On this date in WWE/ECW history: Rob Van Dam picks the worst time to get arrested

Rob Van Dam is probably just as well known for his love of marijuana as he is his history in the pro wrestling business. Indeed, he's never been shy about expressing said love for the ganja and it's gotten him in trouble at the worst possible times.

Early July of 2006 was one of those instances.

While traveling between shows in West Virginia and Philadelphia with Sabu, RVD was pulled over for speeding. The police officer joked around with the two pro wrestlers until he smelled pot and performed a search of the car and the two men inside it.

That search yielded 18 grams of marijuana and five Vicodin. And that's just what Van Dam was carrying. Sabu was busted for possession of drug paraphernalia and nine tablets of Testolactone. They were both arrested and posted bond.

The reason the timing of this was so incredibly bad was because Van Dam was in the midst of the biggest main event push of his entire career, having won the WWE championship from John Cena at One Night Stand. And because the company was in the middle of an ill-fated attempt to resurrect the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand, he was awarded the reinstated ECW title as well.

As soon as it was learned he had been arrested, he was suspended for 30 days. WWE.com made sure to release a statement saying he would be allowed to compete on Monday Night Raw and ECW TV the next two nights while they "conducted an investigation" but this was really just to give them the chance to get the belts off him before he was sent home.

And so, on this date in WWE history (July 3, 2006), RVD dropped the WWE championship to Edge on Raw in a triple threat match that also involved Cena. The very next night on ECW, he lost that title to Big Show.

He's never been the same since.

Here's the grainy video of the cop pulling them over: