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In this world, simultaneously, Robert Szatkowski is a professional wrestler with a huge fan following. Even though he's been on a self-imposed hiatus for seven months (with one very notable brief appearance as the exception), the straight shooting native of San Pedro, California (by way of Battle Creek, Michigan) is as popular now as he ever was. His fans will wait for him. In the minds of many, he's worth the wait. In case his name doesn't sound familiar, it's probably because he's better known as Rob VanDam.
Catchy, isn't it? RVD is one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Even when he's not participating in the profession at the moment.

In an interview with Canadian talk show Live Audio Wrestling, RVD went into detail about his frustrations with World Wrestling Entertainment and its handling of the Exteme Championship Wrestling brand. His story about how Vince McMahon viewed the following enjoyed by the Original ECW, considering the DVD of "The Rise and Fall of ECW" is the number two best selling DVD in WWE history, selling close to 400,000 copies worldwide, perhaps says more about McMahon's reported inability to accept anyone else's success in wrestling than anything on record to date.

To offer some perspective, Pro Wrestling Insider posted WWE DVD sales numbers as of January 1. The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class has sold 6,711 copies. The ECW DVD was so hot in its initial release that retailers were sold out in many of the major markets on the first day. Shawn Michaels: Heartbreak and Triumph sold 26,758 copies. John Cena My Life has sold 36,262 copies. Rey Mysterio: Biggest Little Man has sold 23,719 copies. The success of the ECW DVD, which was only the 2nd WWE DVD to ever eclipse 100,000 copies (The Ric Flair career retrospective was the 1st) is nothing short of phenomenal.

In the Live Audio Wrestling interview, which was conducted by the excellent Jason Agnew, RVD said, "I wanted out of (WWE) so bad, it was no secret and everybody knew that. As time went on and as they destroyed the legend of ECW more and more and made me feel like there was less and less reason for me to even be there, I was literally counting down the days till my contract would expire. So when it did, I did the right thing that I had the power to do because you know before that you pretty much feel like you owned. Once that contract is up there's nothing anyone can make RVD do that RVD doesn't want to do."

When asked what the final straw on WWE's part, RVD said, "I was very much burnt out. Originally back in 2001, I wasn't wanting to go to WWE. I knew that it wasn't going to be my favorite style of wrestling but it was the right thing to do. ECW had folded, WCW had folded, if I wanted to continue being a professional wrestler and of course moving upward there was nothing to do but join the WWE. When I did it was every bit as frustrating as I thought it would be and then some. I used to call Sonya and say I'm coming home, I can't stay here, I hate it. That was a combination of things. It was the politics, it was the style, the attitude, the egos, there was so much up there and it made me not happy you know. I would say for everybody work is the number one source of negative energy. We all stress about our jobs but people don't want to look at wrestling that way. They want to think your living a fantasy dream, well it is very much work and when your love and passion for it dwindles it can be work that is very, very, very challenging. When I left WWE it was because I was burnt out, most of it was the schedule because I had adjust to a lot of the BS that originally was hard to cope with. It was the schedule, it was the meaningless schedule. I felt like going from town to town to town to town doing back flips and spin kicks, it had lost it's meaning for me and there was different cycles of motivation. Ya it was exciting when I was the world champion, it was exciting bringing ECW back. But you know what the excitement would die down because they would frustrate me again and it was just one long continuing cycle of down hill burn out. Towards the end there I didn't even feel like I could maintain because my heart wasn't in it anymore. I was trying to be professional in the ring but I'll tell ya I was starting to lose stuff at hotels, I just getting careless, I was getting more and more tired. Living on the west coast is a strong disadvantage on top of the crazy schedule because I've got to leave the night before to get a red eye to get to the east coast in Boston and its 6 hours back home. It was just a lot of work and you have to have your love and passion carry you through and some of my passion got burnt out. So I took an indefinite break which means when my love and passion return then I'll be ready."

RVD dropped a real bombshell in talking about Paul Heyman's departure in December, 2006. When Agnew asked Van Dam "How drastically did your time in the WWE change after Paul Heyman was sent home in December of 2006?" Van Dam finally revealed some details of Paul Heyman's blowup with the McMahons, and if Heyman intended on quitting before the disastrous December To Dismember pay per view. RVD said, "In November we were on a very, very stressful and dreadful over seas trip. Paul Heyman and I every night would get together in the hotel room and talk about everything they had done to try and destroy ECW on nightly bases. It was little things, not putting as much promotion in to it, where it is on the card, just everything, you know everything. It was obvious that a lot of it, agents didn't like ECW and that's no big surprise but guess what? Its Vince's EWC now, get behind it, quit being A-holes, its business! They were still trying to squash and bury ECW and it frustrated us. Paul and I both on that trip said we were leaving and I knew that we were going to leave, we both were. Paul, you said got sent home but I actually watched him get in to a taxi and walk out of the place, so there's two sides of the story for you. Vince told Paul basically kiss my ass, I'm paraphrasing, it had more to do with apologizing and taking back some things that were said and caving in or consider this you handing in your resignation. Paul said I am very happy to hand in my resignation, he couldn't wait to get out of there and he'd always been like that so I talked to him. I was waiting for his cab and he told me what just went down and he got in his cab and left. I told him "Paul my contracts up in a little bit, I'm gonna finish it. I signed the contract you know and I believe in loyalty. If I tell ya I'm gonna do the job, I'm gonna do the job, I'm gonna be there." I had till June and as it got close to it man I could not wait. It wasn't actually until Wrestlemania that I absolutely knew for sure that I was not going to re-sign. From that point on ugh, it just seemed like week by week it got more stressful for me."

There are many who saw the enormous crowd reaction Van Dam got at the Raw 15th Anniversary special, and wondered if RVD was coming back full time after his 1 minute pinfall victory over Santino Marella. When asked and if that made him want to go back to WWE, Van Dam stated, "Everybody from the boys to the office, Stephanie, everybody wants to know, do you miss us? Are you ready to come back?  I tell everybody I don't miss you enough, I'm not ready to come back yet."