WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam revealed that he was uncomfortable with romancing Stephanie McMahon back in the day. The latest episode of Rob Van Dam’s podcast, titled “1 Of A Kind,” revolves around Van Dam’s former co-worker and current WWE Chief Content Officer Paul Triple H.
It has been noted that during the episode, the discussion touched on the canceled romance storyline between RVD and Stephanie McMahon in 2001. Van Dam has previously revealed he pushed for the angle to be dropped because of his real-life relationship at the time, and now the former ECW star has further elaborated on the situation.
“I saw where the story was going and I was uncomfortable with it,” Van Dam said. A big reason why, according to Van Dam, is because he knew it would make his girlfriend at the time jealous, and that wasn’t something he wanted to deal with at home.
“So because of that, I was like, ‘Man, you know, I just want to wrestle. I don’t want to get involved in storylines like this,'” Van Dam continued. “I don’t remember who I told first. I remember having a talk with Stephanie, and I was really upset about it. … I remember Stephanie trying to make me feel comfortable with it, and she said, predictably, ‘Just look at it like we’re just actors and you’re just playing a part.'”
Despite her best efforts, McMahon’s argument wasn’t quite enough to convince Van Dam, and the former WWE Champion recalls going to speak with producer Bruce Prichard about the storyline after speaking to McMahon.
“I remember talking to Bruce Prichard about it,” RVD said. “Man, I was brand new at this time. … [I was still] trying to figure out the chain of command. … Bruce was like, ‘I’m glad we had this talk. If you didn’t tell me that you were uncomfortable with certain things, then how would I know?’ … I thought everything went well, right?”
Van Dam further stated that he came back for television the next, read the script, and found out they planned on taking the romance angle with McMahon further, despite RVD’s protests. After getting upset and vocalizing that he wanted to slap Prichard, Van Dam said that Paul Heyman was able to calm him down. After Van Dam had some time to settle, he sat down with members of the WWE creative team, possibly including Prichard.
Together, they worked out a compromise, bringing Chris Jericho into the storyline to get involved with McMahon and seemingly allowing everyone to move forward agreeably.
