Rob Van Dam has officially entered the hallowed halls of the 2300 Arena Hardcore Hall of Fame.
On Sunday evening, Jerry Lynn inducted former WWE, ECW, and TNA World Champion Rob Van Dam into the Hardcore Hall of Fame at 2300 Arena, which is formerly known as the ECW Arena.
Check out the hghlights from Van Dam's acceptance speech below, via PWInsider:
On being inducted into the 2300 Arena Hardcore Hall of Fame:
“I take that to heart. I know that you really mean that. And I appreciate the f*** out of that. I get asked sometimes, by fans or in interviews, to compare and contrast working wrestling for WWE and… also TNA. … And also Extreme Championship Wrestling.”
On members of the audience chanting "we made you":
“I’m not denying that. And I always answer it the same, because in WWE, I made the most money. They made me the biggest worldwide superstar. It was pretty awesome. TNA, Impact Wrestling, because of the schedule, that was the easiest f***ing job ever. And then, when it came to ECW, that’s where I had the most fun. I’m very proud to have ECW define me as a wrestler through my entire career. It was ’95, Sabu was wrestling here. And by the way, I want to thank Sabu for always encouraging me to be myself. To keep it extreme. And to not do anybody else’s s***. Sabu was trying to get me here in ECW and every few weeks in ’95 he would call me and he would say, “Did Paul call you yet?” I was like, “No.” “Motherf***er! He said he was going to call you. Hold on, I’ll call you back.” And then several weeks would go by, and I didn’t give a f**k because I was working for All Japan. I was in a really good position where I could already, in that stage of my career, pick and choose where I spent my time. And he kept… ‘Did Paul call you yet?’ No, f**k. During that time, I started checking out ECW. I made it a point to look for it. Of course, it was like 2:00 AM I think on the Sunshine Network, but I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I had never seen anything like that. It was just incredible, the unapologetic violence and the superstars and the… just that whole adult aspect of it. Fire and… And of course, the main quality was the crowd. Holy crap. The ECW crowd set the standards and they were at least half of the show. So, I was a little intimidated. Actually I was very intimidated coming here in ’96. I was 25 years old, just by a couple of weeks. Oh, what? Well yes, it is my birthday, coincidentally.”
