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Raven appreciation thread

8K views 35 replies 34 participants last post by  TheShieldSuck 
#1 · (Edited)
My favourite wrestling character of all time. His character as a depressed, sociopathic misanthrope was/is one of the darkest personas in wrestling history. Known mostly for his run in WCW as the leader of the flock but perhaps his greatest run was his 3 year feud with Tommy Dreamer in ECW as the outcast looking for revenge against his childhood friend and now enemy.

In my opinion he is one of the greatest storytellers in the history of pro wrestling and his in ring pyschology is matched by few (watch his match with benoit at souled out 1998 where they tell a whole story only using one chair) and of course is a fantastic promo guy. Extremely poetic and fluid as well as being able to evoke imagery and emotion that only few other men could. Many cite the Rock, Flair, Austin, Foley, Piper etc. as some of the greatest promo guys in wrestling history and rightly so. Most wrestling fans criminally look over Raven's genius as a promo cutter. A truly under-appreciated talent. In my opinion if WCW wasn't such a political mind field and they didn't drag out and water down the NWO angle like they did, Raven could have become a top heel for the company. And of course in his run as Raven in WWE, they never truly let him be the character that got him really over in ECW and WCW.

Here are some of my favourite promos of Raven and let me know your opinions on someone who I personally think was a phenomenal talent.









 
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#3 ·
One of the greatest wrestling characters of all time and up there with Jake Roberts, Mick Foley, Rowdy Roddy Piper, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bobby Heenan as one of the greatest talkers the industry has ever seen. I don't think Raven was ever the best in ring worker and that is why he worked so perfectly in ECW as the product and in ring format they put out covered any weaknesses Raven had as an in ring worker and highlighted his biggest attributes which is for me why he never hit anywhere near the same heights in either WWE or WCW.

I'm fully of the belief that Raven still has a part to play in the industry and i'd love to see him return as a cult leader to a dark stable similar to The Flock or The Nest or even how The Ministry Of Darkness was in WWE back in the day. Because he is such a great talker a young, dark wrestler would benefit HUGELY from working alongside Raven and i would love for WWE to sign Raven to even work as either a backstage agent who works on teaching promo work or as a manager/mentor. Working in an era like The Attitude Era at it's height of adult themed storylines in between 1998 and 1999 i think Raven could have been immense as WWE worked a lot of harder style matches which would have suited him and i could see Raven working well with Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Mick Foley and Kane.
 
#5 ·
Totally underrated & underutilized. I can understand him leaving ECW for WCW, likely due to financial reasons but IMO, his career was never the same. WCW & WWE didn't know what to do with him.

He's one of the few ECW guys who I felt should have instantly been given a main event push (more than RVD). He had the perfect character, original look, helluva mic worker and damn underrated in the ring. His best work was as a heel and those damn politics obviously played a part in his WCW run not picking up until the end. The problem was both WCW & WWE tried too hard to duplicate what Raven had did in ECW but should have known it would fail because of the setting. It was dumb to recreate Raven's Nest (which at 1 time included the original Dudley Boyz, Stevie Richards, Meanie, Nova, Brian Lee, Bruise Brothers, etc) as The Flock. Then, they duplicated nearly everything about the Raven/Dreamer feud with Raven/DDP, even down to the chairshot heard around the world.

IMO, WCW should have brought Raven in, maybe even with a team similar to Raven's Nest and just have them be loners. No affiliation with WCW or NWO. He could have fit well in what was going on and gotten a main event push. Vince seemed to just not have much like for Scott Levy, as I've heard stories about how Raven was in the mid 90s when he worked for Vince and how he & Shane would party hard.

All that aside, everything about Scott Levy was underrated. At this point, either WWE or TNA could benefit greatly from having him as a booker because the guy has a mind for the business.
 
#12 ·
Obviously, Raven is one of my favourite wrestlers of all time.

His work in ECW was fantastic. It was the perfect environment for him to really shine the way he did.
WCW didn't use him terribly at first. They gave him the Flock and continued (in a watered down way) what got him over in ECW. The stuff with Saturn and Scotty Riggs was good. Unfortunately after Saturn "freed the flock", they had nothing else for him. There was potential for Raven, Kanyon, Saturn stable/tag-team but it never really got followed through with. Much like Jericho, he eventually turned into a pointless midcarder with nothing to do before he went back to ECW, and then eventually showed up in WWE.

You could put some of the blame on Scott Levy though, for why he never got pushed the way Jericho did. He's admitted that his drug use was at an all time high in WCW... So I understand any reluctance to push him. In WWE he was just used as a hardcore guy. And then a jobber in the Alliance/Invasion angle.

He was always a great character and a great storyteller. Both in the ring and on the mic. Even later on in his career, his feud with CM Punk in ROH is credited as one of ROH's best feuds of all time.
 
#31 ·
All time great character.

