WWE Hall Of Famer Explains Turning Down Eric Bischoff’s WCW Job Offer
Rob Van Dam nearly had a chance to become Mr. Monday Nitro after being offered a job by Eric Bischoff in WCW.
On the latest edition of his 1 Of A Kind podcast, Rob Van Dam detailed being offered a job in WCW by Eric Bischoff, saying:
“I went to a WCW show that was in a town where I lived in Savannah, Georgia at the time. I went to see Scotty Riggs, maybe Louie Spicoli might have been there too, I think. I think he was part of NWO. I saw my friends and Eric Bischoff stepped aside with me and personally offered me a job.
“Somehow that got out online instantly and then the industry knew that I was going to be leaving ECW for WCW because that’s what you do. That’s what everyone does. They use it as a stepping ground to get up to more exposure, more money, a bigger job. I’m not on the pay-per-view anyway so it doesn’t seem like Paul is offering me much to get me to stick around, so I’ve got to see what’s going on here.”
Continuing, Rob Van Dam detailed meeting with Paul Heyman about the situation and explained why he made the decision to stay with ECW instead of accepting Bischoff’s offer.
“So Paul brought me in and we had a big meeting where Paul said, ‘Is there anything I can do to make you want to stay?’ That’s not a bad way to start negotiations, especially since I really didn’t want to go.
“I really didn’t. I loved the ECW style. It was my favorite and the most fun that I’d had and I appreciated very much how my efforts were making a difference, not just in ECW, but then also, you know, in a outer wave the whole industry because everyone’s watching ECW and they’re all influenced by it, and the company is growing so much right now, like we’re hot, and the crowds are doubling. It’s like, man, I really would rather stay there and be the whole F’n show than be a cog in the wheel, so to speak.
“So Paul and I worked it out when he put me on a guarantee. I had favored nations, which I’ve heard a few of us did, I’ve heard recently. You also had the idea, you know, everyone thinks you’re gonna go to WCW. What if you went out there and said, ‘Yeah, I belong on Monday nights where all the big stars are. You can expect to see me there’, but what if we throw them a swerve? It gets you on Monday night.
“I said, ‘How are you going to do that?’ He said, ‘Let’s just say Vince owes me some favors. If I could do that, if I could put you on RAW just for a few weeks, just long enough to however long the angle lasts, and you would be on Monday Night Raw and you would be on ECW here. You will be in the spotlight. The business would be around you. You’d be the center point, plus all the money and shit’, and that’s how we worked it out.
“I was like, ‘You really can do that?’ I had no idea about his relationship, none of us did, with WWE. We didn’t know he was working for them. I sure didn’t know that he was selling me to them without me knowing which ended up being the case.”
h/t WrestlingNews.co