WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam has had many nicknames throughout his illustrious career. “Mr. Monday Night,” “Mr. Pay-Per-View,” and “The Whole Damn Show” are just some of the names that he has been given over the years, but the one everyone associates with RVD is, of course, “The Whole F****** Show,” a name he adopted during his time in ECW. Van Dam was asked by a fan during a live edition of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast where the name actually came from, to which the his revealed it was poking fun at another WWE Hall of Famer.

“It was a spoof, for a lack of a better word, but it was a play on Shawn Michaels being the ‘Showstopper,'” RVD said. “That’s what he was calling himself, ‘The Showstopper,’ and he was the number one guy in the business at the time.” The moment where RVD calls himself by his now famous nickname for the first time was recorded as he successfully completed the world’s first “Van Dam Lift,” a weightlifting technique he invented, perfected, and executed before anyone else. RVD set the world record by lifting a 165.5 pound dumbbell off the ground while doing the splits across two benches, and the lift was even approved by the United States of America Weightlifting Association, though no one has been able to attempt it while elevated off the ground like RVD was in 1998.

He was so pleased with himself that he looked down the camera and told everyone to forget about Shawn Michaels because RVD was the real show. “It was something that I spontaneously said,” RVD revealed. “I don’t think I knew that I was going to say it, I was doing the split, and I picked up the weight, and they blew their whistles or whatever when I held it high enough, and I dropped it…After I did the split, boom, I said ‘I never claimed to be the Showstopper, I’m Rob Van Dam, I’m the f****** show,’ or something like that.” That spontaneously one liner has now lasted nearly 28 years as RVD still gets called “The Whole F****** Show” to this day.

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The hardest path for anyone to face is an early retirement, especially when that path comes right in the midst of your meteoric rise. Despite seeing miracle in-ring returns over the years by other wrestlers who’ve faced premature retirements, Big E has officially considered himself retired.

The former powerlifter turned main eventer took to X [formerly known as Twitter], where he confirmed his in-ring retirement status: “I entered the pro wrestling industry at age 23 with an injury history that included a Torn Left ACL, Torn Right ACL, Torn Left Pec, and a Broken Right Patella. At 39, I’m well aware, that I will one day have to pay the piper. I’ve put my body through a lot. And somehow, I feel great. I don’t battle daily pain. I’m able to function normally and healthfully. I’m eternally grateful for the wonderful career I stumbled into. I pray for all of my fellow athletes and performers who have not had the same good fortune. A sincere thank you to everyone who has taken the time to follow my in-ring career. It was an immeasurable gift to get to perform for you all.”

I entered the pro wrestling industry at age 23 with an injury history that included a Torn Left ACL, Torn Right ACL, Torn Left Pec, and a Broken Right Patella. At 39, I’m well aware, that I will one day have to pay the piper. I’ve put my body through a lot. And somehow, I feel…

— Ettore “Big E” Ewen (@WWEBigE) February 6, 2026

Feeling his power since 2009, Big E commanded, conquered, and accomplished brass rings that many in WWE are currently trying to achieve. His in-ring career alone saw him as a former NXT, WWE (now Undisputed WWE), two-time Intercontinental, two-time Raw Tag Team, and a six-time SmackDown Tag Team Champion. Not to mention, he was the first Black athlete to win the Men’s Money in the Bank briefcase in 2021.

Sadly, his in-ring retirement stems from a broken neck he sustained in March 2022. Since that tragic injury, he hasn’t wrestled. However, he’s been an active part of WWE’s pre and post-PLE shows. Based on the power of positivity he radiates at those special events, SūmerSports has officially declared the former WWE Champion as an analyst for its newest weekly program, “The Evaluation,” which will drop its premiere episode next Thursday.

WWE veteran Natalya recently reinvented herself in the pro wrestling industry, turning heel on “WWE Raw” early in the year by helping Becky Lynch defeat Maxxine Dupri. Before that, fans on the independent circuit got a preview of what was coming with her “Nattie” character appearing here and there last year. While her immediate plans in WWE are still unclear, what remains obvious is that Natalya still has a deep love for the pro wrestling industry. 

“I love my career, I love what I do, I love the people that I work for, and that I work with – the girls in the locker room – and I’m just so grateful and lucky,” she said during an interview on “The Wrestling Classic.” “But I also feel so good. Like, my body feels incredible. So I just want to keep doing the stuff that makes me happy but also pursuing things like my book, writing my book; I want to do stuff that also sets my soul on fire. There’s just so much to do!”

“I’ve never stopped loving [wrestling] and … one of the things I learned from working in WWE, especially from my bosses and I learned it from Vince early in my career: never get comfortable. … Don’t ever rest on your last match,” she added. “You know, I was always striving for greatness, and I see that now; we don’t rest on our last pay-per-view.” Natalya went on to explain that WWE has been successful because the promotion doesn’t get comfortable in one place and constantly pushes and reinvents the spade.

“All those highs and lows? They’re part of my story and they’ve made me strong,” Natalya added looking across her WWE tenure.

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While reminiscing on his personal memories with Cena, Nemeth pulled back the curtain on a live event match they had in New York City’s Madison Square Garden back in December 2012.

“One of my absolute favorite matches I’ve ever had with him was at Madison Square Garden in a steel cage, not televised,” Nemeth said. “Here’s the best part. There is a curfew with MSG, and if you don’t hit that curfew, the bill becomes a half-a-million dollars more. 

“Everybody at MSG gets excited because they’re excited to be there. We’re down in the main event in a steel cage. We’re about to go out and there’s eight minutes until hey, after this, it’s a half million dollars on Vince [McMahon]’s tab. I’m like, ‘What are we doing? We can’t short change these guys.’ [Cena] goes, ‘Absolutely not.’ We’re going to talk to the boss. The boss goes, ‘Give them their money’s worth.’ We went out there for 30 minutes.”

The result of this cage match saw Cena emerge victorious, while Nemeth left with his front teeth knocked out and his face covered in blood. Still, Nemeth said the most important thing was giving back to the fans by creating that special, extended memory.

At the time, Nemeth and AJ Lee were freshly immersed in a romantic storyline on television, which stemmed from the latter turning on Cena just days earlier at WWE TLC. Outside of that, Nemeth also proudly owned the Money in the Bank briefcase.

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