“It’s always darkest before the dawn.â€Â
I was looking for an appropriate quote to give some sort of commentary on the situation of the past week, but in the end I settled on the old axiom at head of this column. I think everything that can be said has already been said many times over by people who can put it better than I. My prayers are with those in trouble and those who have lost, but it’s important to remember that wherever there is crisis, there is always glory around the corner. The world works in cycles, and while we’re at a low ebb now, it won’t remain that way forever. For those of us who were fortunate enough not to have suffered in the midst of this crisis, it is our responsibility to do our best to help those who need it.
Moving right along
Overwhelmingly positive (surprisingly enough) to this feature last week, so Trojan Time is here to stay until enough people complain about it. That being said it’s Trojan Time.
(Unfortunately some of us had a horrible bout of misplaced priorities this week, putting academics before RAW, so the roster was a bit thin this week: “Stone Cold†Jay Breuer, “The Tortured Soul†Taylor Cunningham, and myself Ben “The Whole F’n Show†Morse were in attendance, with Trojan chick Cassy “Ivory†Jabara again making guest appearances)
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“Y’know, I think Stephanie took all those times Jericho called her a trash-bag ho to heart how else do you explain the fact that she’s wearing a trash-bag?â€Â
-Jay on Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley’s choice of ring attire
COMMERCIAL OBSERVATIONS:
-“Those Gameboy commercials are a lot like most things Japanese; there’s more to it than you understand, and more to it than you really want to understand.â€Â
-“What’s with the squid thing?â€Â
-“Where’s Tony Hawk?â€Â
-“After that Moppy crap we better see the Kane Chef Boyardee commercial stat nice.â€Â
-“Hey there’s Tony Hawk I think he and the Gameboy guys are gonna have a feud.â€Â
-On a sidenote, to the one skatepunk who e-mailed me in response to last week’s column:
#1: It was a joke
#2: This isn’t my job
#3: Bring your ass to Connecticut College and I’ll be more than happy to show you how I spent my Junior High years.
Now, the real show
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that everything in life could be broken down into two extremes: excess and deficiency. He believed that if a person could find the medium or mean between the two extremes in all that they did in life, they would travel down the path to happiness and virtue. With pro wrestling fans, the two extremes are clear: the deficient “mark†enjoys watching wrestling more than anybody but has very little knowledge of anything not on TV, while the excessive “smart†knows every backstage dealing, but as a result can become highly bitter and cynical, losing their ability to enjoy the show. These two extremes view each wrestler differently, often disagreeing with each other. Each week I look at both perspectives and then attempt to find “The Mean†between the two. This week, let’s take a look at Raven
Scott Levy, also known as Scotty the Body, also known as Scotty Flamingo, also known as Johnny Polo, but best known as Raven, has been called by many one of the smartest men in the wrestling business. I’m not talking about a HHH “smartest man in the business,†implying backstage political saavy, I’m talking about actual IQ; Raven, as has been said by Jim Ross and Michael Cole on WWF television is in fact a near genius. He is one of the few wrestlers who has managed to be successful booking his own feuds; not held down by ego or a need to win (see: Nash, Kevin or Hogan, Hulk), Raven just writes good, compelling storylines, even if he comes out the loser on camera, because he knows success off the camera for the entire company is far more important. Why then does a man with so much to offer mentally to the wrestling business find himself after over a decade in the big leagues mired in the WWF big league in a series of meaningless feuds, with nothing less than a few Hardcore titles to show for nearly a year in the WWF. This is a man who should be a main event player, but in his entire career he has been for only a short period in ECW in the mid-90s. Why is this; what about Raven indeed. Let’s look back on the career of Scott Levy to see what we can discover
Scott Levy made his debut in the Pacific Northeast as Scotty the Body in the late eighties. He made it big initially based mostly on things that fans of today’s Raven would never suspect: a chiseled physique and boyish good looks. At the same time, once he established that he had a solid look and a solid workrate, promoters started giving Levy the microphone and he proved a natural. Playing a classic cocky heel in the vein of Rick Rude or Ric Flair, Levy excelled at locking the fans in a psychological mindgame. He elevated the reputation of anybody he feuded with and was a coveted star on the independent circuit.
In the early 90s, Levy jumped to the GWF and changed his name to Scott Anthony, but kept and refined the “pretty boy heel†gimmick. The GWF was a hotbed for stars to get picked up by WCW at the time, and Levy was no exception. WCW was in the process of expanding their roster and building their light-heavyweight division; at the time, the WCW light-heavyweight division was dominated by the likes of Brian Pillman and Jushin Liger, who were putting on great matches and introducing fans to fast-paced action the likes of which they had never seen before. The one thing the division lacked was personality, the classic good vs evil struggle, as it seemed all the good workers were unable to really play one side of the fence decisively. This is where Levy entered; while he was no Jushin Liger in the ring, if there was one thing he brought to the table it was personaility.
