[Crusade]

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.

[Mattyb2266]

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.

[dave 1981]

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.

[septurum]

Awesome in ECW, good in WCW, awful in WWE.

[Sho'nuff]

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.

[Redwood Raven]

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.

[nevereveragainu]

Scotty the Raven may be a gold digging junkie but he really adds perspective to a somewhat brainless medium

[DBizzle]

Best "tortured soul" gimmick ever .. He was amazing

[WWETopTen]

It's truly a crime that Raven was misused by WWE the way he was.

[Chingo Bling]

He is and always will be one of unforgetable characters in wrestling history.

One of the pioneers of realism in wrestling. We can't put his business side over enough.