Rob Van Dam was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2021 class, and it was an inclusion that made all the sense in the world to both fans and WWE. That’s actually why Vince McMahon initially didn’t consider Van Dam for the 2021 Hall of Fame class, something Van Dam revealed in a new interview with Busted Open Radio. During that conversation, Rob Van Dam revealed an exchange between Michael Hayes and McMahon, who were considering candidates. Vince made a remark that it was too bad RVD was already in the Hall of Fame, and Hayes had to tell him he hadn’t been inducted yet.
“It was cool. You know, whenever that 203 area code shows up on my cell phone, I’m like, ‘Okay, let me see. Let me try and identify my feelings about it.’ It was Johnny Ace. He said, ‘Hey, Vince wanted me to call you in and see if you’re interested in being inducted in the Hall of Fame this year.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it would be an honor. Absolutely,'” Van Dam said.
“I learned that, I think it was Michael Hayes that told me that they were sitting around the table like they do when it came up. I guess Vince said something to the effect of ‘Too bad RVD is already in the Hall of Fame, or he’d be a good candidate for this year’, and someone said, I think it was Michael Hayes, said ‘Vince, RVD is not in the Hall of Fame.’ He thought I was and was like, ‘What?’ So, pretty cool how that went down and I’m glad, obviously, to be part of it,” Van Dam said.
The 2021 Hall of Fame class included Van Dam, Kane, Molly Holly, Eric Bischoff, and The Great Khali. Ozzy Osbourne was also inducted as part of the Celebrity Wing, and Rich Hering won the Warrior Award. During the interview, Van Dam also talked about his speech, which was supposed to be within three to five minutes and ended up being almost 30.
“I didn’t realize until later that they had said go three to five minutes. Molly Holly was really upset because she had a really long speech prepared, you know, with help, and she was like, really hurt,” Van Dam said.
“For me, I was like, well, I don’t know what I’m going to say anyway. So it sucks, you know, three to five minutes. My whole life, I’ve stayed and listened to all these great long speeches about all these legends. Now I’m going to be in front of an empty arena, and in three minutes, I’m going to say thanks. But I figured I was going to go a little bit long, you know, maybe five or six minutes and give them stuff to edit. I went 26 minutes and didn’t even realize it, I think because there was nobody there. It was weird,” Van Dam said.
“I would say something and they would turn up the applause and turn it down so I’d have an idea. Then I’d say something else. I had no idea I went that long, but nobody seemed upset. I think maybe it upset me more than anybody else as far as I could tell just because I felt like I stepped over the bounds so much,” Van Dam said.
H/T WrestlingNews.co
