RVD showed why he is still the man

[Guest wwF1587]

I am trying to ride past the whole nash story. While it is shocking and sad what happend to him, I feel we should talk about the best part of RAW and that was the Dreamer/Brock/RVD angle that occured. First off, Dreamer was great with all those shots he gave Lesner with the kendo stick. And then RVD comes out an shows why he is one of the best in the WWE. That Van Terminator (correct me if I am wrong, I apologize if I am) to Heymen was simply amazing and had me marking out. Heymen deserved it too, and the look that Brock had on his face as he was carrying Heymen to the back was great.

[Guest chirs3]

I honestly didn't think Van Dam could make it across the ring. GOD DAMN, what a move.

 

And I actually enjoyed watching Tommy Dreamer... weird, I know...

[Guest Human Fly]

I wish Ross would've called it the Van-Terminator, that would've been cool.

 

Also, I was glad for Tommy Dreamer tonight. He gave his body to the Philadelphia fans (not like that) I was glad to see him get some recognition for it.

[Guest HartFan86]

This was an awesome Raw, with that of course being the best segment. Obviously, this Raw will be remembered forever (mostly cause of Nash's injury), but it was great seeing Dreamer/RVD acting like they were from the Old ECW.

[Guest jester]

Yeah, the whole Nash situation and the brutal mixed tag match are proabably going to overshadow a great spot.

 

RVD is really going to have to work to top that one at the PPV....

 

jester

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I always think he isn't going to make it...

 

whether it be a turning frog splash...a frog splash from far away or a Van terminator.

 

But the son of a bitch always makes it.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

After nearly a year of re-inventing himself as a wrestler, the fact that he remembers how to do a Van Terminator means he's still the man? He was always the man.

 

And not get on the ECW hate-train again, but for how much that segment was obviously catered to it's former fans, it didn't get nearly as much heat as I expected. Then again, the entire show, for how solid it was, didn't get the crowd nearly as hot as I expected. Maybe the National Mime Society has opened up a branch in Philly.

[Guest Zero_Cool]

Well, it was an awesome mark out moment seeing Dreamer go all ECW again. You know, being the Tommy Dreamer everyone remembers. It got an awesome pop is you ask me. The problem is that not every casual wrestling fan would chant ECW at a WWF event.

[Guest chirs3]

bps, I know what you mean. I don't remember who it was against, but RVD hit a frog splash months ago, the guy was practically in the other corner. I was just thinking "Oh fuck, he's gonna blow this so badlyOH MY GOD HE MADE IT!"

 

It ALWAYS looks like it's too far, but it never is.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I think it was the Xpac match last month...

 

If I'm not mistaken he was way out

[Guest TheSmarkzone]

He's got an amazing, amazing horizontal leap. He shouldn't be able to do that, especially at 235 pounds. He's a freak.

[Guest M Nyland]

that one time he tried to hit one of the Dudleys and smacked his face of the table...that was BAD

[Guest Flyboy]

that one time he tried to hit one of the Dudleys and smacked his face of the table...that was BAD

Yeah... I remember that.

 

I was thinking.. "DAMN!" when he hit the table... ouch..

 

 

And yes... RVD is STILL the man.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I really liked the segment better before RVD showed up, although it was cool (and somewhat ironic) to see Heyman not only agree to a spot like that, but sell it so well, when most of the higher-up's backstage probably wouldn't.

 

As for the Van Terminator, it is a cool spot, but somehow it doesn't seem that cool after Shane O' Mac did it too. Not that I don't like Shane, but because he's not really a wrestler and he did it, it "exposed" the move to me as not really being that special.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

I don't see any need for the van terminator. It's ok tho, cos they seem to have realised the van daminator and such are stupid finishers, but good spots.

[Guest chirs3]

Hey, don't diss the Van-Daminator. That move kicks ass.

[Guest Brian]

I liked it better when he set up the chair, despite being less ealistically, he makes more contact with the face.

[Guest Sandman9000]

Yeah, it looked like one of the chair legs hit Paul E. directly in the groin.

 

Ow, ow, ow.

[Guest cabbageboy]

I was thinking "there is no fucking way" last night when I saw RVD go up top with the chair. In the times I have seen the move done Bill Alfonso was there to hold the chair while RVD took all day, or Shane stuffed a garbage can on Vince so he wouldn't jump as far. This was the first time I've ever seen RVD take the chair with him and get it down in time. That has got to be nearly impossible.

