Overlooked Feuds: Perry Saturn vs Raven in WCW
The discussion of professional wrestling in the year 1997 will never get old. As mentioned quite frequently, all three major North American companies, Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation, were firing on all cylinders. Of the three, ECW was the underdog of three, and in something that would become much of a theme for the remainder of the Monday Night Wars, any bright young talent would end up being plucked by the bigger two. And at the midway point of 1997, ECW would lose two of their cornerstone stars to the big bad group from Atlanta. In almost a one-two punch, former ECW Champion Raven and former ECW Tag Team Champion Perry Saturn would take off for greener pastures.
Upon arriving in WCW, Raven was built immediately as being an outsider who would have a role in the upper mid-card. The booking continued much of his “David Koresh” of wrestling, styling him as somewhat of a cult leader, immediately having him put together The Flock. Unlike Raven’s Nest in ECW, The Flock was more of just an excuse to put some lower-card guys under contract together and have something to do. Outside of the cult leader Raven, the only people who it was clear had a solid future in the industry was the aforementioned Saturn, and the up-and-coming Cruiserweight Kidman, who would be depicted as a heroin addict. But forming the group would mean that there would be an implosion of some sort, as the pro wrestling gods write it down the line. And the group’s fallout would see an underappreciated and overlooked feud between the two former Extreme stars in Raven and Saturn.
Despite Raven’s intense domineering of The Flock, Saturn’s role in the group could almost be identified more as a satellite member, as he was never seen as under the full control and trance of the other members of the group were under. The Flock primarily consisted of Raven, Saturn, Sick Boy, Scotty Riggs, Kidman, Van Hammer and Lodi. Over time the group would also see the inclusion of Horace (Hulk Hogan’s nephew), Reese (the former Yet-tay!), a brief stay from Stevie Richards carrying over from his role in Raven’s Nest in ECW and towards the end of the group, the man formerly known as Mortis, Kanyon.
Both men had seen a level of success in WCW while being aligned, with Saturn having won the Television Title and being seen frequently in notable mid-card feuds, against the likes of Disco Inferno, Booker T, Ernest Miller, Rick Martel and Chris Benoit. Raven would be the catalyst for Saturn’s issues with Chris Benoit due to his feud with the Crippler, and he would see gold of his own in the form of the United States Championship, while feuds with Diamond Dallas Page highly elevated him. However, his US Title victory over Page would be short-lived, as he dropped the title to the unstoppable Goldberg the following night on Nitro.
While Raven was finishing his feud with DDP, the groundwork would be laid, with the May 4th, 1998 episode of Nitro seeing Saturn facing off against Hammer in a Loser Leaves The Flock match. The fact that the match was watchable is a testament to Saturn's ability, given how bad and inexperienced (despite years in the company) Hammer was. As the match drew to a close, a beer vendor would jump the rail and attack both men, leading to Hammer picking up the victory. While watching back, we can now easily recognize the man as Kanyon; no one knew who it was at the time. This would all lead to an attack backstage by DDP on Raven that would lead to an in-ring brawl ending with Page hanging Raven over the top rope with a bull rope.
The following week would see the final build for Raven and DDP’s match at Slamboree, but the ousting of Hammer from The Flock officially, as they all turned on him, allowing Saturn to hit the Death Valley Driver on him. The groundwork was now laid with strife within The Flock.
The May 25th edition of Nitro would see Raven make an impassioned plea to Saturn to stand beside him again after Saturn had said he was not a member of The Flock but rather simply Raven’s friend. Raven stated that he would have no issue firing every member of The Flock for Saturn to return to his side, even delivering an Evenflow DDT to Lodi. Later in the night, Saturn would face off against Glacier; who was upset that Saturn was using a Superkick he claimed to have created (Chris Adams would like a word).
In stark contrast to most “hot-shot booking” that would follow in the years to come, all the way to the current day, WCW would seem to have a lot of back and forth on whether or not they would follow through on this storyline, as much of the focus shifted to the feud between Raven and the now-unmasked Kanyon. In the meantime, Saturn would slowly drift away from The Flock, switching gear to the more traditional trunks instead of the ratty jeans and Grunge look that defined The Flock.
