Hello everyone, welcome to Amolipi channel, where you can learn more interesting info about your
favorite actors and athletes. In today's video, we'll be discussing the iconic semi-retired
professional wrestler and actor Rob Van Dam, who named the greatest star in ECW history by WWE.
American semi-retired professional wrestler and actor Rob Van Dam,
frequently abbreviated to RVD, was born Robert Alexander Szatkowski on December 18,
1970 in Battle Creek, Michigan. He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling,
World Wrestling Entertainment, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling/Impact Wrestling,
and is one of the only two wrestlers in history to have held the WWE, ECW,
and TNA world championships. He was voted "Most Popular Wrestler" by readers of the
magazine in 2001 and 2002, and was named the greatest star in ECW history by WWE.
Szatkowski is of Belgian and Polish ancestry. He grew up in his hometown Battle Creek,
and went to Pennfield Senior High School. Since his early days, Szatkowski showed an
interest in martial arts, and trained at two local dojos in several disciplines,
including Karate, Taekwondo, Aikido, Kickboxing and Kajukenbo.
Before he turned pro and signed a contract with the wrestling promotion, Szatkowski was selected
as a plant by Ted DiBiase, and appeared in the ring for the first time to kiss DiBiase`s foot.
Szatkowski married Sonia Delbeck in 1998, the couple separated in December 2015.
Delbeck filed for divorce from Szatkowski a year later and it was finalized in 2018.
Since 2016, Szatkowski has been dating fellow professional wrestler Katie Forbes.
Szatkowski made his wrestling debut in 1990 then wrestled in many independent promotions,
including the United States Wrestling Association, South Atlantic Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro
Wrestling. He also joined World Championship Wrestling in 1992 but after four low-key years,
Szatkowski joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1996 and started to
gain mainstream popularity. During his time in ECW, he became one of the most famous wrestlers
in the industry, having won the ECW World Tag Team Championship twice alongside Sabu
and the ECW Television Championship in April 1998. When ECW closed in 2001, Van Dam signed a contract
with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and was involved in the Invasion storyline.
After the Invasion ended, Van Dam wrestled the following years as singles and tag team wrestler,
winning the Hardcore, Intercontinental, European, Tag Team and World Tag Team Championships.
In 2006, he became the WWE Champion by defeating John Cena and was awarded the reactivated ECW
World Heavyweight Championship making him the only man to hold both titles at the same time.
After leaving WWE in 2007, Van Dam worked on the independent circuit until he signed a contract
with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2010, where he won the TNA World Heavyweight
Championship. After departing TNA, he returned to WWE, where he worked for one year. Then,
he would stay in the independent circuit, also wrestling from 2019 to 2020 with TNA, now known as
Impact Wrestling. In 2021, it was announced that he would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
In 2021, Rob Van Dam's net worth was estimated to be $5 million.
Outside of professional wrestling, Van Dam has performed as an actor in a number of TV shows,
including an episode of The X-Files. He also performed in the 2010 movie Wrong Side of
Town and the 2015 movie 3-Headed Shark Attack. The name "Rob Van Dam" was given to him in 1991
by Ron Slinker, a promoter in Florida, possibly because of his martial arts experience and his
resemblance to actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. He is the inventor of the Van Dam Lift,
a weightlifting technique which was approved by IAWA, the International All-Around Weightlifting
Association. It was also entered in the rulebooks of USAWA, the United
States All-Round Weightlifting Association. Szatkowski is an advocate for the legalization
of cannabis and is also a consumer, believing it to be an athletic enhancer.