[Guest TheSmarkzone]

Do you know how much harder it is to do it with a heavy steel chair in your hand than it is to just leap?

[Guest Nezbyte]

Do you know how much harder it is to do it with a heavy steel chair in your hand than it is to just leap?

No, and neither do you, i could guess though.

[Guest El Psycho Diablo]

There's only one thing to say. RVD is the man. (Or an android, which I always thought was a possibility. The guy simply isn't human, bah gawd)

[Guest Smeghead]

Do you know how much harder it is to do it with a heavy steel chair in your hand than it is to just leap?

Not only that, but comparing a WWE ring to an ECW ring, RVD had an extra 2 feet to jump. He is definitely the man. If he can pull that off at a PPV, which is yet another 2 feet, he must be a god.

 

And while JR didn't call it the Van Terminator, they did call it the Van Terminator in the Raw results on WWE.com. WWE.com is the first place where I saw the name for Lesnar's finisher, the F5. It took JR about a month to call the F5 by its name. So I wouldn't be surprised if takes JR until Summerslam to learn the name of the Van Terminator.

[Guest CanadianHorseman]

There was a Raw before No Mercy when they were setting up the triple-threat main event between RVD, Angle and Austin. When both Angle and Austin were laid out, RVD ran out, jumped to the the top, and nailed Angle (leaping over Austin in the process) with the frog splash, covering about 3/4 of the ring's diagonal length in the process. When I saw that, I didn't know if he would be able to top that.

 

Then, of course, last night he did. I will probably never see something that awe-inspiring in a wrestling ring again, unless he raises the bar yet again.

 

There is no way in hell anyone can even compare Shane's version to what we saw last night from Mr. Van Dam.

[Guest cabbageboy]

He needs to debut the insane sommersault into the crowd that he did on Bigelow in 1998, when he won the ECW TV title. I've seen the same thing done on WCW shows and it had no heat, but when RVD did it into the 5th ROW I literally jumped out of my seat marking out.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

He needs to debut the insane sommersault into the crowd that he did on Bigelow in 1998, when he won the ECW TV title. I've seen the same thing done on WCW shows and it had no heat, but when RVD did it into the 5th ROW I literally jumped out of my seat marking out.

ECW's railing was about a yard away from the ring. The WWE's railing is considerably farther away. Plus, the crowd isn't the more visually impressive sea of people that the ECW crowds were. I don't think it will look nearly as impressive with out those aids.

[Guest CanadianHorseman]

"ECW's railing was about a yard away from the ring."

 

Not in this case. It appeared to be at least ten feet away, then you have to factor the distance he got on the actual leap. He could still do it now, even with the greater distance of WWE's "railings."

 

Yes, Cabbageboy, until last night, my favorite RVD moment was the somersault into the crowd. My roommate and I must have rewound that spot a dozen times.

[Guest cabbageboy]

I got the Path of Destruction tape mainly so I could have RVD/Bigelow on tape. Before that I had it but it was on the 1 year anniversary of RVD having the TV title and they just showed highlights.

 

People say RVD's match with Jeff at Invasion "made" him. The match that really made him to me was that Bigelow match. I knew who RVD was before that match but never gave him much thought either way. After that match and the sommersault spot in particular, I thought to myself "that guy is fucking awesome."

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I was front row for that match!

 

Buffalo was a good ECW town...and to this day RVD is the most over wrestler to pass through here.

 

He out popped Austin and HHH the last time they brought a house show through.

 

As far as the match goes...what impressed me most about him in that match is this:

 

Whenever someone does an insane move or something...the crowd chants "ECW"

 

When he jumped into the crowd the second time...the chant turned into "RVD"

 

I'd never heard it before after a big spot...as the usually just chant for the extremeness of the company not the performer.

 

BTW...that match was the moment that RVD became my favorite wrestler.

[Guest TheSmarkzone]

He could still do it now, even with the greater distance of WWE's "railings."

 

I've sat ringside for a number of WWE events, and I think that he could clear the barricade. Yeah, the average athlete would get to the top rope and say, "Forget it", but this R-V-D we're talking about. He can clear a 20" ring with a chair in his hand. He couldn't get five rows deep like he did in ECW, though. The nice thing about the WWE set-up is that he would have no fans or chairs cluttering his landing space...right by the barricade, it's nothing but concrete and his opponent.

 

Bottom line, it's a scary, scary move. If he doesn't make it or his opponent fails to break his fall, he's basically dead.