Levy entered WCW in mid 1992 as the flamboyant Scotty Flamingo, not changing much from his Scotty The Body gimmick. He played the first true “heel†of the light-heavyweight division, getting a win in his pay per view debut at WrestleWar ’92 over Marcus Alexander Bagwell (another GWF castoff who would later become Buff Bagwell) and then moved straight into a summertime feud with babyface Light-heavyweight champion Brian Pillman. Levy and Pillman put on a great match at BeachBlast ’92 with Levy going over and winning the title. It seemed that Levy would be a major player in WCW for years to come but it was not to be.
Following his win over Pillman, Levy moved into a feud with Brad Armstrong and lost the Light-heavyweight title to Armstrong after barely holding the title for two weeks. It is not known whether or not the title switch was to lead to a feud between the two or not, because almost immediately after, fickle WCW head booker Bill Watts scrapped the light-heavyweight division and trashed the title. Armstrong was moved into a feud with Pillman to turn the latter heel, and Levy was suddenly left upstream without a paddle. Levy hooked up with Diamond Dallas Page and Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash), but this didn’t help much as Levy already had plenty of charisma by himself, the problem was the stigma of being a lightheavyweight which he had attached to him. An attempt was made to give Levy another serious run as he won a series of boxing matches against the popular Johnny B. Badd, but the matches did more harm than good and WCW released Levy at the end of 1992.
Where WCW saw wasted potential, Vince McMahon and the WWF saw opportunity. At the beginning of 1993, McMahon hired Levy, intending not to utilize his above average, but unspectacular wrestling ability, but rather his keen mind, speaking skill, and considerable charisma. Levy was sent to Jerry Lawler’s USWA to train for his impending WWF run; he teamed with Brian Christopher and retained his pretty boy heel gimmick. But the purpose of sending Levy to Memphis was not to improve his wrestling skills, but to allow him to learn the last steps to becoming a truly great heel from the masters.
After his USWA run, Levy entered the WWF in mid-93 with a new persona: Johnny Polo, a polo stick wielding rich kid who hung out with celebrities and was something of a brat. But Polo was not a wrestler, rather he was a manager, used as the mouthpiece for Adam Bomb, a bizarre but effective heel gimmick for Bryan Clarke. Levy in his Polo persona was ahead of his time, playing the cool heel rather than the simply evil one; he was arrogant and irritating, but while the fans did not cheer him, he did hold some appeal to them; he resembled in some ways a managerial version of Shawn Michaels, a wrestler who was gaining considerable popularity at that time.
Seeing that Polo was catching on, McMahon moved him away from mid-carder Bomb and made him the manager of the heel Tag Team champions The Quebecers. With Polo in their corner, the Quebecers became more over than ever before, and he solved many of the problems the French-Candadiens had giving interviews; Levy’s WWF stock quickly rose. As 1994 went on, Polo continued his managerial duties, but was also made a commentator on Monday Night RAW, at pay per views, and on the WWF’s syndicated programs.
Though he enjoyed his managerial and commentary positions, there was a small part of Levy that still desired to compete physically in the ring. He satisfied this urge by occasionally tagging with his charges, but stayed on the sidelines for the most part. Levy faced a couple of problems that had nothing to do with his own talents towards the end of the year: first, the Quebecers were leaving the Federation, and second, McMahon was looking to phase out managers as he saw them as a reminder of the 80s era of wrestling that the WWF was trying to get away from. McMahon did not want to lose Levy’s considerable talent or his creative mind and offered to keep him in the WWF as both a commentator and a backstage consultant (a position he was already serving in some capacity). Though Levy seriously considered the offer, he decided he wanted to really try his hand as an active wrestler again; Levy thanked McMahon profusely for the opportunities he had given him and the two parted on extremely amicable terms with McMahon making it clear that the door would always be open for Levy to return to the WWF.
As Levy was in the process of leaving the WWF, a revolution of sorts was taking place in an independent promotion in Philadelphia; an extreme revolution. Extreme Championship Wrestling was an independent promotion that was gaining national recognition for both it’s violent style of matches and it’s cutting edge storylines, pioneered by one of the keenest minds in wrestling: Paul Heyman, aka former WCW manager Paul E. Dangerously. Heyman and Levy knew each other from their days in WCW, and when Levy left the WWF, Heyman jumped at the chance to bring one of the most revolutionary minds in wrestling into his personal revolution. Up until this point, Scott Levy had played a series of prettyboy heels, but in a promotion like ECW, that wouldn’t cut it. Most people assumed Levy would be unable to create a character suitable for ECW, but along with Heyman’s help, he managed to create a character that not only fit the extreme revolution, in many ways it defined it: enter the Raven.
Towards the end of 1994 and in the beginning of 1995, Stevie Richards was becoming increasingly frustrated with his inability to defeat arch-rival Tommy Dreamer. Richards was ECW’s “clueless putz†while Dreamer was one of its most popular wrestlers, who had shed an initial pretty boy gimmick to become a down and dirty brawler who wrestled in a t-shirt and warmup pants and bled buckets; it was this unlikely backdrop that serve as the springboard to unleash Raven upon ECW and the world.
