Later that year, Kurt Angle left for TNA, a move that opened the door for others such as RVD to consider options outside of WWE. RVD remains eternally grateful to Angle for leading the way, especially since wrestlers in TNA were getting paid similar numbers to WWE for working fewer dates.

“When he was in Impact, he was the top guy, and that made it okay to consider another place to work if WWE wasn’t working out,” RVD admitted. “For me, it ended up being the case. The office told me that he wasn’t getting paid what he was rumored. That was a big factor: way less work for comparable numbers.”

While Angle and RVD wrestled only a few times in TNA, the latter admittedly always brought his ‘A’ game every time he stood across from the Olympic gold medallist. Furthermore, RVD wanted to prove to himself that he could hang in the ring with a wrestler of Angle’s stature.

“First of all, Kurt is such a great wrestler,” RVD stressed. “He took to the business so quick, he was so gifted. I liked the competitiveness of wrestling with somebody like that, because you know it was going to be way different than wrestling someone like, I don’t know, One Man Gang. And because I had that ECW spirit and fire inside me, I wanted to stand up to him, even though he was an Olympic hero.”