[2003-09-29-WWE-Raw] Rob Van Dam vs Christian (Ladder Match)

[ohtani's jacket]

It was hard not to draw comparisons between this and Rob Van Dam's excellent ladder match with Eddie Guerrero, but these two won me over in the end. I'm surprised they gave away a PPV-quality match like this for free on RAW. It was certainly better than a lot of the PPV matches from this era. Christian wasn't really a huge personality at this point, but he was an excellent workmanlike talent. He had a bit of an air about him of a second rate Chris Jericho or Edge, but there's no questioning whether he brought his working boots. A couple of things stand out about Rob Van Dam. First of all, he's not as goofy as you'd expect. Secondly, he was over with the crowd. You have to think that someone in the office had hopes that he'd break through to the next level. Obviously, that didn't play out to the full extent, but it strikes me as an interesting and somewhat forgotten run. Great finish for a TV bout. You certainly got your money's worth if you went to this RAW show.