Stevie came out week after week portraying Scott Levy’s old gimmicks: Scotty The Body, Scotty Flamingo & Johnny Polo. As Stevie promised that he would soon bring in his “mentor†to destroy Tommy Dreamer, most fans assumed that Levy would come in as either one of his old gimmicks or under his real name to form a goofball team with Stevie that Dreamer would easily overcome, but neither Heyman nor Levy was about to give anybody what they expected.
When Levy finally emerged, he was beyond recognition to anybody who had seen him before. Gone was the long flowing hair, the expensive clothing and the chiseled physique; now Levy had stringy hair, an unshaven face, and dressed in t-shirts with the image of obscure metal bands and cult comic book images, torn jean shorts, and a leather jacket. He was the grunge look personified; he was Raven. As Raven, Levy displayed a side he had never shown before; his interviews were quiet soliloquies, waxing poetic about pain and hatred, always ended with the trademark “Quoth the Raven, nevermore;†his interviews sounded more like poetry than wrestling promos. In a complete one eighty from his previous spoiled brat characters, Raven was a creature of the street, alone since an early age and a tormented soul who had been abused all his life. The fans knew it was Scott Levy, but the implication was that all that had come before had been a charade; only Raven was real.
As a character, Raven was intriguing enough, but Levy had far more planned for himself in ECW. Rather than make Raven simply a tortured soul out to hurt people and win titles, Levy did something that had never before been done in wrestling, he made Raven a character created specifically to be the ultimate foil for another wrestler: Tommy Dreamer. The backstory was beautiful in its simplicity and yet compelling in its complex dynamics: Raven & Dreamer had been childhood friends who attended summer camp together. A rift developed between the two when both developed a crush on the same overweight girl, Beulah McGillicutty; Dreamer ended up getting the girl in the end, but mistreated her, while the spurned Raven remained kind to her. The beauty of the storyline was that while Dreamer had grown up into a respectable, honorable man and Raven had developed into a whining, abusive jerk (he repeatedly abused his lackey Richards both verbally and physically), once upon a time, Raven had been the real life babyface while Dreamer had been the heel. Though fans remained loyal to Dreamer and hated the loathsome Raven, at the same time they saw the demented motivation behind Raven’s quest for revenge and couldn’t help but relate at least a little bit.
As the Raven character evolved in ECW, it was established that he was extremely charismatic and able to engender an almost cult-like loyalty from several followers. Richards served as Raven’s principle lackey, but at various times he also took the Pitbulls, the Dudleys, the Blue Meanie, Super Nova, and others under his wing and into his “Nest†at various points. What defined the Raven character so that the fans would boo rather than cheer him is that while Dreamer had risen above his childhood flaws and become a decent man, Raven not only had been unable to deal with the problems life had thrown his way, but he also refused to take responsibility for his own shortcomings and would only blame other people (with Richards, the man who worshipped him like a hero, being his favorite target).
While it was more storylines and interviews that got Raven over with the ECW fans, Levy also proved surprisingly adept at the hardcore style so popular in the federation. He combined his dedication and willingness to withstand the tremendous amount of pain the style demanded with his innovative creativity to create some of the most intense and entertaining matches in ECW history; in a federation that was mainly known for mindless brawls, Raven brought a grasp for wrestling and telling a story that they were sorely lacking. In the summer of 1995, Raven teamed with Richards to win the ECW Tag Team titles from Public Enemy. Their title reign lasted a few weeks before they dropped the titles to former allies the Pitbulls; they regained the titles briefly and then lost them back to Public Enemy (which Raven berated Stevie to for no end). All the while, Raven also engaged Dreamer in an intense series of both singles and tag team matches with the storyline being that by hook or by crook Raven always managed to evade being pinned by his rival. Sometimes Raven would lose a tag match, sometimes he would absorb a tremendous amount of punishment (see the infamous “chairshot heard round the world†that has become a part of ECW lore where Dreamer nailed Raven, handcuffed to a steel cage, with a harsh chairshot), but he would never himself be pinned.
The storyline became even more intriguing when Stevie brought Raven a surprise in the form of the girl who started the entire Dreamer-Raven feud, Beulah McGillicutty, to ECW; but Beulah had gone from being an overweight young girl to an incredibly sexy, svelte young woman. Beulah also held great disdain for Dreamer and proved to be as corrupt, devious, and underhanded as Raven; the crowd had no problem cheering for Dreamer whenever he delivered a piledriver to Beulah (and not just because it would expose her undergarments).
A major turning point in the Dreamer-Raven saga came almost a year into the epic feud when Beulah announced in-ring to Raven that she was pregnant and that the baby was not his. Raven’s first instinct was to attack Stevie Richards and deliver his trademark DDT, but after that, Beulah sheepishly announced that the baby was Tommy’s. Raven immediately physically assaulted the girl he had pined after and treated so well for so many years and Dreamer, after all that Beulah had put him through, came to her rescue. The pregnancy turned out to be false, but the moment summed up the drama: Dreamer had grown into a man while Raven had changed for the worse, and now even Beulah, the final symbol of Raven’s past goodness, recognized it.
