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| Rob Van Damned? |
Luke Dormehl |
Can TNA make the most of RVD's high-flying talents?
Paul Heyman - the former promoter of Extreme Championship Wrestling and RVD�s biggest cheerleader this side of Bill Alphonso - wasn't lying when he said that Rob Van Dam was unlike other wrestler. And indeed, nowhere was this better demonstrated than the way RVD left the business in 2006. When he decided that he�d enough of working for WWE (as if that wasn�t adequate enough to set him apart from the scores of other employees whose lives are defined by their tenure with the company and will do whatever it takes to keep working for it) Van Dam waited until his contract was up, worked his dates without complaint, handed in his notice and left the industry altogether. He even put over Randy Orton in an angle on his way out - a man who, for the record, is far more akin to the �typical professional wrestler� than RVD.
�My priorities are different from most wrestlers because my family comes first,� Van Dam told us in an exclusive interview back in FSM 47. �A lot of wrestlers say that because it�s a nice thing to say, but they don�t really mean it. They�re closer to the other wrestlers, they see them way more than their families and the other wrestlers know them better than their own family knows them. I�m not like that� I�ve never been like that. I�ve always stood out, been a square peg, one of a kind and this is one of the ways that it came about.�
It�s no secret that much of RVD�s time since he left WWE has been spent caring for his wife, Sonya, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2008. While it occurred after he left the company and therefore wasn�t a factor in his leaving, it�s certainly a major reason why Van Dam has been in no hurry to get back to wrestling on a regular basis.
Since his departure � a self-professed case of professional burnout � Van Dam has continued his stop-start movie career by starring in Wrong Side Of Town along with fellow wrestlers Batista and Nelson �Big Daddy V� Frazier (which we reviewed last issue� sadly, it�s a bit rubbish). In addition, he�s launched an online reality show, RVD TV, fulfilled a lifelong dream by running own comic shop � RVD�s 5 Star Comics, which later closed down � and penned articles for pro-marijuana magazines High Times and Cannabis Culture (an unforeseen positive from the infamous 2006 drug bust that happened while Van Dam was WWE Champion). RVD also continued wrestling sporadically, including a match against Davey Richards at the Doncaster Dome for the UK�s own 1PW last year. �I�ve been wrestling for a very expensive fee,� he told The Sun in a 2009 interview. �They have to fly my wife and myself business class, and they have to meet my diva standards��
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 54 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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