His in-ring debut for the company is taking place on 8/9.
The FTW Championship is in Jack Perry’s possession after he defeated HOOK on the Blood & Guts episode of Dynamite.
Perry would go on to get in a confrontation with AEW producer Jerry Lynn, who reiterated that he cannot get in the ring with Perry, but he introduced WWE Hall of Famer and former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam to take on the newly crowned champion.
For Van Dam’s AEW debut, he came out to ‘Walk’ by Pantera. Inside The Ropes published exclusive comments from Van Dam by way of an unreleased episode of his 1 Of A Kind podcast. RVD said it was awesome when he found out he’d be coming out to ‘Walk’ and it put him in a different vibe. When he got to the venue is when it was confirmed to him that he’d be using the song.
That was awesome. Yeah, when I found out that he (Tony Khan) was gonna have the rights to ‘Walk,’ it just put me in a different vibe, you know what I mean? Just knowing the reaction that-that was going to get and how the fans would be emotionally connected to that, you know, let it play for a few seconds.
And then it wasn’t until a little while, hour or so, within the first hour when I was at the building when that just changed (I officially would be coming out to ‘Walk’). I was like, ‘What? Wait, how? Is this updated? Because I just yesterday … sweet!’ I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’ So yeah, I read some of the comments on social media… people saying (it) brought tears to their eyes and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool.
On the 8/9 Dynamite, Van Dam is challenging Perry for the FTW Championship. He said in a backstage interview that he’ll retire the belt if he wins it.