Having hit a snag in his feud with Dreamer, Raven turned his attention elsewhere: to ECW Heavyweight champion The Sandman, the beer-drinking, cigarette-smoking, most popular wrestler in ECW history. Raven defeated Sandman for the title at the dawn of 1996, and for the remainder of the year engaged in one of the most mentally intense feuds in wrestling history. To give himself a mental advantage, Raven “brainwashed†after a fashion Sandman’s ex-wife Lori Fullington and his estranged son Tyler. On several occasions, Raven had Lori run down Sandman for being a worthless drunk and in some of the most disturbing images of the year and perhaps all time, had Tyler destroy his own father with his trademark Singapore cane.
Towards the end of 1996, Raven’s saga hit some changes as he briefly lost the Heavyweight title back to Sandman when he was unable to compete and Richards substituted for him. Raven regained the title in a brutal barbed wire match, but again verbally berated Richards. This was the final straw for the long-abused lackey, who along with the Blue Meanie & Super Nova had formed the wildly popular NWO parody the Blue World Order, and in a classic moment finally stood up to his mentor and broke away after over two years of blind servitude. Towards the year’s end, Raven, frustrated by Richards’ betrayal, took out his anger on Lori and physically assaulted her. Both Dreamer and Richards tried to make the save, but were put down by Raven. Tyler fled to the locker room and reemerge on the shoulders of his father who cleared Raven out of the ring with his own Singapore cane. In a highly emotional moment, father and son reunited in mid-ring, and Raven for the first time in a long time was left on his own.
At the dawn of 1997, Raven renewed full throttle his war with Dreamer, somehow blaming him for every person he cared about, from Beulah to Richards, leaving him. Raven enlisted the help of Brian Lee who destroyed Dreamer in a series of brutal gimmick matches. Dreamer retaliated by bringing in his longtime mentor and wrestling legend Terry Funk and the two battled Raven & Lee in tag matches. In one match, whoever pinned Raven had the opportunity to win the ECW title, but Lee managed to incapacitate Dreamer and forced him to watch as Raven brutalized Funk, bloodying him. At ECW’s first ever pay-per-view, Barely Legal in March 1997, it was scheduled to be a three way dance between the three men who hated Raven most, Dreamer, Sandman & Richards, with the winner going on to face Raven for the title immediately afterwards in the show’s main event. Dreamer however, showing that he was truly a completely matured adult, far away from the youth he had been, forfeited his spot to Funk to give his mentor a shot at revenge. Funk managed to overcome the odds and win the three way and then went on, bloody and exhausted, to defeat Raven for the title when Dreamer interfered and DDTed his arch-nemesis. Dreamer had now taken everything from Raven: his girl, his friends, his title but he had still yet to pin him. After almost three years, it was time for the Raven-Dreamer feud to reach its brutal climax.
Dreamer was scheduled to at last gain his first pinfall victory over Raven at Hardcore Heaven ’97 in August 1997, but in a very uncharacteristic move, Raven, who was not under long term contract, signed with WCW in the spring. Up until that point Scott Levy had always been loyal to his company, leaving when he needed to, but always on good terms; it was a shock that he would blindside Paul Heyman, the man who had helped him create Raven, and leave him when he had big plans for him. But Levy was above all a shrewd businessman and a smart man; whereas in his previous exits from WCW and the WWF he had he the stigma of being a lightheavyweight or a manager, he was now recognized as a legitimate star who could be a main event heel. When WCW came calling with offer of bigger money and bigger exposure, Levy jumped at the opportunity, leaving Heyman in the lurch. Dreamer defeated Raven in a hastily arranged “Loser Leaves ECW†match in the spring of 1997, bringing the epic feud to a sadly hasty end.
Raven (who had obtained the rights to his name and character likeness), made his return to WCW in July of 1997, sitting in the crowd alongside, surprisingly enough, Richards, whom WCW had signed and ignored the last year’s worth of ECW storylines in reverting him to Raven’s lackey. For months, Raven did exactly this, sit silently in the crowd, as his ECW contract did not run out until the fall and he could not actually wrestle. But because he could not wrestle yet, WCW chose not to focus on Raven yet, and made the fatal flaw of not giving him interview time, the one thing he thrived on. The WCW of 1997 was overpopulated with a swelling roster and a creative team that would sign people like Raven simply for the hell of it, and then have nothing for them to do for months. Raven’s character languished and fans quickly became bored with him. WCW sought to make the character more interesting without actually making him wrestle by creating for him a “Flock†that consisted of jobbers (Billy Kidman), Power Plant rookies (Sick Boy & Lodi), and wrestlers that the fans hadn’t seen in years (Van Hammer). Unsurprisingly, this tactic was unsuccessful. Richards left the promotion by October and Raven was left with no in-ring exposure, no discernible personality in the eyes of the fans, and a bunch of no names as his allies.
