Robert Alex Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970), better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (RVD), is an American professional wrestler and occasional actor. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he is the reigning X Division Champion. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment, and Extreme Championship Wrestling.
Van Dam has held 21 total championships between ECW, WWE and TNA, as well as several regional titles in various promotions during his career. In major promotions he is a three-time World Champion having held the WWE Championship, ECW World Heavyweight Championship, and TNA World Heavyweight Championship once each.
He is the only man to achieve both WWE and ECW's version of the Triple Crown. Part of ECW's Triple Crown included the ECW World Television Championship, of which RVD's 700 day reign was the longest. Additionally, he was the final holder of both the WWE European and Hardcore Championships, as he wound up unifying those titles with the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
In ECW he was two time ECW World Tag Team Champion with Sabu and one time ECW World Television Champion.
In WWE (known as WWF) he won his first title in 2001 the WWF Hardcore Championship, where he later becames four time and last WWE Hardcore Champion. He also was six time WWE Intercontinental Champion in second place after Chris Jericho for most reigns tied with Jeff Jarrett, one time and last WWE European Champion, two time WWE World Tag Team Champion with Kane and Booker T, one time WWE Tag Team Champion with Rey Mysterio, he won Money in the Bank in 2006 and held the WWE and ECW World Heavyweight Championships at the same time, being the only man to ever do so.
He debuted in TNA in 2010, where he won TNA World Heavyweight Championship and TNA X-Division Championship once each.
Van Dam came to be known as "The Franchise of ECW" in the late 1990s until the promotion folded. In 2002, Van Dam was ranked number one on Pro Wrestling Illustrated's annual PWI 500 list, and he was the only wrestler in history to win the award PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year as the heel. Currently Van Dam is the only wrestler in history to be undefeated at ECW's November to Remember, WWE's WrestleMania and TNA's Bound for Glory which are the biggest PPVs of each promotion.
Read more about Rob Van Dam: Early Life, Other Media, Personal Life, In Wrestling, Championships and Accomplishments
Famous quotes containing the words rob, van and/or dam:
“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, Be toleranteven of evil. Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealths criminals, I disagree that its all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion. Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)
“I cant work without a model. I wont say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.”
—Vincent Van Gogh (18531890)
“The devil take one party and his dam the other!”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)