RVD Recalls The WWE Moment That Made Him Realize He Isn't Indestructible

In the world of pro wrestling, getting hurt is often an inevitability, but WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam has been able to avoid more injuries than most. On a recent episode of "1 Of A Kind," however, RVD acknowledged that at a relatively early point in his career, he realized the toll wrestling takes on the body.

"There was the time when I broke my ankle and I had to give up the [ECW World] Television Championship," Van Dam said, referring to an injury in 2000. "I really thought that I was indestructible before that, so that did a lot to my ego and humbled me."

Van Dam says the incident also made him realize how important it was to stick to his routine of stretching before every match. The night he broke his ankle, RVD said that he was running late and skipped over his warm-up.

"Then when I tore my ACL in WWE, that sucked," RVD continued. "It then hurt for four years and it just [kept] getting progressively worse and worse. It killed me every single night. People don't know that, when they're watching my matches from 2001 to 2005, pretty much every night my knee was killing me, and I didn't want anybody to know."

Instead of having his injury taken care of, the Hall of Famer continued working through the pain so as not to let anybody in the company down, especially Vince McMahon. RVD felt that there was a belief that he would be injury-prone due to his style, and he wanted to prove his doubters wrong. Instead, Van Dam's ACL "snapped" in the ring one night in early 2005, putting him out of action ahead of WWE WrestleMania. Still, RVD recalls being so burned out at the time that he greatly enjoyed his time recovering at home.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "1 Of A Kind" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.