In November of 1997, Raven experienced both good and bad events in his WCW career. The good was that he finally gained an ally who woke up the crowd, as Perry Saturn, another ECW castoff and an extremely talented worker with a visually spectacular look and offense, join the Flock and became Raven’s silent right hand man. The bad was that Raven had his first WCW feud with mid-carder Scotty Riggs, who had barely even been featured on WCW TV in months, which culminated in Raven beating Riggs easily in his WCW pay per view debut at World War III ’97 and Riggs inexplicably joining the Flock the next night. But salvation was on the way for Raven in the form of Chris Benoit.
Benoit, the most talented wrestler in WCW, found himself also occupying creative limbo as his stable, the Four Horsemen, had broken up months earlier, and the writers had no plans for him. Raven and Benoit were stuck in a feud with each other for no reason, but as both were hungry, dedicated, and talented, they were determined to make the most of it. Raven again took on the role of master manipulator, sending his Flock members to wrestle Benoit in his stead week after week and Benoit mechanically took out each one. The two were scheduled to finally meet at Starrcade ’97, but Raven instead gave Saturn the match and helped him beat Benoit. When Benoit and Raven finally had their showdown a month later at Souled Out ’98, it was an intense classic that saw Benoit take the win as Raven passed out from the pain of the Crippler Crossface after a great match that highlighted the technical wrestling and brawling prowess of both men; the image of Raven smiling as he passed out from the pain was one of the few nduring images of an otherwise lackluster pay per view.
Following the Souled Out matchup, U.S. champion Diamond Dallas Page, an old friend of Raven’s from his first WCW run, decided that he wanted a piece of the intense Benoit-Raven feud. DDP started by engaging Benoit in a series of matches which Raven and his Flock interfered in. At Uncensored ’98, the three engaged in a classic three way match which combined the perfect mix of DDP’s experience, Benoit’s wrestling ability, and Raven’s brawling. DDP won the match by pinning Raven, but it was only the beginning. The next night on Nitro, Raven defeated Benoit to become the number one contender to Page’s U.S. title. Working with Page, who was every bit the cerebral wrestler Raven was, Raven was finally able to get over as a heel, getting ample interview time and creating a backstory that he and Page had been friends (which they had in 1992), but Page took the “easy†route to the top while Raven suffered through “Barbed Wire City†(ECW). The emotional aspect of the feud got it over with the crowd, and at Spring Stampede, Raven (with the help of new Flock member and nephew of Hulk Hogan, Horace) defeated DDP to win the U.S. title. Raven’s title reign would last but one day as the next night on Nitro he became another sacrificial lamb for rising star Bill Goldberg, but the Page feud had placed Raven in a position to become one of the company’s top heels.
Unfortunately for Raven, the company’s focus continued to focus on the NWO as the top heels, but Raven was able to carve out a very nice niche for himself in the mid-card. After losing to Page in a steel cage match at Slamboree ’98, Raven was able to segue into a three way feud that he was able to book himself and was one of the highlights of an otherwise abysmal 1998 for WCW. The feud was vintage Scott Levy, an elaborate storyline that had fantastic emotional and psychological undertones. The second player in the feud was Chris Kanyon, a mid-carder who had tried to join the Flock under his masked identity as Mortis months earlier, but had been violently rejected by Raven. The third player was Saturn, who was tired of associating with The Flock, claiming he was Raven’s friend but not his lackey. At the Great American Bash ’98, Raven manipulated Saturn into taking a match with Kanyon, and then assisted Kanyon in defeating his “friend;†and the games had begun.
Raven began to use Kanyon as a pawn in what was now a full blown war with Saturn. First, the three men engaged in a series of three way matches in which Raven would use the two to distract each other and then claim victory. At Bas at the Beach ’98, Raven capitalized on outside interference by the Flock to pin Saturn. Saturn managed to get the win in a three way match at Road Wild ’98, but Raven had further plans. At some point in September, Raven convinced Kanyon to join the Flock; presumably Raven’s plan was to prey upon Kanyon’s psychological insecurity from his initial rejection from the group, and at the same time say how impressed he was by Kanyon’s showings against Saturn; unfortunately we didn’t get to see any of this as WCW simply had Kanyon inexplicably show up on Raven’s side one week, attacking Saturn. This would become a recurring problem as WCW continually refused to showcase the elaborate ideas that Raven had in the way ECW had, and as a result his feuds often seemed “half-done.â€Â
Despite WCW’s shortcomings, the Raven-Saturn feud still captivated fans as no other feud was. The blowoff came at Fall Brawl ’98, as Saturn and Raven went at it in a match where the prematch stipulations said that if Raven won then Saturn would rejoin the Flock, if Saturn won then Raven would disband the Flock. Saturn defeated Raven in the best match of the evening, with the help of Flock member Billy Kidman, whom Saturn had been encouraging for weeks. It was a great piece of storytelling that went unpromoted by WCW.
