Rob Van Dam was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2021 class, and it was an inclusion that made all the sense on the planet to both fans and WWE. That's actually why Vince McMahon at first didn't think about Van Dam for the 2021 Hall of Fame class, something Van Dam exposed in a brand-new interview with Busted Open Radio. Throughout that conversation, Rob Van Dam exposed an exchange in between Michael Hayes and McMahon, who were thinking about prospects. Vince made a remark that it was regrettable RVD was already in the Hall of Fame, and Hayes had to inform him he hadn't been inducted yet.
"It was cool. You know, whenever that 203 location code appears on my cell phone, I'm like, 'Okay, let me see. Let me attempt and determine my sensations about it.' It was Johnny Ace. He 'Hey, Vince wanted me to call you in and see if you're interested in being inducted in the Hall of Fame this year.' I was like, 'Yeah, it would be an honor. Definitely,'" Van Dam stated.
"I discovered that, I believe it was Michael Hayes that informed me that they were sitting around the table like they do when it showed up. I guess Vince said something to the impact of 'Too bad RVD is already in the Hall of Fame, or he 'd be an excellent candidate for this year', and somebody stated, I believe it was Michael Hayes, stated 'Vince, RVD is not in the Hall of Fame.' He thought I was and resembled, 'What?' So, quite cool how that went down and I'm delighted, clearly, to be part of it," Van Dam said.
The 2021 Hall of Fame class consisted of Van Dam, Kane, Molly Holly, Eric Bischoff, and The Great Khali. Ozzy Osbourne was also inducted as part of the Celebrity Wing, and Rich Hering won the Warrior Award. During the interview, Van Dam likewise discussed his speech, which was supposed to be within three to five minutes and wound up being almost 30.
"I didn't understand until later on that they had stated go three to five minutes. Molly Holly was truly upset since she had an actually long speech prepared, you know, with aid, and she was like, really hurt," Van Dam said.
"For me, I resembled, well, I do not understand what I'm going to say anyhow. So it draws, you know, 3 to 5 minutes. My entire life, I've stayed and listened to all these fantastic long speeches about all these legends. Now I'm going to remain in front of an empty arena, and in three minutes, I'm going to state thanks. But I figured I was going to go a bit long, you know, maybe 5 or six minutes and provide things to modify. I went 26 minutes and didn't even realize it, I think due to the fact that there was nobody there. It was weird," Van Dam said.
"I would state something and they would turn up the applause and turn it down so I 'd have a concept. Then I 'd state something else. I had no idea I went that long, however nobody seemed upset. I think perhaps it disturb me more than any person else as far as I might inform even if I felt like I stepped over the bounds a lot," Van Dam said.
