Rob Van Dam only held the WWE Championship on a single occasion, but it was undeniably memorable.
At WrestleMania 22, he won the Money in the Bank ladder match and later used that to challenge WWE Champion John Cena to a title bout at One Night Stand, an ECW-themed PPV. At the event, Van Dam defeated Cena - who found himself being berated by an incredibly hostile crowd - and won his first world title.
Two days later, Paul Heyman awarded Van Dam with the reactivated ECW World Heavyweight Championship making him the only man to hold both titles at the same time.
During a recent edition of his One of a Kind podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer looked back at that time in his career and revealed what he believes might be "the greatest secret" in the sports entertainment and pro wrestling business.
"The greatest secret in the business - I never, ever, ever heard this. Ever," he started. "Only did I experience it firsthand, and people don't talk about it really. So maybe it's not meant to be talked about. F***, look at me, running my mouth like a f***ing rat."
"But anyway, when I got the WWE Championship belt, then all of a sudden I got bumped up to first class. And if it was an airplane that didn't have first class available because the airplane was too small or whatever, they would literally buy two seats and I'd have the seat next to me open and they were both mine. I had never heard that, so I was like, 'Woah.'"
RVD went on to explain that Rey Mysterio told him about a similar experience that he had, so this wasn't some sort of bizarre one-off!
It's always fun to hear from Van Dam and, earlier this year, he recalled losing his WWE Hall of Fame ring shortly after receiving it from WWE. "So the very first week that I got it, I did a show in Wisconsin and I wasn't used to having it. I left it in the hotel room," he said. "I went back to Las Vegas and so it took an honest maid and an honest front desk person and an honest wrestling promoter."
"Thank you, Ben McCoy for calling me and saying, ‘Did you forget something dude’, and I didn't even know yet. I just got home the next day and wow, I had it for, I don't know," he admitted. "I think it was the same week, so I didn't have it very long and I lost it already."
Next March, RVD will face former WWE Superstar Matt Riddle for the first time. You can read about that here.