Even though Saturn and Raven were arguably two of the most over wrestlers in the promotion after Fall Brawl, WCW did little to nothing with either, choosing instead to focus on has been wrestlers that the fans didn’t care about anymore (which of course would eventually lead to WCW’s downfall). With nothing for Raven to do, WCW devised a ridiculous angle that he had become depressed and had his mom show up on Nitro to take him home for psychological help. For the next several weeks, WCW showed Raven and Kanyon at Raven’s family’s huge mansion in Florida. WCW essentially attempted to destroy the character of Raven, reducing him from tortured soul back to the “spoiled brat†he had been in the early stages of his career. WCW cast former ECW valet Chastity as Raven’s sister (despite the fact that the two had made out in ECW) and added the final insult to fans’ intelligence by casting the newly signed Sandman, the man whom Raven had sadistically tortured in 1996, as Raven’s wacky neighbor and old buddy Jim. To complete the idiocy, it was even implied that Kanyon had been a friend of the family for years, despite the fact that in the context of what had occurred over the course of the last year this made no sense.
WCW recognized the error of their ways and stopped the skits, and Raven as a result disappeared from TV for weeks. Meanwhile, as yet another testimony to WCW’s lack of respect for the fans’ intelligence, the former Sandman debuted on Nitro as hardcore warrior Hak, completely dismissing his run as “Jim.†Raven returned in March of 1999 with Chastity, his “sister†now as his valet, and surprisingly a decent fan following due to the new comedic interview style he adopted, partially because the actions of WCW had given him no other options, partially just out of frustration. At Uncensored ’99, after less than a month as his valet, Chastity turned on her “brother†and helped Hak defeat him and Bam Bam Bigelow in a three way dance.
Again ignoring all of Raven’s hard work in booking the three way feud from the previous year, WCW had him inexplicably be saved from a two on one assault by heel Horsemen members and World Tag Team champions Benoit & Dean Malenko by none other than Perry Saturn. Raven & Saturn cost the Horsemen the titles against Kidman & Rey Misterio Jr. and then had a great series of matches with both teams including a classic losing effort against the Horsemen at Spring Stampede ’99. At Slamboree ’99, Raven & Saturn claimed the Tag titles, but the reign would be short, as the next night on Nitro, Kanyon (who had helped them win the titles) substituted for Raven in a match against Page & Bigelow (after the two had injured Raven earlier in the night) and then turned against Saturn (which if WCW had paid any attention to their own storylines of the past year would have made perfect sense but now made little). In reality, Raven had a shoulder injury and needed time to recuperate.
Raven was frustrated with WCW’s unwillingness to use his ideas and had taken to drinking heavily. Following his layoff, Raven returned but was not inserted into the red hot Revolution angle that Saturn was running with Benoit, Malenko, Shane Douglas and others, but instead was made essentially a silent manager for newcomer Vampiro and rappers turned wrestlers the Insane Clown Posse; this was the final straw. Raven made his unhappiness with WCW public and at a meeting with the entire WCW roster, WCW head Eric Bischoff called what he thought was a bluff and offered Raven a release from his WCW contract; Raven shocked the entire locker room by accepting and walking out of the room and of WCW.
Initially, Raven wanted to return to the WWF, as it was the top company in wrestling and Vince McMahon had promised him five years ago that the door would always be open. But, while WCW was willing to grant Raven a release, he could not compete in the WWF until his actual contract was up in the summer of 2000. So Raven did what he figured was sensible he went home. On their first national broadcast on TNN in August 2000, ECW featured a main event of Tommy Dreamer taking on WWF bound Tag Team champions The Dudley Boyz in a Handicap match; the match saw an unexpected finish as Raven emerged from the crowd and saved his eternal rival, DDTing a Dudley and claiming the ECW Tag Team titles for Dreamer and himself.
There was unlimited potential for Raven’s second run in ECW, but four things held him back: first, Heyman still harbored something of a grudge from Raven’s abrupt 1997 exit, second, pretty much everybody was well aware that Raven was simply biding his time in ECW until he could enter the WWF, third, Raven had gotten very out of shape due to his growing drinking problem, and fourth, people who were instrumental in feuds being planned in ECW kept leaving the company for the WWF or WCW.
Initially, Raven & Dreamer feuded with Lance Storm & Justin Credible, ECW’s up and coming team, while all the while Dreamer mistrusted Raven and Raven wouldn’t make it clear whether he had really buried the hatchet or if he was simply playing major mindgames with his most hated foe. Things got even more exciting when The Sandman returned to ECW and the dynamic got even more complicated as Dreamer began to trust Raven, but Raven and Sandman still hated each other, and Dreamer and Sandman remained close friends. Raven even through in the wrinkle that the reason he hated Sandman was because he reminded him of his drunken, abusive father (again, shelving the “spoiled brat†persona WCW had created).
