Rob Van Dam only held the WWE Championship on one occasion, but it was undeniably memorable.
At WrestleMania 22, he emerged victorious in the "Money in the Bank" ladder match and later used it to challenge then-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 a new ECW World Heavyweight Championship, making him the only man to hold both titles at the same time.
Unfortunately, RVD's time with both titles reached an abrupt end when he was arrested for possessing marijuana. That was illegal in many states at the time and was on WWE's list of banned substances. That's since changed and, talking to Chris Van Vliet, the WWE Hall of Famer explained how that affected his championship reign.
"Who knows where it would have went? I don’t know what [was planned]," RVD admitted. "I was always last one to to know what people had planned. I don’t know how long the championship would have been around, but for sure, I would have been able to do a hell of a lot more to keep ECW going."
"Now, that was all because of the marijuana bust, which is not even a thing right now, in that same Hanging Rock Ohio for that same 18 grams you’re not going to get arrested," he continued. "You’re probably just going to get let go. I said I was just ahead of my time. To me, what I’m doing right now isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just because the authority says that it’s bad."
"People that think that, no, they say it’s bad, that’s bad. Well, they change that all the time. Coffee’s good for you. Coffee’s bad for you. Guess what? Do some research make up your mind for yourself."
RVD was also asked whether he's retired and made it clear he has no intention of stepping away from the ring. "I don’t [think I am], and I don’t think I will [retire]. That’s how I feel right now," he admitted. "I feel like even if I don’t take wrestling bookings anymore, I don’t think I’ll make a big deal out of retirement. Because when wrestlers retire and they end up coming back and wrestling anyway."
"'No, I want one more match.’ For me, that is completely eating up the credibility that I had in wrestling retirement matches. I doubt that I’ll ever feel like, ‘No, I’m going to be different. I never want to wrestle right now. I’m done.’ I just see me is just going with the flow," the ECW icon said. "And someday, when you say, are you still wrestling? I might say, It’s been six years, and then I might have a match."
You can watch the full interview here.