When Rob Van Dam arrived in WWE in 2001, many used to say that nobody gets higher than RVD. Poor young naive me didn't get the joke at the time, and neither apparently did NBC. This is a story from the June 21st '99 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and it caught my eye because it's an interesting example of how ECW stars might have had some trouble breaking into mainstream media, but also because mid-99 was a tough time for ECW as a whole, with a lot of big changes coming.
According to a New York Post gossip column by Richard Johnson, the Teen NBC show City Guys had just taped an episode with Van Dam as a guest star, only to find out later about his very public personal habits. City Guys was created by Peter Engel, who also created Saved by the Bell, which will become relavent later on.
Johnson writes: "NBC has unwittingly put a pot-head in its squeaky-clean Saturday morning kiddie lineup. Extreme Championship Wrestler Rob Van Dam–who brags about his cannabis consumption and wears a High Times t-shirt in ECW promos". Johnson would later express why this might be controversial, when he adds that "Network insiders say the hire is embarrassing for the show’s producer, Peter Engel, who has crusaded for clean kids’ television." The column also goes on to explain how and why RVD would have ended up on the set of a Saturday Morning kids show. An NBC rep is quoted as saying "“We did a storyline regarding professional wrestling and needed a professional wrestler,” ... “We went through the normal channels we go through to get guest stars, and that’s how we got Rob Van Dam. Nobody had any idea about his pot smoking and he certainly wasn’t smoking pot while he was here.” Aye, likely story on the last bit there.
RVD defended himself at the time by noting that ECW wasn't aimed at kids, and his so his behaviour on Hardcore TV shouldn't affect his appearances on shows for another audience. Van Dam appeared to be trying to do more in TV around this time too, as the the record holding ECW television champion would appear in an episode of the X-Files in 2000, credited as 'Burt's Opponent', and also in 2000, he would also appear in an episode of VIP starring Pamela Anderson. His imdb credits are an interesting read, with my favourite credit being a starring role in the 2015 film 3 headed Shark Attack. A film I'll be looking for when I've uploaded this video probably...
I mentioned at the start of the video that mid-99 was a pretty unique time for ECW, and here's what I meant by that. Elsewhere in the same Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer writes that ECW was treading water a little at this time. This is firstly because of the impending departures of three of the company's biggest stars, Taz, Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, but also for another reason that Dave says something really interesting about, the impending arrival of ECW on TNN.
Dave writes "There seems to be the attitude of simply keeping things going and not to shoot any major angles this summer, figuring when TNN starts that is the time to hit the major angles and perhaps re-do some of the angles of the past but with new characters figuring a lot of the audience, if not the vast majority will be people who have never seen the angles in the first place". While at the time Dave wrote this is was likely just speculation, it's really interesting given that the early months of ECW on TNN heavily featured the rekindled feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which would take some interesting turns such as the two becoming unlikely tag team champions together, it would never reach the heights of the original story, where Tommy tried for two years to defeat Raven.
Meltzer also noted that the TNN deal may affect the way ECW had always produced matches on their shows. "These shows will be done live-to-tape, rather than the heavy amount of post production miracles that Paul Heyman is noted for in editing 15:00 matches down to 3:00 of high spots and making many wrestlers appear to look a lot better than they really are." This smoke and mirrors style of editing is really noticeable when you look at old episodes of ECW on the network, as often matches might be joined in progress or will be presented in highlight form.
Getting back to RVD, while I was unable to find the whole original New York Post column, I did find a rather unique one also featuring Rob Van Dam many years later. In 2019 the New York Post's website hosted an article about his divorce to his wife of seventeen years Sonya. In said divorce his estranged wife apparently received a Mini Cooper, a grandfather clock and the ashes of their two deceased dogs. If thats not strange enough, the article describes his following actions as a 'revenge tour' of sorts, showing photos from his instagram if him with his new partner, fellow wrestler Katie Forbes in various hot tubs. I guess it really is true. nobody gets higher than Rob Van Dam.
Sources:
Observer June 21st 1999: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-21-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-hart-family-files-lawsuit/
NYP Ending: https://nypost.com/2019/09/27/wwe-legends-divorce-revenge-tour-features-many-hot-tubs/