Another factor holding Raven back was that both he and Dreamer were suffering from injuries; Dreamer’s back had three herniated discs in it while Raven’s shoulder had not fully healed and his drinking wasn’t helping matters. After months of buildup, Dreamer & Raven dropped the Tag titles to Storm & Credible in January 2000 at Guilty As Charged, and immediately afterwards, Raven turned against Dreamer. To add insult to injury, Raven again showed his charisma, stealing Dreamer’s valet the gorgeous Francine. Raven got back into an interview groove discussing his favorite subject, Dreamer, and fans got excited to finally see the true conclusion of wrestling’s most epic feud but again, it was not meant to be.
Dreamer & Japanese fan favorite Masato Tanaka defeated Storm & Credible for the Tag Team titles, only to lose them to the “unholy alliance†of Raven & ECW champion Mike Awesome a week later. The following week Storm & Credible regained the titles in a three way dance at Living Dangerously ’00, and a week after that, Awesome turned on Raven revealing he was only using him to get to Dreamer. Unfortunately, we never got to see where the Dreamer-Raven-Awesome three way was headed, because Awesome made an abrupt exit while still champion for WCW. From there, a bizarre series of events occurred as Awesome returned to ECW for one match to drop the title to Heyman’s handpicked champ Tazz, who had left for the WWF months earlier. Things got even more bizarre when Dreamer, who had helped Tazz win the title, beat him for the belt a week later, then reconciled with Raven, only to be challenged by Credible, who defeated Dreamer only a few minutes into his reign as champ when Francine turned on both Raven & Dreamer to join Credible. With men like Awesome jumping ship every day, ECW was struggling to throw together anything exciting, and it was getting very convoluted very fast.
With Dreamer injured, Sandman in a feud with TV champion Rhyno, Rob Van Dam injured, and Credible’s spurned partner Storm following Awesome to WCW, Raven was the logical choice to feud with Credible; furthermore, Credible was not being accepted as champ by the fans and it made sense to move the title to Raven. But Heyman was still holding a grudge, and put Credible over Raven time and time again. Growing tired of his career going nowhere, Raven exercised an option in his contract to get out, worked one final match in ECW in July of 2000, then dedicated himself to getting ready for the WWF.
For the remainder of the summer of 2000, Raven dedicated himself to two things: getting in shape and getting sober. He succeeded in both as he debuted in the WWF in September of 2000, saving former ECW star Tazz from WWF announcer/sometime wrestler Jerry Lawler looking in shape, and he was also sober backstage. The Raven-Tazz team did not last long, and Raven was quickly given the Hardcore title in hopes of resuscitating the hurting division.
There was talk when Raven rejoined the WWF that within a year he would be a main-eventer; a year later, that has still not happened. Raven had several runs with the Hardcore title in late 2000 and early 2001, but was again given little opportunity to give interviews, again depriving him of his principle skill. In the spring of 2001, the WWF looked to be giving Raven a shot at becoming a fan favorite several times, and each time the crowd responded favorably, but each time he was inexplicably buried again. Since the WWF purchased WCW and the WCW/ECW Alliance has formed onscreen, Raven has been reduced to a bit part, though again a face turn was teased and then buried at one point. Now the WWF seems to be trying to capitalize on some of Raven’s past successes by again placing him in a feud with Perry Saturn and giving him another female valet with Terri, but has Raven’s time come and gone? Let’s take a closer look
THE MARK: Raven has a very cool and intriguing look about him that when he is unable to give interviews and get over as a heel, mark fans are perfectly content to cheer him as a babyface. He is a master of psychology and can easily win over fans given time and the opportunity to establish himself. Unfortunately, today’s WWF mark fans have a hard time forgetting long losing streaks and an even harder time believing that mid-carders can be elevated to main event status; this is the chief mark against Raven right now as the WWF has for whatever reason been afraid to pull the trigger on either a face turn or a full fledged push and has jobbed Raven out to guys he simply shouldn’t be losing to.
THE SMART: Most internet fans who followed ECW in its glory days (and that’s a healthy number) will list Raven-Tommy Dreamer as one of the best feuds of all time. Raven had a very loyal internet following in 1995-96, but over the last five years, he’s lost a good number of those fans. The reasons have to do with poor decisions inside and out of the ring, the period where he let himself get completely out of shape (and as a result put on very poor matches), and bad booking decisions on the parts of various federations. Since he has pulled himself back together physically and put on some of the better WWF hardcore matches of the past year, Raven has slowly begun to regain his internet following, but it maybe too little, too late.
