On a recent episode of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast, former professional wrestler Rob Van Dam shared a story about a fan encounter at an independent wrestling event that turned ugly fast.
In the interview, Van Dam recalled an incident during a match where a fan yanked his ponytail. He shared, one time comes to mind, which ended up being a lawsuit in Allentown. But he was paid the ‘fk off fee,’ and then pursued the matter legally anyway. There were two lawsuits during his tenure at ECW involving fans.
Specifically, Van Dam reflected on an indie promotion event where he was wrestling against Billy Kidman in North Carolina around 1996. Being a heel character at the time, his character was hated. During the match, a fan impulsively pulled his ponytail and retreated. Caught off guard, Van Dam instinctively punched the attacker in the face before realizing he had been restrained by two other individuals.
Van Dam expressed his shock at his gut reaction, “It was happening so fast. I turned and as they were trying to close in, I just dove between them and punched him in his face.” After the altercation, he quickly resumed the match with Kidman, preparing for the potential fallout from his attack on the fan. However, the only consequence for the incident turned out to be handing out a few free t-shirts.
Check out the full interview in the embedded video.
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