World Wrestling Entertainment star Rob Van Dam returns to his hometown of Battle Creek on Thursday, 7/28 for an appearance at Lakeview Square Mall. Van Dam will be signing autographs and greeting fans from 4 to 7 p.m.

Born in 1970, Van Dam -- real name Rob Szatkowski -- began training at age 18 in Lansing with wrestling "heel" (bad guy) The Sheik, then moved on to the independent circuit in the early 1990s, where he worked with his trainer's nephew, Sabu, a wrestler billed as "homicidal, suicidal, and genocidal."

The name Rob Van Dam was given to him by a local promoter named Ron Slinker.

Van Dam, who has also trained as a kick boxer, appeared in the martial-arts films "Superfights" and "Bloodmoon," as well as landing a guest spot on Fox's "The X Files."

In 1996, Van Dam scored a job with the fledgling Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), promoted by Paul Heyman. Fans took to his personality almost immediately, and he battled most of the organization's top stars.

He held the Tag Team Championship twice (with former rival Sabu) and held the Television Championship for a two-year run, only forfeiting the title because of a broken leg.

Since 2001, Van Dam has wrestled against The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and all of the WWE's major stars, winning the Intercontinental Championship five times, the Tag Team Championship three times (with three different partners), the Hardcore Championship four times (he retired the title) and the European Championship (also a title he retired).

Thanks to Mike Informer