WWE Icon Calls Hall of Fame Induction ‘Disappointing’

Rob Van Dam was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and currently wrestles for the company under a Legends contract, but he can admit that the actual induction ceremony was a bit of a bummer. In fact, he describes it as “disappointing.”

In a recent appearance on “This is Wrestling Life,” the wrestler discussed his lengthy career, which famously began with a 16-year-old Van Dam (then Robert Szatkowski) performing in a skit with “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase.

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In addition to talking about highlights like his victory over John Cena at the ECW One Night Stand 2006 main event, he also discussed his induction to the 2021 Hall of Fame.

Van Dam was part of a class that included notables Molly Holly, Kane, Eric Bischoff, and The Great Khali, but also one that took place on March 30 and April 1, 2021, at the WWE ThunderDome, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As such, there were numerous restrictions on the inductees and not the audiences that Van Dam hoped for.

“It was very validating, you know, to be thought of on that Mount Rushmore of wrestlers,” Van Dam described his happiness at entering the hall. “That’s something that they can never take away from me now. Like, it felt like I elevated up to a level and now people like yourself refer to me as a Hall of Famer. It’s very prestigious, so I was honored.”

However, the actual ceremony itself was a letdown.

“The fact that it was during COVID and we didn’t have a crowd was kind of disappointing after going to [the] Hall of Fame for so many years and watching the really long speeches,” Van Dam said.

“Then they told us to go 3-5 minutes on our speeches after hearing these guys [doing long speeches in the past]. The thing about the time and there not being people there, if you’ve seen my speech, then you’ve seen like nine minutes of it, but the whole thing was actually 27 minutes.”

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Van Dam concluded by hoping that he’d basically get another chance to have a more traditional, non-COVID ceremony, saying, “I didn’t hear anything when I got back except I said, ‘That was a little long, wasn’t it?’ But I had no idea until I saw the whole thing that it was that long. You’re playing off of somebody turning the volume up and down on a response… I’ll have to get in it again.”

Maybe the class of 2021 is due for a re-do?

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