When Rob Van Dam left ECW for WWE in 1998, fans from around the professional wrestling world wondered how “The Whole F'N Show” would look under the watchful eye of Vince McMahon.

Would WWE, a promotion that even then valued developing stars their way, allow the ECW legend to continue to work his way, hitting Five Star Frog Splashs, wearing airbrushed singlets, and smoking weed, even if that part in particular likely wouldn't get broadcast on television, considering the state of the substance in the world at the time? Or would WWE try to change him into something… else?

Speaking on his Two Scoops Of… podcast, RVD explained how little WWE understood his character when he arrived and even detailed some of the ideas Michael Hayes had heading into his 1998 debut.

“It wasn't Vince, but I felt like a lot of the other people would try to get me to change a little bit and bend more towards conformity. I always had issues with that. That part was a struggle for me, especially transitioning into the company. There were several times where I felt like they were particularly messing with me with bad intentions, and sometimes I wanted to fight just to defend myself in the industry. There would be weird things they would have me do that I wouldn't do. It's weird when you're in charge of your character because you're known as this person. It's not like playing an acting part on a soap opera, people know of me as Rob Van Dam, have for however many years, and now I have someone else writing what I would do, my actions, my conversations, and my thoughts, and they don't get me. They never understood me, and they were always confused because I'm different,” Rob Van Dam said on Two Scoops Of… via Fightful.

“One time, Michael Hayes said, ‘The other people don't get you, but I get you. You're a surfer dude, right?' ‘I'm not a surfer, what are you talking about?' They want me to wear different outfits. They didn't like the airbrushing, that was a thing at one point. There were a few times where they wanted to pull me aside and work on me with my promos. At the time, I was just too big-headed. ‘Look, you guys hired me because of what I do, just let me do it, let me be me.' They wanted me to get angry, so angry, grrrr. They thought that's where the money is. I'm like, ‘You have everyone else than can be angry, I'm sending a message to people, people look up to me. I don't believe you should let anger get the best of you.' They would be like, ‘This guy is lost, we're going to get someone else to talk to him.' There was a lot of that.”

Would RVD have worked out as a surfer bro, maybe painting his face like his former WCW coworker Surfer Sting? Maybe yes, maybe no; fortunately, fans didn't have to find out, as the RVD in WWE wasn't too different from RVD in ECW, Impact, or even AEW in 2023, which is fantastic because when you get it right the first time, you don't mess with a classic.

Rob Van Dam reveals why outside-the-ring rights used to lead to in-ring angles.

Elsewhere on his Two Scoops Of… podcast, Rob Van Dam weighed in on wrestlers getting into fights outside of the ring – read: CM Punk versus Jack Perry – and how, back in the day, promoters would have immediately gotten those performers into the ring to capitalize on the hype and draw some money from an engaged audience.

While the new school might be different, in RVD's day, those performers would be allowed to duke it out and move on before it became a problem.

“It happened, and it wasn't that big of a deal. I'm sure people are going to shit on this opinion, but that's what I said when I saw that every single site was picking this up. I said to Katie, I'm sure it's my old school fundamentals, but I said ‘I don't think this should be that big of a deal.' She said, ‘Right, they're both fighters, right?' I see at weigh-ins where they do the face-off and they take the picture, a lot of times they get too close and they pie face and start going at it or whatever, and I get you got to set some strict rules if you don't want that to happen every single time, I get it with that,” Rob Van Dam said via Fightful.

“But with wrestling, it's even a little bit different because the competitors don't have the whole injury, win or lose, be in the best condition possible to have every advantage, wrestlers aren't in that the same way that a fighter is. So if they let out a little bit of steam every once in a while, usually what would happen is that the promoter would put those two in the ring as soon as possible. That happened every time that I can think about it. That's what Paul did with me and Taz. It's always been that way and I always find that people work it out by working together. I'm surprised that it's that big of news, but if you look at it like it's football, sure whatever I guess. With wrestling, I don't know, it's not something you should just ignore if you're the boss and you got millions and millions invested and some of that is going to these two players and you need to handle the business end of it to protect your investment. Besides that, it's not the same thing as the corporate office, it's the dressing room.”

Could Tony Khan have made some serious money and avoided some even bigger problems had he booked Jungle Boy versus CM Punk at All Out, with the duo attempting to let bygones be bygones and play into the shoot aspect of wrestling? Sure thing, but in 2023, it's probably for the best that AEW opted to simply let that one go.