Former WWE Champion Rob Van Dam spoke about how he and Paul Heyman tried to convince Vince McMahon to give Jerry Lynn a permanent job.
Van Dam told a story on his podcast One of a Kind about how in 2001, he and Heyman had attempted to get McMahon to give Lynn a chance on WWE’s main shows.
Lynn was used primarily on shows such as Sunday Night Heat and Jakked, as well as appearing on house shows during 2001. Lynn did capture the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship from Crash Holly on an episode of Heat in 2001. However, he only held the title for a few months, when he was beaten by Jeff Hardy on an episode of SmackDown.
Following a match that Van Dam and Lynn had for the Hardcore Championship on Heat, Van Dam pitched the idea to Vince of giving Lynn a run on the main WWE programming, due to the chemistry that he and Lynn shared he believed they would have had a great run of matches together.
Van Dam said:
I remember talking to Vince about it [hiring Lynn]. I didn’t know if he saw Jerry and me in this match, [but] we were great together. Did he tell me that I should focus on bigger things? I don’t know if that actually happened, a lot of my conversation was through Paul because Paul had to go to agents’ meetings a few times a day, and when I talked to Paul, he was always like updating me. Paul had told me that Vince didn’t care for, or didn’t see anything special in Jerry Lynn.
What Happened Between Vince McMahon And Rob Van Dam?
Rob Van Dam and Vince McMahon have had a rocky professional relationship since Van Dam first joined WWE in 2001, following the demise of ECW.
Initially brought in as part of the Invasion storyline RVD was aligned with the heel faction the Alliance. However, Van Dam’s popularity with fans quickly rose due to his charisma and acrobatic move-set.
He was involved in the main event scene but never captured a top-level championship, until 2006 when he won the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 22 and cashed it in against John Cena at One Night Stand and won the WWE Championship.
Van Dam’s top-star status didn’t last long, RVD and fellow ECW compatriot Sabu had a run-in with the law which saw both stars arrested for cannabis possession. RVD lost both the WWE Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Title in consecutive days as punishment.
Van Dam left the company in 2007 and bounced around the independent scene and Impact Wrestling, before making a return to WWE in 2013 for a short run with the company.
H/t to WrestlingInc.com