Fast-forward to 2013 when RVD returned to WWE, Triple H had settled into the role of Chief Operating Officer.

“I remember when I did my return [in 2013], everybody’s telling me, ‘He’s running stuff now. You gotta call him and talk to him before you get on the schedule.’ That’s the way it works, so that was a big change. But my 2013 run went really well. Since then, he’s always treated me with respect.”

Van Dam clarified that Triple H was “mostly” respectful to him back in the day, but there was a backhandedness to his comments.

“It’s just that, in the game, I kind of felt that even though he was treating me respectfully, it was kind of backhanded. He never would’ve said something insulting or deliberately, but maybe something like, ‘Oh, hey, glad you could join us, Rob,’ when everyone’s already been discussing a six-man match and I’ve been avoiding it for as long as I could… He would say, ‘Glad you could join us, Rob. You need something to munch on?’ I would say, ‘I know what you did. I’m gonna remember that.’ It was more of that [then] and less of that [now]. When I see him at the Hall of Fames and stuff like that now, it’s all good.”