Rob Van Dam explains why WWE matches with Jeff Hardy stood out
Rob Van Dam reflected on his WWE rivalry with Jeff Hardy and how they complimented each other in the ring. He also revisited the significance of his Hardcore Championship reigns.
Van Dam reflected on his feuds with Jeff Hardy on WWE Retrospective citing that their similar attitude towards going to extremes for a match made them compatible opponents.
“Jeff (Hardy), boom, great opponent. We love wrestling each other. We love that the matches are great. We love that we both can do a lot of really cool stuff. We both like to do moves that at the time other people don’t do, things like this. Jumping off the guard rail, doing a moonsault. Back then there was probably one guy on the card that was gonna do that. Like that made me special, stand out. One of a kind. Now you’re doing that on day one in wrestling school.”
“Jeff and I are both equally willing to put our body on the line for each other for the sake of the match. If the other guy doesn’t wanna do it, good luck if you can get it in or not, but you got somebody like-minded wanting to have the same kind of match as you, that doesn’t get any better than that.”
Van Dam also discussed his first Hardcore Championship win, what that reign meant to him and the fan support.
“Hearing all those fans behind me, and now I got a championship to defend, and it’s a Hardcore Championship, which I’d rather stand for that than anything. It was just like having the TV title where I was trying to make the Hardcore Title mean as much as any other belt. And as a matter of fact, at the time we had so many people on the roster, we were doing three shows a night. And since that means that some of the bigger stars like Rock and Stone Cold, they might be busy on A and B show.”
“I don’t know how many times I had the Hardcore Championship, but my ego tells me that I added a lot more credibility to it than it ever had with anybody else.”
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.