And finally
THE MEAN: Scott Levy is a highly intelligent man in the classical sense of the word; he is also a great storyteller. However, as noted in the beginning of this column, he is not like HHH or Kevin Nash and is not the smartest guy in the business when it comes to backstage politics. Burning his bridge with Paul Heyman the way he did in 1997 and stepping into WCW unaware of the backstage political action was an extremely unintelligent move for such an intelligent individual. Walking out of WCW, though it made sense, also probably didn’t do wonders for Raven’s reputation. Scott Levy has the ability to tell a great story in and out of the ring, given the proper amount of time, and the proper amount of creative control; the only time he has had both these things was in his first ECW run. In WCW, Eric Bischoff had “more important†things that he was focusing on, back in ECW Heyman still harbored a grudge, and now in the WWF there is too much talent and not enough TV time. The environment that transformed Scott Levy from Johnny Polo into Raven and that made him a superstar existed for a very brief time and indeed might never exist again.
Scott Levy should hope that the one bridge he has not burned is with Vince McMahon, the man who assured him in 1994 that there would always be a place for him in the WWF. Raven the active wrestler was quite the success story for several years; if Scott Levy wanted to prove that he could be more than just a lightheavyweight or a manager, he succeeded. But Raven’s body is giving out on him, and the current landscape of professional wrestling is such that he probably will not be able to book for himself the great feuds he has booked in the past anytime soon. But the mind of Scott Levy is still quite potent, and if there is anywhere he is needed right now, it is behind the scenes of the WWF. If he and Heyman can get along, once Levy retires from active wrestling, or at the very least scales back and is given a chance to do more booking (a chance he turned down in 1994), they could possibly forge storylines that will make the WWF as revolutionary in the coming years as ECW was in 1995. Raven’s time might be coming to a close but is Scott Levy’s may only just beginning?
In the mean time, thanks for reading.
*SPECIAL BONUS*
Ok, by the time this gets posted, Unforgiven will have come and gone, but since I didn’t get a chance to send my predictions in for the Rasslin’ Roundtable in time, here’s what they would have been:
THE DUDLEY BOYZ (c) vs THE HARDY BOYZ vs THE HURRICANE & LANCE STORM vs THE BIG SHOW & SPIKE DUDLEY (Tag Team titles, Elimination rules)
Seeing as the Dudleyz just got the straps, I see them retaining here. This is more of an angle advancement match; I see Hurricane/Storm self-destructing, and possibly the Hardyz as well; with the those teams out of the picture, the Dudz will pin Spike, then Show will get revenge. I’d rather see this as two separate matches, not particularly intrigued by the fourway.
Winners: The Dudley Boyz
RAVEN vs PERRY SATURN
I see Raven going over in a semi-decent match (familiarity overcomes sloppiness) advancing what should be a long feud that will hopefully help both guys out.
Winner: Raven
EDGE (c) vs CHRISTIAN (Intercontinental title)
Hmm…tough to call. I’m gonna go way out on a limb and say Christian; he’s playing a decent heel and mainly because I think they want to drag this feud out for a bit (and Edge retaining first try would hurt that). Look for the usual good match between former tag partners who know each other.
Winner & NEW IC champion: Christian
THE UNDERTAKER & KANE (c) vs KRONIK (WCW Tag Team titles)
There’s no reason to have Tag titles on UT & Kane right now. Match should be ugly, as neither team can really sell the other’s moves.
Winners & NEW WCW Tag champions: KroniK
ROB VAN DAM (c) vs CHRIS JERICHO (Hardcore title)
Y2J is not moving down to the Hardcore division, I think this is simply a chance for an upper level guy to lay down for RVD and the Hardcore title just happens to be in the way; they really need to get the strap off RVD, but the problem is that nobody in the division can beat him realistically, but I guess that’s what 24/7 is for (also, the WWF might be balking at whether or not he can work good matches without Hardcore rules). Should be a decent match, and hopefully Jericho can rise to the occasion after last month’s debacle; question of course is where do they go with Y2J from here? I think a heel/Alliance turn is in order.
Winner: Rob Van Dam
TAJIRI (c) vs RHYNO (WCW U.S. title)
Poor Tajiri, you just know whatever title he picks up in between ppvs he’s gonna drop. The WWF is pushing Rhyno hard and seems to see Tajiri as a guy they can job without him losing too much heat…which is true. Rhyno needs the win and the gold after losing clean to Jericho last month. Both guys are good, but their styles have clashed in past matches; I’d say decent, but not definite shot at a good match.
Winner & NEW U.S. champion: Rhyno
THE ROCK (c) vs BOOKER T & SHANE MCMAHON (WCW World title, Handicap match)
I don’t think they needed to add Shane to this match, but whatever. I see Rock going over in a good rematch from SummerSlam and building towards the unification match with Austin (which I think Rock will lose, leaving only HHH to save the WWF at Wrestlemania…but I digress). This might be the match where Booker either loses his patience with Shane and turns face or goes even deeper into his psycho gimmick; I’d rather see the latter as I’m really digging the current Booker T character.
Winner: The Rock
STEVE AUSTIN (c) vs KURT ANGLE (World title)
I’ve heard murmurs that Angle could win, but I ignore them; Austin is the monster heel who is gonna stick it out for awhile. Gonna take quite a bit for these two to top SummerSlam, but knowing the dedication that each has, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Winner: Steve Austin
