RVD Says Beating John Cena At ECW One Night Stand 2006 Was His “Crowning Moment”

WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam (RVD) believes that his victory over John Cena at ECW: One Night Stand 2006 is the “crowning moment” of his career.

On TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast, CJ Perry (FKA Lana) brought up that crazy match between RVD and John Cena that took place at the iconic Hammerstein Ballroom in June 2006. RVD was clearly the fan favorite that night, with ECW loyalists being extremely hostile against the then-WWE Champion right from the beginning.

Commenting on his victory that night, RVD said that it was his “moment of vindication” for not listening to people and carving out his own path.

“Everything. So that was the highlight, the pinnacle of my career, wrestling him and also beating him, and walking away the victor. It wasn’t just because he was the top guy, the WWE Champion, and that’s every wrestler’s goal; it wasn’t just because of that. Obviously, that had a lot of weight to it, but also just the way I did it my way. I feel like I changed the entire playing field to make that possible; otherwise, that pathway would have happened, and I don’t think that there would have been another pathway that I would have fit on. But by bringing ECW back and being the guy in ECW and then just sticking to my guns, even though for 30-some years people have been trying to change me and make me conform to more traditional cookie-cutter values. I just stuck to my gun being different, even though not as many people understood me, and that was my moment of vindication, you know, literally my crowning moment,” RVD said.

Check out RVD’s comments below:

The finish of the Extreme Rules match saw Adam Copeland, i.e., Edge, interfere and take out John Cena with a Spear, allowing RVD to hit his signature Five Star Frog Splash for the win, with Paul Heyman counting the pinfall.

Please credit TMZ’s Inside The Ring and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this copy.