The two feuds would converge at the ill-fated Road Wild 1998 PPV, where a Triangle match between Saturn, Kanyon and Raven would occur, a match that would see Saturn pick up the victory following a DVD on Raven.
On Nitro two nights later, Saturn and Kanyon would meet in singles action. Towards the end of the match, Lodi would distract the recently departed Mickey Jay referee, allowing Raven to hit the Evenflow on Saturn, giving Kanyon the win. Later in the show, Raven comes to the ring with The Flock, who accidentally hits him with a Stop sign at Road Wild, blaming them for his defeat at Road Wild. Raven would blame Horace for the loss, resulting in a match between the two. Kanyon would make his way down the aisle, being cut off by the other members of The Flock, allowing Saturn to jump in from the crowd and hit the DVD, giving Horace the big win. Another two nights later and Raven would once again face off with Horace. The Stop sign would once again factor into the match, at one point with even Lodi, positioned as the most faithful Flock member, stopping Raven from Horace hitting his subordinate with it. As the match progressed, the other members of The Flock would enter the ring and beat down Horace under Raven’s control. This would bring out Saturn, who stopped the beatdown. As Saturn challenged Raven to face off with him, Horace attacked his savior and everyone would beat down Saturn until Kanyon made the save. Continuing the confusion, Saturn and Kanyon would beat each other down.
The next edition of Nitro would see Mean Gene interview, Raven, only to be interrupted by Horace challenging him to another match. Raven, as always, makes the rules, and sets it as a tag team match, with Horace teaming with Kanyon and Saturn being Raven’s partner. As all four parties bickered, J.J. Dillon would make the match official, stating that they would be suspended if anyone caused their partner to lose the match. In the end, while Kanyon would hold Saturn to be hit with the Stop sign, Horace would accidentally hits his partner, leading to Saturn hitting a desperation DVD for the W. Following the match, Raven hit the Evenflow on Saturn, initiating another beatdown. Kidman would try to stop the attack only to receive an Evenflow. Horace would then hit a Full Nelson slam on Saturn, only to be given another Evenflow for his troubles. Fun fact, this is also the infamous Nitro that The Warrior would show up and go drastically over time, cutting a promo on Hollywood Hogan mere minutes later.
That week’s Thunder would see a Four Corners match between Raven, Kanyon, Saturn and Horace, marred by interference from The Flock and ending with Raven getting the duke over Horace. Around this time, the match was made official at Fall Brawl, which would see Raven and Saturn face off with The Flock being forced to disband if Saturn wins, but if he loses, he would have to rejoin the group. The following week on Thunder, Lodi would lay down a challenge with a hefty stipulation. If Saturn wins, Lodi will willingly leave The Flock immediately, but if Lodi wins, Saturn has to be his servant until Fall Brawl. As expected, The Flock would play into the match, with Saturn fighting off the whole group but falling prey to the now-newest official member, Kanyon.
The next Nitro would see Saturn explain that he is a man of honor and integrity and lives by a code so that he will fulfill his part in the stipulation, and Lodi was taking full advantage, making Saturn carry his bags and signature poster boards. Later in the night, Raven instructs Lodi to inform Saturn he cannot touch Raven or Kanyon, who would taunt him and his “integrity” before he is forced to team with Lodi against the team of High Voltage, Rage and Kaos. A match that Lodi would win after Saturn did all the heavy lifting.
On the September 3rd episode of Thunder, Saturn would be given an interview segment to explain the scenario.
“This isn’t about The Flock, this is about Raven. Or the fact that Raven manipulates and bullies people. I’ve seen people like this my whole life and I’m fed up with it. A lot of people are calling me Lodi’s lackey, his servant. Let me try to explain. I got myself into a match I thought I would win, I had no idea Kanyon was going to cost me the match. I’m a man of my word and I’m going to keep my word and be Lodi’s servant until the Pay-Per-View. I put myself in this situation because it’s important to me to break up The Flock, it’s important to me to stop Raven from bullying these guys. Yeah sure I regret it now, I wish I wouldn’t have done it, but there’s nothing I can do I gave my word and I’m gonna uphold my end of it.
