Rob Van Dam opened up about the extent of his injuries after the MLW Battle Riot VII event.
Van Dam made a surprise appearance in the annual battle royal for MLW on April 5 in Los Angeles, California. Van Dam was the final entrant in the 40-person match.
The match came down to Van Dam and MLW World Heavyweight Champion Matt Riddle, who was defending his title in the match. After hitting the Rolling Thunder, Van Dam leaped to the top turnbuckle and was shoved to the floor, allowing Riddle to win.
Van Dam spoke about the injury he sustained from the fall to the floor on his 1 of a Kind podcast:
A lot of people don’t know that I got hurt because it was the very last move in the night. But I went up to the top rope and Matt Riddle pushed me off and then I landed on my feet. Normally I kind of like, hug the guardrail and my weight goes into it. This one I must have misjudged it a little bit, and I just landed on my feet.
Both heels blew. I thought that my ankles were sprained. I crawled out of there. I haven’t been able to walk since. And so I got the x-rays, both heels broke. It’s not something that I’m not used to, I kind of routinely kind of go through this thing, but, man, it definitely made me cancel a lot of plans that I had for the next few months and Wrestlecon and WrestleMania week, I made it through all the obligations.
The MLW appearance was Van Dam’s first match since April 2024.
