On December 18th, 1970, Robert Alexander Szatkowski was born into the world. A native of Battle Creek, Michigan, who had dreams of becoming a star, he first came to prominence in 1987 when he appeared in a skit with “The Million Dollar Man,” Ted DiBiase for the WWE, before going on to have some success on television working various roles for various companies.

What? You aren't familiar with Mr. Szatkowski? Well, maybe you know him by his professional wrestling ring name, Rob Van Dam, aka RVD, aka  “The Whole F'N Show.” Initially coming to prominence as a member of ECW during its glory days, Van Dam went on to win 28 titles, wrestle for over a dozen companies, and still kick it in the ring from time to time when the opportunity presents itself. Though Van Dam never won the big one, at least not until WWE relaunched the brand as a secondary brand alongside RAW, few performers are as connected to one brand as RVD is to ECW. From his tag title runs with Sabu to his 700 days with the ECW World Television Championship, Paul Heyman booked Van Dam like the transcendent talent he truly was, and helped to lay the groundwork for what would become a career worthy of the Hall of Fame.

Actually, scratch that, make it Hall of Fames-plural, as on this his 52nd birthday, Van Dam was officially inducted into the 2300 Arena Hardcore Hall of Fame, a prestigious honor that only the hardest of core in-ring performers can add to their resume.

Taking to the former ECW Arena just a few miles away from where the Eagles, Flyers, Sixers, and Phillies play, Van Dam spent the weekend as the bell of the grassroots indie wrestling scene's ball, signing autographs for fans as part of Icons of Wrestling's Convention and Fanfest before being inducted into the Hall with a special tribute in the house he helped to build in front of many of his peers.

Rob Van Dam thanks the hardcore fans for his career in WWE and beyond.

Standing in the center of the ring with his hair back in a ponytail wearing a tee shirt and some shorts – which isn't quite his signature singlet but isn't too far off either – RVD delivered a rousing speech that generated profanity-ladened chants from the fans like it was 1998 all over again.

“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… and I always answer it the same,” RVD said h/t 411 Mania and PW Insider. “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. I am having the best birthday, with my favorite people. So glad to be here. I’m so glad that it did work out for me to come to ECW. I spent the night before my first match writing down a list of new moves that I could come up with that I thought were hardcore enough. One of them was maybe I could throw a chair up and jump up and do a spinning back kick into someone’s face, which turned out to be pretty successful for me. Thank you. Yeah. Hey, all of it, man. I had so much fun thinking outside the box, being creative. Thank God Paul Heyman allowed me the freedom to grow and the right tutelage to make sure I didn’t grow in the wrong way. And as everybody knows, that… By the way, the worst chant to get back then, being 25 years old and intimidated and trying to get over, was, “You f**ked up, you f**ked up.” It was the fear of that that actually pushed me. But God d*mn it, you pushed me all the way to the top. Thank you for that. And when we brought ECW back to WWE….. and I beat John Cena at One Night Stand, I truly felt like the buildup for that particular match was my entire f**king career up to that point. So hardcore forever.”

“Everybody that felt that hardcore spirit of ECW, whether you were one of us wrestlers or whether you were one of the fans back then that supported us, or whether you’re someone new that’s been turned on to that energy and found ECW and wish you can have been back there in the day, either way, all of us know it can never f***ng die because it’s so good. For those reasons, I’m very honored to get this hall of fame induction. I’m very grateful for my time in ECW. My entire career, but ECW the most. Grateful for you motherf**kers.”

As crazy as it may seem now, as the promotion has had legs that have been going strong for two decades and counting, ECW only ran shows from 1992-2001 before Paul E sold out the rights to the brand to Vince McMahon right around when the then-head honcho of WWE also bought out WCW. Though spiritual successors have come up since, from CZW to the current talk of the town, GCW, none have captured fans in the same way as Philly's finest hardcore promotion, and no performer, not even Nick Gage, has captured the imaginations of wrestling fans in the same way as RVD, “The Whole F'n Show.” Though his prime is now officially over, few performers influenced as many little kids to hit frog splashes on their brothers onto a mountain of pillows – speaking from personal experience – than Rob Van Dam.