Rob Van Dam Recalls Hitting Fan During Incident at 1996 Wrestling Show

On the latest episode of 1 Of A Kind, Rob Van Dam talked about a time when he had an incident with a fan who pulled his ponytail during a match. You can check out some highlights below:

Rob Van Dam on fan incident: “You know what, one time comes to mind. Well, a couple of times came to mind, and one of them ended up being a lawsuit in Allentown. And he was just paid without even — oh no, we actually did the deposition, that’s right. He was paid the ‘f**k off fee,’ and then [he] pursued anyway. And I had to go there and do the f**king deposition, and ECW took care of everything. There were two lawsuits when I was on ECW that they had to pay involving fans.

“But one time that I think about was an indie show. I was wrestling Billy Kidman, I think in North Carolina. It was a Greg Price show. And I was a heel. So this is like, ’96-ish. I was trying to find my inner heel because I wrestling with ECW, and they hated me up there when I was wrestling Sabu because he was their god. So I was really in cocky heel perspective. And I was in a crowd after doing a dive or something? And I felt somebody yank my ponytail really hard, boom! Behind me. And I turned around real quick, and all I could see was a body retreating backwards, and then two other bodies closing in the gap, so that I couldn’t get to him.”

On his reaction: “It was happening so quick. I turned, and as he was receding and they were trying to close, I dove between them and reached between him. And bam! I punched him in his face, boom! And then I end up with both of these guys holding me. And then they go, ‘Wait, wait, wait, don’t, he’s special!’ I looked, and I was like, ‘Oh!’ I went over and got Kidman, you know, threw him back in the ring and just went on with the match. And I was like, ‘Holy s**t, here it comes. Here it comes.’ But it ended up just being, like, a few t-shirts or something.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 1 Of A Kind an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.