53-year-old legend reveals why he was hesitant to join WWE; thought he would be given lame character 

Former WWE Champion Rob Van Dam is again on an active roster, and his match with Swerve Strickland on AEW was one for the ages. The former ECW World Heavyweight Champion has had a decades-long career, and it's interesting to hear stories of what he experienced during that time.

In a recent interview, Mr. Friday Night spoke about his apprehensions about signing with WWE in 2001, when ECW, owned by Paul Heyman, closed down.

On the '1 of a Kind' Podcast, RVD spoke about his apprehension about signing up with the Stamford-based company.

“That’s why I didn’t want to go to WWE in 2001. I was afraid that they would give me some lame character and change everything about me. That really bothered me because, obviously, it’s always been important for me to be myself, and I really thought that was going to be up for battle. I thought they were going to come up with some lame, who knows what. " he said. (H/T Ewrestlingnews.com)

WWE has been notorious for completely changing storylines of red-hot characters and names of stars, according to their whims and fancies. The most popular example in recent times is LA Knight, who was repackaged as 'Max Dupri' when he moved from NXT to the main roster, but only became the Megastar he is today when The Game reverted his character to LA Knight..

Rob Van Dam's match fails to raise Dynamite ratings

RVD's match with Swerve Strickland was the main event in a Dynamite episode that featured Jon Moxley, Toa Liona, "Hangman" Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, and others.

However, the star-studded match card, which featured Rob Van Dam, did not do anything for the ratings of the said episode.

As reported by Wrestlenomics, the Rob Van Dam-headlined episode drew an average viewership of 818,000 and was rated 0.26 among the 18-49 demographics. This number is less than what Dynamite drew the week prior.

With this, Tony Khan surely needs to think of something drastic to increase the ratings for his shows.

What do you think? What should the President of AEW do to increase ratings and viewership? Tell us in the comments section.