Rob Van Dam
When I first saw Rob Dam Dam wrestle at the Invasion PPV many years ago [that's right I didn't see him earlier as I didn't watch ECW] I was in awe of his capabilities. I went from 'who is this guy' to basically waiting for his appearance every week during the whole Invasion angle. Stone Cold was great, Kurt Angle was great, but RVD was what it was all about back then. I don't think I was the only one either. After his debut he went on to have more matches on TV and the following PPV's. They were all great to watch. He got so popular that he was made part of a triple threat title match at No Mercy just a few months after he had his first match in the company. He lost that triple threat match but continued to have awe inspiring matches, at least when there were Hardcore stipulations.
The problems started when those Hardcore stipulations were taken away. Suddenly more than half of RVD's move set was out of the picture, since a lot of his jaw dropping moves took place out of the ring, on the barrier or among the fans. Now he had to try and have matches where he stayed in the ring. Suddenly his weaknesses were noticeable. That's not to say he went from being great to being bad, but he wasn't as capable in the ring with no weapons, as he was in and out of the ring with weapons. That's why he makes the overrated wrestlers section, not because he's awful [like some of the wrestlers in this section really are] but because he is not quite as great as his reputation suggests that he should be. Paul Heyman even said that when he was in charge of ECW, he took RVD's weaknesses and hid them, accentuating his strengths [that were clearly Hardcore matches]. This means RVD did have weaknesses [since they had to be hidden] and still has them to this day.
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