Claims Vince McMahon Tried To Destroy The ECW Brand
During a recent interview with Wrestling News, ECW/WWF Legend Rob Van Dam blamed Vince McMahon for trying to destroy the ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) brand and tarnish its legacy.
Here’s what the 2021 WWE Hall of Famer had to say:
“So at the time, I really looked at it defensively from ECW. You know, I thought he’s making a mockery of ECW. I thought he might have even brought ECW back just to destroy it because he didn’t like the fans chanting EC Dub.
He took credit for it, so he trained them to chant EC Dub during the shows by putting out the ECW DVD. Then I was like, Wow, man, this dude’s crazy. Maybe he brought it back just to completely wipe out the extreme theme to it, and they did completely wipe out the extreme theme to it.
So it was like, you know, just like any other show except they put way less into it. Way less budget, way less advertising. The house shows at that time, you know, we’re just the old ECW crappy arenas from the mid 90s.
We would sometimes film after SmackDown on the SmackDown night, and there was some kind of weird way that we were getting paid off a split of their gate which really wasn’t fair. In the end, you know, supposedly all the numbers ironed out, whatever.”
After working for Paul Heyman’s ECW from 1996 till 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.
WATCH: Hot Video Of Katie Forbes (Rob Van Dam’s Wife) Twerking:
• Old School WWF/ECW Veteran Celebrates His Birthday
Old School WWF/ECW Veteran Tony DeVito (Real name: Anthony F. DeVito) celebrates his 51st birthday today.
DeVito wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation as an enhancement talent from 1992 till 1996 and later in his career became a member of ‘The Baldies’ in Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling.
The last time we saw him on television was in 2006 when he appeared on 2 ECW on ScyFy (WWE’s version of ECW) shows, first as Macho Libre, then as a faux preacher, both times to get destroyed by ECW Original The Sandman.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TONY DEVITO!
