During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Rob Van Dam talked about his 2021 WWE Hall of Fame induction:
“Obviously, it’s an incredible honor. I knew going in that this is some serious sh*t, headlining, cemented in with this prestigious group of people that influenced me and people that have ruled the entire business. Whether I deserve it or not, that’s always going to be subjective to whoever is saying that. For years, I’ve heard, ‘Hey, future Hall of Famer’, and I’m like, ‘Well that’s cool if they think that of me.’ Now, subjective to Vince and to WWE, they think that I’m worthy, so that adds a lot of honor to it. When I heard the speeches were going to be short, I was a little bit bummed because everyone was saying, “I can’t wait to hear your speech.’ I was putting out there to people I talked to, to lower your expectations because I knew it was going to be short.
We had a lot of people to go through. When I went out there, I was trying to think of what to write before, and I kept pulling out my pad of paper. I would start daydreaming or whatever. I would start to write something, and just like everywhere in life, for me, what works for me, I can’t force it. I have to wait until everything just drops into place. It ended up, like, I didn’t know what I was going to say. I haven’t heard it back in its entirety, so I’m not really sure what all I said, but I went out there to speak from the heart. I was very pleased to see that people seemed to enjoy the speech. I was hearing some of the comments. Some of them were saying it was their favorite speech and it was so genuine. I didn’t think I was going to be the whole f’n show in three to five minutes. That was awesome. The whole night was awesome. Having Vince and Hunter tell me that I changed the business, that will stick with me forever. That’s great. At first I joked, ‘For better or worse?’, and they both said, ‘For better.’ That’s something that means a lot to me, and I know a lot of people were happy. I could feel the energy. If they’re happy for me and I’m happy for them, then everybody’s happy.”
(quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)
