Courtesy : WWE.com
Rob Van Dam embodied what great wrestling was and is, and the WWE should remember the success they had when he was WWE and ECW Champion.
Starting in 2005, the WWE was trying to bring ECW back and decided to make Rob Van Dam the face of the new brand. The progress came on the shoulders of RVD, and the WWE title shortly followed.
It was during that feud between John Cena and RVD that the WWE saw their most success with Cena as their Champion, and CM Punk’s recent promo was the first significant time in the WWE Championship’s history since that feud ended.
RVD laid out his own worked shoot promo against the WWE to appeal to the diehard ECW fans just like CM Punk did on Raw, and most of the fans of wrestling bought it hard. RVD became the most popular champion in a long time because he was different.
Sound familiar?
With his irreverence and hardcore background, RVD was the perfect mix of technical wrestling, high-flying stunts and hardcore flair that the WWE was missing.
While his in-ring style helped revolutionize what the WWE was looking for in a wrestler, it was his impact on the background that left a door open for stars to come. Rob Van Dam forced the WWE to think outside the box from the big, goony Mark Henry types and focus more on the pure wrestling.
After some of the most well-received shows in WWE history, the ECW brand was successfully back (for the time being) with RVD at the helm.
The future was so bright for RVD, but an arrest on July 3, 2006, on drug charges led the WWE to strip him of both the ECW and WWE Titles on consecutive nights.
Boom.
Just like that, all the work that RVD and the hardcore fans had done and supported was all gone.
Now that years have passed and we still have the same recycled garbage, a new RVD has surfaced from the ashes of what used to be.
CM Punk brings that same “Down with the Establishment” attitude that hardcore wrestling fans love about their wrestlers. His epic shoot promo was that of legends and harkens back to the revolution that was ECW and RVD.
RVD had the WWE on the verge of changing to a new, more interesting style of wrestling that would revolutionize the idea of what mainstream thinks of the sport. Punk can make that change happen now.
If Punk can stay on the road he’s on and use the leverage that he has to do right for the sport, we will have champions like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan instead of Randy Orton and John Cena.
Let Randy Orton and John Cena hold a lesser title to give it validity and put some younger stars over for a while because this is the age of the pure wrestler, just like Rob Van Dam was and CM Punk is.
Source : bleacherreport.com
