Rob Van Dam's Cageside Evaluation

What you loved:

1. ECW Days - Van Daminator. Van Terminator. "The Whole F'N Show." ECW TV Champion for over 2 years. There may be some of you who only know RVD from his WWE days. If that's the case, and you are a Network subscriber, I highly recommend checking out what he did in ECW. It's when he was at his peak for sure.
2. In-Ring - Using some of your words, he was high energy, athletic, and very unique. He was doing stuff every show that people had never seen before! I mean his 5 star splash alone is something worth seeing over and over. How he could rotate in mid-air is something that always amazed me.
3. Sabu - Whether they were fighting or teaming up, these two had great chemistry. It's surprising because you wouldn't think these two would make for such a good team, but they did.
4. Ring Attire - Has always rocked those sweet airbrush tights. Bunch of ying-yangs and dragons flying off the top rope.
5. Crowd Connection - Even today, he's a shell of himself and the crowds still cheer his name during matches. Crowds were even crazier when he was in ECW or during the invasion angle in WWE. During that whole story, especially his match against Cena at One Night Stand, he was white hot.

My favorite comments come via The Notorious Eddie Mac:

"ECW Rob Van Dam was unquestionably the BEST Rob Van Dam and may have arguably been the best worker in America in his prime. Van Daminator. Van Terminator. Van Crushinator. Van Assassinator. (Sorry, I drifted off there.) His ECW theme. No, I mean his REAL ECW theme. His nearly two-year run as ECW TV champion. His taunt. We’ve ALL done it. Five-star frog splash."

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What you loathed:

1. Latest Work - Age gets everyone, and RVD is no exception. Sure he can put on decent matches here and there, but his style requires agility that he no longer has.
2. Legal Issues - Remember when I said he was hot during that invasion angle, and got a huge push? Yeah, when he got in trouble with the law, WWE pulled the plug on him so fast.
   
3. Sameness - In regards to both his in-ring work and his character things haven't changed much. You could watch a match from ten years ago and it would look very familiar.
   
4. Promos - He's never been awesome on the mic, I couldn't say I know any "classic" RVD promos.
5. Botch - His style is both exciting and sometimes dangerous. He's had his fair share of botches, including hurting his opponent. When he first came into the WWE, Rob banged up a number of opponents which WWE forced him to change his move-set a bit.

My favorite comment belongs to BaconStrips:

"Loathe: He is a great worker, when he wants to be."

On to the poll! With 214 votes, RVD's average score is 3.9

Thanks, Cagesiders! Tomorrow's pick is free.

Until then!