Raven: Reimagining His WCW Run
One of the most under-appreciated ‘big’ moves of the Monday Night War was WCW plucking Raven up from ECW in the summer of 1997. While not quite on the level of a Bret Hart or Lex Luger in the overall scheme, at the time there was a lot of excitement from fans about what Raven could do on the bigger stage. Scott Levy had been in WCW in the early 90s as Scotty ‘The Body’ Flamingo but never had seen any real success. The same result would come from his run in the WWF as Johnny Polo, but when he teamed up with the genius of Paul Heyman and entered the land of Extreme, he would completely reinvent himself as Raven. Taking part in arguably the most iconic feud in ECW history with Tommy Dreamer (read more about that here) as well as reigning as the ECW Champion involved in other iconic feuds with The Sandman and Terry Funk just to name a few, Raven was a hot commodity with an endless amount of potential thanks to his solid in-ring work and outstanding promo abilities.
As we all know, while WCW seemed to give him a push right out of the gate, going so far as to give him a stable of misfits that they hoped Raven could get over in The Flock, yet it would all eventually be run into the ground. In a famous 1999 meeting, Eric Bischoff would tell the roster that anyone who wanted their release if they weren’t happy would be immediately granted, an offer that Raven immediately took them up on. This would of course lead to his big return to ECW for the debut of ECW on TNN. But what could have been with Raven in WCW?
In looking at the WCW run of Raven, one must take a few things into consideration. At the time that he made the jump, we were in the height of the NWO angle, merely months away from the big blowoff at Starrcade 1997. Knowing this and the fact that Executive Vice President of WCW Eric Bischoff simply did not understand the appeal of Raven and his character, we must acknowledge a certain ceiling of elevation for Raven. Maybe he should have gotten a better tan. We must also take into effect Raven’s self-admitted hard-partying lifestyle, surely another roadblock to the top of WCW. All of that said there is so much more that Raven could have done.
Raven’s introduction was done well, and really the only thing that would need to be changed is the weird suggestion that he would be the tag team partner of Diamond Dallas Page at the forthcoming Bash At The Beach pay per view. DDP would end up teaming with the debuting Curt Hennig at that show so Raven served as nothing more than a red herring. As opposed to this, simply have Raven start sitting in the front row as they went on to do, teasing that WCW was trying to sign him but he was playing coy. In this timeline, there is never a Flock, no matter how badly WCW wants to give Van Hammer something to do. Raven stands as a man without an island and without friends.
Holding off his debut until that year’s Fall Brawl would allow the fans to become excited to see what Raven could do (at least the non-ECW fans) and have him send out an open challenge to any member of the WCW or NWO locker room for his debut match. His challenge would be answered by a familiar face in the form of Perry Saturn, also from ECW. Following a hard-fought battle, Raven gets his hand lifted following an Evenflow DDT. As both men rise to their feet, Raven looks to Saturn and nods while smiling slyly, spreading his arms in his iconic cross pose as he backs up and slides through the ropes.
The following night he interferes in a match between Saturn and Dean Malenko, helping give Saturn the victory, but disappears before Saturn can acknowledge him. These types of events continue until WCW announces that as part of Raven signing his contract he is to be given an opportunity at Halloween Havoc for the WCW United States Championship. During the match against champion Curt Hennig, Saturn appears from the crowd delivering a Death Valley Driver on Hennig to help give Raven the win and the championship.
In the build-up to World War 3 ’97, Raven and Saturn solidify their allegiance and start performing in tag team matches, while Raven occasionally defends the US Title. Suspiciously however is the calibre of talent that he is defending against, usually lower-card cruiserweights like Hector Garza or El Dandy (I know, who the hell am I to doubt El Dandy?) or guys like Brad Armstrong. At the same time, DDP has set his eyes on the US Title but no matter how many victories he picks up he is unable to convince JJ Dillon to give him a title shot.
Along the way, we learn that Raven has dirt on Dillon which is the reason he has been facing ‘easier’ talent and able to avoid DDP and his chase for the title. Also entering the fray for the US Title is Chris Benoit. A four-way match is booked for World War 3 between Raven, DDP, Saturn and Benoit. Thanks to Saturn’s help, Raven walks away the champion, having pinned Saturn during a brawl between DDP and Benoit.
As Starrcade approaches, JJ Dillon finally acknowledges the dirt Raven has on him relating to his marriage to a much younger woman and having a kid out of wedlock (it was 1997, the full-on dirt in the Attitude Era hasn’t hit yet….plus Turner Standards & Practices) and breaks free of Raven’s control. A triple threat is booked between Raven, DDP and Benoit for Starrcade under Raven’s Rules. Following a brutal match with Raven bleeding buckets like the good ole’ days in ECW, Benoit wins the title by pinning DDP. This allows the feud to continue between Benoit and Raven, while DDP moves onto other feuds with the NWO. This also gives us essentially the same match the two had at Souled Out 98 because that match is awesome, and you should watch it. The ending with Raven laughing and passing out in the Crippler Crossface will stay with you.
Following Souled Out, Raven disappears for a few months. He resurfaces at Spring Stampede as a mystery opponent for Benoit, winning back the US Title, just in time to drop it to Goldberg the following night on Nitro. Yes, this is a reimagining but sometimes some of the things they actually did worked and made sense!
After dropping the title, Raven and Saturn reconnect as a tag team and begin running through the ranks. As the tag titles at this time are essentially hogged by the NWO Hollywood/NWO Wolfpac drama they feud underneath with the other top contenders, leading to a tournament that culminates at the infamous Halloween Havoc 1998. The winners of the tournament are to be granted a title shot the following night on Nitro. Since this is a Raven article, Raven and Saturn win the tournament. As the tag team champion coming out of Havoc is Rick Steiner, Raven and Saturn run through him to win the tag team titles on Nitro. I must apologize, as this timeline deprives us of Judy Bagwell, Tag Team Champion.
The two take on all comers and successfully manage to retain the tag titles through the following few months. After Souled Out in January of 1999, Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit become the number one contenders and the two teams feud into SuperBrawl. Following a miscommunication with Saturn, Malenko and Benoit win the titles.
Once the duo was unable to procure the championships in a rematch the following month at Uncensored in a Raven’s Rules match, the two would go their separate ways with Saturn going on to be a part of The Revolution leading to becoming a Radical the following year. Raven would leave WCW just as in reality due to overall unhappiness with the company and his inability to have broken through the glass ceiling installed by the main event talent.
