WWE News: Another Former WWE Superstar Reportedly Turned Down Offer To Return
By reinitiating the brand extension, the WWE’s intentions were to fortify two separate rosters to adequately fill weekly programming and monthly pay-per-views. Before the brand split was announced, Vince McMahon declared that the WWE would boast the biggest roster it’s ever had thanks to superstars returning from injuries and NXT superstars being ready for their promotion to the main roster.
Vince, of course, also knew that the extension was on the horizon and needed such a talent pool to properly execute it. By the time the WWE Draft rolled around, John Cena, Randy Orton, Cesaro, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt, and Neville all had recovered from injury and had either already returned or were just about to. The draft also launched the WWE careers of seven NXT stars, most notably Finn Balor and American Alpha.
Plenty of WWE fans and critics made compelling arguments for the promotions of Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Bayley as well, but room was made for Bayley only when Sasha Banks was stricken with another injury. She wasn’t supposed to be called-up, let alone be inserted into the WWE Women’s Championship picture, this soon, but circumstances changed that. Joe and Nakamura will lead the next round of call-ups assuming Triple H is comfortable with Hideo Itami, Austin Aries, and Bobby Roode carrying the NXT flag.
But in order to fully stock both RAW and SmackDown Live, Vince needed even more reinforcements. The Cruiserweight Classic competitors will solidify that new division when it debuts on Monday nights next month, but the Chairman had his eye on former WWE superstars who could still go and were willing to help put the talent of this new era over.
The WWE reached out to many former employees, but so far, only Jinder Mahal, Rhyno, Curt Hawkins, and Shelton Benjamin agreed to return. Unfortunately, a torn rotator cuff was discovered during Benjamin’s medical exam, preventing him from returning until that’s fully healed, which is likely sometime in 2017. We’ve mentioned on several occasions how bigger names like Goldberg, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, and Rey Mysterio weren’t realistic for the roles the WWE was looking for during the launch of the brand split.
But then there were the likes of Carlito, MVP, and Tommy Dreamer. While there has been little out of the Carlito camp, both MVP and Dreamer turned down full-time offers, primarily because of financial reasons. It’s been said that more money can be made by working less dates on the independent scene rather than agreeing to the rigorous lifestyle that the WWE provides. But there’s another name that has recently emerged that we can add to that list.
According to Ringside News, Rob Van Dam also turned down the WWE for another opportunity to return to the company. The circumstances in RVD’s case are a little different, however, as he was approached in October of 2015 and not recently in light of the brand extension.
As a guest on a recent episode of the Buzzard Wrestling Podcast, Van Dam revealed why he declined.
“It wasn’t a real good time for me and that affected the dollar amount it would take to make it worth my while and that was the last talk we had. And that probably left an impression on them, which I’m totally fine with.”
RVD said the WWE approached him with the idea of returning to aid The Dudley Boyz in their feud at the time with The Wyatt Family. If you recall, The Dudleys, who recently parted ways with the WWE, were outnumbered by Bray and company and were looking for help from their old ECW colleagues. The original plan was for RVD to return as their partner, which would have led to a six-man match at TLC, but both Rhyno and Tommy Dreamer accepted the short-term offer to even the odds and create a Survivor Series-style elimination match at the TLC pay-per-view.
More recently, RVD has been campaigning to solicit funds on behalf of Sabu who has been dealing with medical issues of his own. But with the likes of Van Dam, Dreamer, and MVP turning the WWE down, it will be interesting to see if the company continues in that pursuit or strictly relies on their own developmental system to help bolster their rosters.
[Image via WWE]
