WWE: Has RVD’s return been successful?

Rob Van Dam

Two months ago, one man’s name created huge ripples in the world of professional wrestling. During the Payback PPV, a promo aired about the return of a superstar, who until then was forgotten.

That one vignette made him the hottest commodity in professional wrestling; the fans started to chant the all too familiar name of Rob Van Dam, and that continued for the next three weeks. At the Money in the Bank PPV, the much anticipated return of RVD saw the Philadelphia crowd give a hero’s welcome to their most beloved son, who was one of the biggest names of Philly’s own ECW.

As the crowd chanted “RVD” and “ECW”, RVD put on an amazing performance, which showed everyone that “he still had it”. RVD was stuck in TNA and no one cared, but one night in the WWE made him a superstar once again.

The next night on RAW, RVD was involved in an amazing match against Chris Jericho, as he picked up his first victory on RAW after more than 6 years! As the crowd chanted that the match was awesome, it was clear that RVD was as good as he ever was. Things were looking good for the high flying superstar, as he was setting the stage on fire.

But then, for some odd reason, WWE lost the plot with RVD. He had no authentic feuds, and even though he faced Alberto Del Rio (And defeated him on a couple of occasions), he had no feud going into SummerSlam until the very last week!

If that wasn’t enough, RVD was relegated to the pre – show match at SummerSlam. SummerSlam is the second biggest PPV of the year, and RVD being a major returning superstar should have been on the card.

Although reports came in that RVD had signed a deal similar to Chris Jericho’s, there was no possible reason for the creative department to leave RVD off the main card, and not have a long term feud for him. In hindsight, this doesn’t seem to be a lot, until you take a look at all the other ‘part timers’ in the WWE.

Rob Van Dam

Starting with Dwayne ‘The Rock‘ Johnson; he has made a handful of appearances, and every time he performed on a PPV, it was in the main event. Not to forget the fact that he headlined two WrestleManias in succession and held the WWE title for a couple of months! Although the argument could be made that RVD isn’t as ‘popular’ as Dwayne, he certainly deserves to be a main eventer, or at least perform on major PPVs, instead of being bumped off the card.

When it comes to the other part timer who is Brock Lesnar, he had signed a similar deal to Dwayne. Lesnar makes high – profile appearances, and almost all of his matches were quasi main events on major PPVs such as WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

Once again, there arises an opinion that RVD isn’t as popular as Lesnar, but once again, the fact remains that RVD returned to the WWE after 6 years, and hence, should have been given the opportunity to perform on the main card of a major PPV such as SummerSlam.

This past week on RAW, RVD was revealed as Ricardo’s new “client”, and this might lead to a program with the World Heavyweight champion, Alberto Del Rio. Although RVD will be feuding for the World title, there is little doubt in my mind that he will be used to put over Alberto Del Rio till Rey Mysterio is healthy once again, and returns to feud with Del Rio. A competitor of RVD’s caliber deserves more than to wrestle on pre – shows and be an afterthought.

So to answer my question, it hasn’t been all bad, but is mediocre at best. If WWE does decide to put the big gold belt on RVD, it will lead to an interesting period in the WWE, but I highly doubt that will happen.

A triple threat match between RVD, Alberto Del Rio and Christian at the next PPV can result in it being the best match of the year! The biggest question still remains; where will RVD go from here? One can only hope that his feud with Alberto Del Rio will lead to a long program with him in the main event scene.