page_title: Rob Van Dam
section_title: World Heavyweight Champion and EV 2.0 (2010–2011)
hierarchical_section_title: Rob Van Dam / Professional wrestling career / Total Nonstop Action Wrestling / World Heavyweight Champion and EV 2.0 (2010–2011)
caption_attribution_description: English: Rob Van Dam wins the TNA World Championship from AJ Styles during TNA Impact.
context_page_description: Rob Szatkowski, better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam, is an American professional wrestler and actor currently signed to Impact Wrestling. He has won 21 total championships, and is the only wrestler in history to have held the WWE Championship, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. He headlined many pay-per-view events throughout three decades between the 1990s and 2010s, including the 1998 edition of November to Remember and the 2011 edition of TripleMania. In 2002, Van Dam was ranked the number one pro wrestler in the world by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. He was voted "Most Popular Wrestler" by readers of the magazine in 2001 and again in 2002. WWE named him the greatest star in ECW history in 2014.
  Van Dam gained mainstream popularity in Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he became one of the most famous wrestlers in the industry. During his time in ECW, he was managed by Bill Alfonso and had feuds with Jerry Lynn and Sabu, also forming a tag team with the latter. They would win the ECW Tag Team Championship twice.
context_section_description: On March 8, 2010, Van Dam made his debut for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) at the promotion's Monday night episode of Impact!, defeating Sting. Then just seconds after his debut victory Sting attacked him and later Hulk Hogan with his signature baseball bat. RVD got his revenge on Sting the following week by attacking him during his entrance. RVD teamed with Jeff Hardy in a tag team match, where they defeated Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm) on the March 22 episode of Impact!. The following week the two of them teamed with Eric Young and defeated The Band (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Syxx-Pac) in a six-man tag team steel cage match.  Both Van Dam and Hardy became members of Team Hogan (joining Abyss and Jeff Jarrett) for the annual Lethal Lockdown match, where they defeated Team Flair (Sting, Desmond Wolfe, Robert Roode and James Storm).
  The night after Lockdown he first defeated Jeff Hardy in a number one contender's match and then, in the main event of the evening, A.J. Styles to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. After succeeding in his first televised title defense against Desmond Wolfe, Styles attacked Van Dam, announcing the invocation of the rematch clause for Sacrifice. At Sacrifice Van Dam defeated Styles in a rematch. The following month at Slammiversary VIII Van Dam retained his title against Sting in a rematch of his TNA debut. Van Dam defeated Abyss, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson in a four–way match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship at Victory Road. On the following episode of Impact! Van Dam aligned himself with fellow ECW alumni Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards, Rhino, Brother Devon, Pat Kenney, Al Snow and Mick Foley, who saved him from a beating at the hands of Abyss.
  The following week, TNA president Dixie Carter agreed to give the ECW alumni their own reunion pay–per–view event, Hardcore Justice. At the event on August 8 Van Dam defeated former tag team partner and rival Sabu in a non-title Hardcore Rules match, after his originally planned match with Jerry Lynn was scrapped due to Lynn suffering a back injury. After successfully defending the championship against Abyss in a Stairway to Janice match on the following special edition of Impact!, named The Whole F'n Show, Van Dam and the other former ECW wrestlers were assaulted by Abyss and Fourtune. In the attack Van Dam suffered multiple serious storyline injuries at the hands of Abyss including the need for stitches, spinal trauma and possible acute brain damage, which would force him to vacate the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on August 10 at the taping of the August 19 episode of Impact!. In reality, Van Dam was running out of dates per year on his contract and was therefore taken off television.
  Van Dam returned via telephone interview on the September 16 episode of Impact! and announced that he would return to the Impact! Zone the following week, against his doctor's orders. Van Dam returned the following week, confronting Abyss and demanding a match against him at Bound for Glory, which Eric Bischoff agreed to give him. At Bound for Glory Van Dam defeated Abyss in a Monster's Ball match. At the end of the event it was revealed that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff had sent Abyss after Van Dam in order to get the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on their own representative, Jeff Hardy. Van Dam confronted the group, later named Immortal, after Hardy had won the World Heavyweight Championship, only to get hit with the title belt. On the October 21 episode of Impact! Bischoff claimed that someone from EV 2.0 had been calling him, trying to get to be a part of Immortal, which led to Van Dam getting paranoid about his stablemates, first accusing Raven of being the traitor. Later, he and Sabu were defeated in a tag team match by Beer Money, Inc., after Sabu accidentally hit him with a chair. After the match Van Dam and Sabu began shoving each other and had to be separated from each other by the rest of EV 2.0. After two more weeks of dissension between Van Dam and the rest of EV 2.0, Tommy Dreamer challenged
caption: Van Dam just after winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in 2010
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