I'm watching the early 1999 Nitros right now. Does anyone remember the segments where they brought in Raven's "mom" to talk to him? They then proceeded to do skits in Raven's mansion with Kanyon as his friend. Does anyone remember any of this? Becuase I had completely forgotten about it until I just got to the 1999 Nitros on the WWE Network. I literally have no recollection of these segments whatsoever. Kinda funny/odd to watch back now.
 
#2 ·
Raven is so great at what he does. He is, in my mind, te epitome of an underrated wrestler and worker. Any shoot interview he puts out I try to buy just to try to absorb some of the knowledge he puts out when he talks about wrestling. Not to mention when you think ECW, you think of his feuds over anyone else's.
 
#6 ·
It's a shame Raven's career didn't get any bigger (like Jericho's) in 1998. Those two were pretty much the one of the only few things interesting about the company at the time as the tiresome nWo ran its course for far too long.

He had a lot of potential in WCW than WWE if you were to compare the two, having great feuds with DDP/Saturn/Kanyon, an awesome match with Jericho at Halloween Havoc '98, and an interesting look to the mainstream wrestling fans who weren't all too familiar with ECW.

All in all though, if WCW weren't full of all the politics and backstabbers, I'd say he would have at least been a main eventer.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Scotty the Raven may be a gold digging junkie but he really adds perspective to a somewhat brainless medium
 
#8 ·
Best "tortured soul" gimmick ever .. He was amazing
 
#9 ·
It's truly a crime that Raven was misused by WWE the way he was.
 
#14 ·
one of my fav 5 ECW guys
 
#16 ·
First time I saw Raven was in 2004 when I was watching his Wrestlemania match with Kane and Big Show. I was like "This guy looks cool." Then I searched him on youtube, watched some of his ECW stuff and he's been one of my favorites ever since.

Made me sad to see how he was used in the WWE. He was Raven, minus the character. The couple of times he actually got to talk, fans didn't know how to respond and it just came off as awkward. Then finally, finally when he starts to show character on Heat with his "House of Fun" angle, he was released -___-

On that note, I heard a rumor that Vince cancelled his "House of Fun" angle because Vince did not think the fans would be smart enough to understand. Is that true?
 
#19 ·
I remember watching Raven wrestle the Disco Inferno at a local tough man contest in the post-WCW days. This was 2003 I believe, and it was not a wrestling show but I guess TNA allowed them to main event a bunch of ******** beating the shit out of each other at the local farm center where there couldn't have been more than a few hundred people. Dark days for his career indeed, as he probably only did it to pay for his drug fix that night, but Raven and Disco still put on a good show considering the circumstances.

Also remember Raven being on the cover of WCW/NWO Revenge video game which my friends and I played the fuck out of for years.
 
#24 ·
I remember watching Raven wrestle the Disco Inferno at a local tough man contest in the post-WCW days. This was 2003 I believe, and it was not a wrestling show but I guess TNA allowed them to main event a bunch of ******** beating the shit out of each other at the local farm center where there couldn't have been more than a few hundred people. Dark days for his career indeed, as he probably only did it to pay for his drug fix that night, but Raven and Disco still put on a good show considering the circumstances...
It’s no coincidence Raven and Disco squared off a few times in WCW. They had surprisingly good chemistry.
 
#22 ·
I remember first getting WCW/NWO Revenge when it came out, back then we didn't have Sky Television so the only wrestling I got was months old WWF PPVs on video and had no clue about ECW nor what was going on in WCW. After a few days of going Hogan, Diesel, Razor Ramon and being amazed by the Luchas (bare in mind, I honestly only knew the old WWF guys,) I decided to go Raven one day and something about that DDT made him instantly one of my favourite wrestlers without even seeing him ever wrestle or speak. (I had of course, but didn't know he was Johnny Polo.)

I followed him after that through old ECW and WCW.

I even enjoyed his WWF run but it was watered down completely. Raven was a big deal in ECW and WCW, Im sure if he hadn't been watered down he could have really been something interesting during the invasion. I remember the Debut of the What promo from Stone Cold just wanting Raven to branch off and DDT Austin. That was never the character.

Great gimmick, decent wrestler. Even in TNA he had a good run.
 
#23 ·
Raven is one the best three-dimensional characters of all-time. Top notch promo skills, in-ring psychology/story-telling, great angles and edgy storylines... he had it all... I hope he continues to keep giving back to the business and helping the young guys out... he was one of the coolest characters, seriously, hands down the guy was extremely underrated
 
#25 ·
I honestly saw him for a few weeks in 1989. In my local promotion Vancouver all star wrestling. He was known as Scotty the Body, but apparently had a falling out with the promoter the infamous Al Tomko. I loved all of his work except his run as raven in WWE. This killed his character somewhat permanently to me. Felt TNA should have let him keep the belt longer back in 2005 though.
 
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