What’s the story?
Former WWE Superstar and ECW icon Rob Van Dam made his return to in-ring action at Pacific Coast Wrestling’s “High Tide” event in California. RVD wrestled fellow former WWE Superstar MVP in a 60-minute time limit match for the PCW Heavyweight Championship.
It was a tagline of the event and is worth noting that prior to this encounter, RVD and MVP had never faced each other in a singles match.
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Rob Van Dam, ever since his last run with the WWE ended in 2014, has been wrestling a light schedule on the independent circuit, being very selective about his dates and appearances.
The appearances have included House of Hardcore shows as well as an appearance last year for PCW itself. Van Dam was also recently booked as a special presenter for an Edibles magazine award event, owing to his pro-marijuana leanings.
RVD was last seen on a WWE-produced show last year in August 2016, when he featured on the WWE Network show “Table for Three” alongside Raven and Mick Foley.
The heart of the matter
Pacific Coast Wrestling is an independent promotion who have been working with Rob Van Dam since November 2016. Other noteworthy performers that wrestle with them include former WWE Superstars John Morrison and MVP.
PCW had booked Rob Van Dam in a match against MVP for their March 24th 2017 “High Tide” show. RVD was the reigning PCW Heavyweight Champion going into the match, having won the title from Pentagon Jr. last year.
Here’s one of the posters of the event promoting RVD’s showdown against MVP:
The match, by all accounts, was a scintillating one, with both RVD and MVP executing several of their signature moves. RVD emerged victorious in the match and retained his PCW Heavyweight Championship by way of pinfall, after hitting MVP with a Frog Splash.
Also read: WWE/TNA News: Rob Van Dam discusses his issues with TNA
Clips of the match can be seen below.
It is abundantly clear that RVD has still got it! The event was a massive success for all parties involved.
After the match was over, Johnny Mundo, who was formerly known as John Morrison in the WWE, made an unadvertised appearance and laid out a challenge to RVD for the PCW Heavyweight title. A video of this appearance can be seen below:
The match has since been booked by PCW.
What’s next?
According to a Tweet by PCW, Vice News apparently covered the event. It shall be interesting to see what comes of that.
Rob Van Dam, on the other hand, has confirmed via Twitter in response to a fan’s question, that he will be in attendance at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on 31st March 2017 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The Tweet conversation is as follows:
There are currently some rumours or about RVD potentially coming back to the WWE, however, PCW have announced that he will be taking on John Morrison (Johnny Mundo) on their 2nd June 2017 event in another PCW Heavyweight Championship match.
The stipulations for the aforementioned bout between RVD and Morrison aren’t clear as of yet.
Author’s take
Rob Van Dam is a once-in-a-lifetime Superstar and is definitely a future WWE Hall of Famer. RVD is very well capable of still producing great matches within the squared circle and should certainly be brought back in some capacity for a final run, by the WWE.
Although RVD does appear to be enjoying his light schedule and his return to the independent wrestling circuit, it’s not unreasonable to expect a final match or a final run in the WWE from him to cap off what has been a splendid, legendary career.
I personally hope that we see him back in a WWE ring soon.
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