Rob Van Dam

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Robert Szatkowski United StatesUnited States
Van Dam at WWE Live in 2014.

Van Dam at WWE Live in 2014.
Data
Ring name Rob Van Dam
Rob Szatkowski
Robbie V.
Additions to names RVD
One of a Kind
The Whole F'n / Dam Show
height 183 cm
Fighting weight 108 kg
birth December 18, 1970
Battle Creek
Announced from Battle Creek
debut 1990

Robert Alexander Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970 in Battle Creek , Michigan ), better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (often abbreviated as RVD ), is an American wrestler and film actor of Polish descent. His biggest success so far is winning the WWE Championship once

Private life

Szatkowski holds the world record in weightlifting while doing a split on two benches (as a "Van Dam Lift" part of the disciplines of the All-Around Weightlifting Association). Szatkowski ran a comic book store called "5 Star Comics" in Lomita ( California ), where regular wrestling superstars (eg. As Bret Hart ) signings gave. However, this was closed in 2007.

In 2008 it became known that Szatkowki's wife Sonya had cancer. The couple was in Europe between 2008 and 2010 .

Wrestling career

Beginnings

Before his breakthrough as a wrestler, Szatkowski tried his hand at kickboxing . Because of the low earning potential, he finally switched to wrestling. Szatkowski was trained by The Sheik . He made his wrestling debut against Dango Nguyen in 1990 as Rob Szatkowski .

In his early days he worked for some independent leagues, such as the United States Wrestling Association or South Atlantic Pro Wrestling . In the latter promotion he was allowed to win his first wrestling title in July 1992 with the SAPW Tag Team Championship (together with Chaz Rocco ).

World Championship Wrestling (1992-1993)

At the end of 1992 Szatkowski was briefly active as Robbie V. in World Championship Wrestling and then had a few appearances in the independent leagues again. Szatkowski was also committed to Japan for a long time . Upon returning to the United States, he signed with the ECW.

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996-2001)

Since January 1996 Szatkowski worked under the ring name Rob Van Dam for the Promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling . In the same year he was actively involved in the real feud between Jerry Lawler and Paul Heyman and competed several times in the WWF . Szatkowski played matches in several RAW shows and formed the "Team WWF" with Sabu and his ring companion Bill Alfonso in the ECW.

On April 4, 1998, he won the ECW World Television Championship and held it until March 12, 2000. He was the longest titleholder in ECW history, in which he held the title for almost two years. In 1998 Szatkowski won the ECW Tag Team Titles twice (with Sabu) and thus held two titles at the same time for a while.

World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (2001-2007, 2009)

WWE Champion and ECW World Heavyweight Champion Van Dam in 2006.

After the ECW went bankrupt in 2001, he moved to what was then the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). Here he was initially involved in the invasion storylines. In 2001 he was allowed to win the WWF Hardcore Championship three times . In 2002 he was also allowed to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship three times . At the end of the same year he was for a time the No. 1 challenger to the World Heavyweight Championship , but was not allowed to win the title. In March 2003 he formed a tag team with Kane and briefly held the World Tag Team Championship . But in June both had to give up the title again and the team was dissolved.

In September Szatkowski was allowed to hold the Intercontinental title for a fourth time. In December he had to cede the title to Randy Orton , then formed a team with Booker T , which was allowed to hold the Tag Team Titles from February to March 2004 . Then he was sent to SmackDown , where he started in the team with Rey Mysterio in summer 2004 and won the Tag Team Titles with him . In January 2005 RVD injured his knee in a tag team title match and then had to take a long injury break.

At the ECW One Night Stand in June 2005, he first came back on WWE TV to give a speech on the show and support his friend Sabu against Rhyno . In the period that followed, he rarely performed. After a forced break of more than a year, Szatkowski got back into the ring at the Royal Rumble 2006. In March, he was allowed to win a qualifying match for the second Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania 22 in Chicago. He was allowed to decide for himself and redeemed the contract he had won on June 11, 2006. There Szatkowski was allowed to defeat John Cena at the ECW One Night Stand and win the WWE Championship . In the meantime, Szatkowski was allowed to hold the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the sixth time from April 30 to May 15, 2006 .

Szatkowski was arrested on July 3, 2006, along with his ECW colleague Sabu, for drug possession. As a result, he had to give up his WWE Championship on July 4, 2006 at a RAW show, in a match against John Cena and Edge . He lost his ECW World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show a day later when Paul Heyman turned against him and attacked him along with Big Show. He was then suspended for 30 days because of the drug discovery. After the sentence had expired, he was allowed to compete for the ECW World Championship several times, but always had to admit defeat.

After he did not renew his contract, which expired in June 2007, he played his last official match with World Wrestling Entertainment at the PPV One Night Stand against Randy Orton . Although he won this, he was then seriously injured by Orton to appear to be eliminated because he no longer liked his ring character of the WWE and its scheduling. He was only used in 2001/02 at the WWE as Main Eventer and then ran in the middle fight map.