Why is my word so important to me? Well first of all growing up I didn’t have much of anything. All I had was my word and I learned to put high value on that. Later on in life I became an Army Airborne Ranger and I learned that in a group you need to learn to trust each other. Possibly put your life in each other’s hands. Ya know, life or death situation, all you can count on is your word. And I learned to make that so important to me. There’s nothing that anyone can do to make me break my word. Not then, not now, not never. I’m gonna uphold my word no matter what it takes.
Raven was scheduled to face off against Meng, something no sane human being would ever want to do, but instead, he just sent in varying members of The Flock to be decimated by the former Haku. After Meng ate up the rest of The Flock, Raven instructed Lodi to send in Saturn, who got some offense until Kanyon kicked him in the back. This would lead to a match between Kanyon and Saturn, which was great as expected, until Lodi ordered Saturn that he is not to win the match and instead had to take the Flatliner from Kanyon for the win.
The final week before Fall Brawl would see Riggs face-off with Saturn on Nitro, with Saturn coming to the ring holding a sign up saying that “Lodi could hit 62” in reference to the 1998 MLB season where Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled to beat Roger Maris’ longstanding Home Run record. Initially, the match was set to be Kanyon facing Riggs (which makes no sense when you think about it), but Raven and Lodi would order Saturn to compete instead. Under instruction, Saturn would demolish poor Riggs as Raven taunted him continuously on the microphone from ringside. Following the match, Raven would give Saturn the option to either break Riggs’ fingers or Raven would break his. As a man of honor, Saturn would end up having his fingers broken to spare Riggs the pain. WCW Trainer and Doctor, Danny Young would make his way to ringside, only to be told by Saturn to stay away and not to touch him.
On the last Thunder before Fall Brawl, Kanyon would come out for his match and say he was too good for his opponent, some job guy named Nick Dinsmore (the future Eugene!), and he wanted Lodi to come out and tell Saturn that he can’t hit him and to wrestle his match. Saturn would come to the ring to reveal that Lodi wasn’t there, so he could beat the hell out of Kanyon with no repercussions. After breaking his thumb in the turnbuckle, Raven would emerge and send The Flock to beat him down, but Saturn would stand tall, leading into their match that Sunday.
Everything would culminate at 1998’s Fall Brawl in a Raven’s Rules match. As announced by David Penzer as Raven made his way to the ring, Kanyon would be handcuffed to a turnbuckle at ringside. Following a wild brawl, the match would climax with a ref bump, allowing Kanyon to unlock the handcuffs, hitting a Flatliner on Saturn before re-handcuffing himself. Saturn would get the shoulder up at the last second for a huge pop from the North Carolina crowd. Saturn would deliver a Death Valley Driver from the ring apron to Lodi through a table at ringside, only to be hit with an Evenflow DDT, but somehow still kicked out. One Death Valley Driver later, and The Flock would be freed from the clutches of the villainous Raven.
Saturn pins Raven at Fall Brawl 1998. [WWE Network]
Following the disbanding of The Flock, most would linger, but Kidman would notably reinvent himself and become a star in the Cruiserweight Division.
Raven and Saturn would prosper and eventually find their way back together to become WCW Tag Team Champions in 1999. Saturn would have a memorable feud with Chris Jericho that resulted in him having to wear a dress on WCW television before the aforementioned teaming with Raven, then moving on to team with Chris Benoit and forming The Revolution alongside Shane Douglas and Dean Malenko. This eventually led to The Radicalz departing WCW, swapping out Shane Douglas for Eddie Guerrero.
When looking at such a chaotic year of WCW in 1998, the feud between Raven and Saturn became somewhat of a mid-card glue that held the shows together for some time. It was a feud with many layers, beginning with Saturn wanting to free The Flock from Raven, then moving to a more personal feud between the two before Saturn eventually felt like he was fighting for his soul. It was some of the most compelling television WCW ever produced, and I implore you to go back and visit some of the key moments.