On December 10, 2007, however, he was once again active for the WWE on the occasion of the 15th birthday of RAW. He took part in the Royal Rumble in 2009.

Independent leagues (since 2007)

According to his own statement, he simply felt burned out, would take a longer vacation with his wife Sonya and then sign his next big contract with TNA , which would be more flexible in the appointments and would give him more leeway in shaping his ring character.

Szatkowski has now been committed as an independent wrestler for a match against Santino Marella . Then he took the announced break.

On June 12, 2008, Szatkowski gave his active ring comeback for the Liga Nu-Wrestling Evolution at an event in Las Palmas, Spain, and subsequently made a few more appearances for this. At the Pay-Per-View Royal Rumble 2009 he went back to a match at the WWE.

Szatkowski is employed by the Irish- based promotion American Wrestling Rampage and took part in a European tour in November 2009 as part of their current roster. He performed in several German cities at the end of November.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2010-2013)

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Van Dam at Impact in 2010.

In the meantime, Szatkowski also joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and was included in the official wrestling squad. On April 19, 2010 he was allowed to defeat AJ Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and so become the new champion, as Szatkowski had signed up to TNA for a longer period of time. Szatkowski took part in the PPV TNA Hardcore Justice as a member of the former ECW and was allowed to defeat Sabu there .

As of June 2010, he was written into a feud with the Stables Immortal for Hulk Hogan and Fortune with Ric Flair , with Abyss being his main opponent. Tommy Dreamer , Rhino and Stevie Richards were also involved in this feud program . On August 10, 2010, the title was declared vacant after Szatkowski had held it for 113 days. Szatkowski was written out of the storyline at short notice due to a particularly tough attack by Abyss. After his return, this feud continued until October 2010. After a few minor feuds, he won the TNA X Division Championship from Zema Ion at the major event Bound for Glory on October 14, 2012 , which he had to hand over to Kenny King on February 28, 2013 at Impact Wrestling . Then the contract of Szatkowski expired.

Return to WWE (2013-2014)

On July 14, 2013, Szatkowski returned to World Wrestling Entertainment as an active wrestler at the July major event "Money in the Bank". There he feuded first against The Shield and then against Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship . After the Hell in a Cell -PPV in October 2013, his contract ended and Szatkowski initially left the WWE again. He returned to WWE on Raw on April 7, 2014, the day after WrestleMania XXX . On August 26, 2014 Van Dam played his last match against Seth Rollins, which he lost, and left the WWE again.

Return to Impact Wrestling (since 2019)

On February 8, 2019, it was announced that Van Dam would be returning to Impact Wrestling (formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling). At their major event United We Stand on April 14, 2019, he and Sabu took part in an Extreme Rules Tag Team Match, which both lost to the Lucha Brothers ( Fénix and Pentagón Jr. ). A one-off cameo on WWE Raw followed in July 2019 . In the further course of his involvement with Impact Wrestling, Van Dam teamed up with former ECW colleagues Sabu, Rhino and Tommy Dreamer , among others . From October 2019 he acted again as a heel for the first time since his time in the WWE .

Outside of wrestling

Van Dam has appeared in numerous television shows and films. Among other things, he appeared on August 2 in The X-Files in the episode Fight Club. In 2005 his One of a Kind DVD was released. He also performed in Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling in 2008. In 2011, he collaborated with Dave Batista and Nelson Frazier Jr. in a film called Wrong Side of Town , which was released the following year.

Van Dam started RVD Radio on October 8, 2008 with Brett Cohen. He has also appeared in many WWE video games. His last appearance was, along with Batista and Kurt Angle as a pre-order bonus, in the video game WWE 2K18 .

Wrestling successes

TNA X Division Champion Van Dam at Impact Wrestling in 2012.
ECW World Television and ECW World Tag Team Champion Van Dam.
  • American Wrestling Rampage
    • AWR World Heavyweight Championship (1 ×)
  • World Stars of Wrestling
    • WSW World Heavyweight Championship (1 ×)
  • South Atlantic Pro Wrestling
    • SAPW Tag Team Championship (1 × with Chaz Rocco)
  • National Wrestling Council
    • NWC Tag Team Championship (1 × with Bobby Bradley)

Web links

Commons : Rob Van Dam  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Pro wrestlers arrested on drug charges"
  2. ↑ "Wrestlers' court date canceled"
  3. ^ Power Wrestling, 8/2007
  4. ↑ Nu-Wrestling Evolution: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nwewrestling.homedns.org
  5. ^ Money in the Bank All-Stars . WWE . Retrieved October 18, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Van Dam, Rob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Szatkowski, Robert Alexander (real name); Szatkowski, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler and film actor of Polish descent
DATE OF BIRTH 18th December 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Battle Creek , Michigan