Raven (wrestling): Difference between revisions

 

After brief runs in WCW and WWF as "Scotty Flamingo" and "Johnny Polo", Levy rose to fame in ECW as Raven, a brooding sociopath with a penchant for manipulating the weak-willed into doing his bidding. Raven's ECW run was marked by two long, brutal, and sometimes controversial feuds -- with Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman -- and two ECW World Championship reigns. He's credited with popularizing the wearing of street clothes during matches (his typical outfit being a pair of cut-off jeans, a flannel shirt, and a leather jacket -- the popular [[Grunge]] look). His promos were dark and nihilistic, and he was followed by a stable of wrestlers known as "Raven's Nest", which at different points included such wrestlers as the Pitbulls, members of the Dudley family, longtime lackey Stevie Richards, and even [[Mick Foley|Cactus Jack]].

Raven returned to ECW in 1999, then joined the WWF in 2000. He would win the WWE Hardcore Championship 27 times, but never achieve anything approaching the success he found in ECW -- and due to a lawsuit over WWE's classification of wrestlers as "independent contractors", Raven (and the other wrestlers involved in the lawsuit) became ''persona non grata'' in WWE. Following his departure from WWE, Raven spent the next seven years performing on-and-off in TNA and ROH -- and even managed to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in this time period.

 

* [[Arch Enemy]]: Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman in ECW, Abyss in TNA, [[CM Punk]] in [[Ring of Honor]], and "Diamond" Dallas Page in WCW.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Quote the Raven, nevermore."

* [[Five Moves of Doom]]: One of Raven's pieces of advice in his "Secrets of The Ring" interview falls along these lines -- all wrestlers should have five moves they can do perfectly, instead of five hundred moves they can only do half-assed.

* [[Garbage Wrestler]]

* [[Gimmick Matches]]: The "Clockwork Orange House of Fun" match involves a chain-link fence erected on one side of the ring with weapons chained to it; the victor was the one who drove their opponent through two tables and threw them off a small scaffold. (It later became a standard hardcore match with a fancy name, though the chain link fence remained part of the setup.) The match's creator was Raven, by the way.

* [[Ho Yay]]: In this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSC2inxFn5Y bizarre promo], Chris Kanyon (the first openly gay prowrestler - although he didn't come out until years after this promo was shot) visits Raven at his swanky mansion. He and Raven go out for a night on the town, which mostly consists of shopping for Versace. They return to Raven's home dressed to the nines, but the scene cuts, and the next thing we see is Kanyon running down stairs to greet Raven's mom, while frantically trying to pull his pants back on (!). Raven follows after him, also dressed in his old grungey clothes. The surely unintentional subtext is that Raven took Kanyon out on a date, and they were getting hot and heavy upstairs before Raven's mom rudely interrupted them.

* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: Raven originally wrestled as pretty-boy babyface "Scotty the Body" -- but time and drug use have really roughed him up.

*** The Hanger On: Stevie Richards and Lodi.

*** The Heir Apparent: Perry Saturn was originally in this spot, but when he turned on the stable, Horace was given the spot. Towards the end of the stable's run, Horace was demoted and Chris Kanyon got the spot.

* [[Theme Song]]: "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Seperated)" by [[The Offspring]] (ECW/TNA)

* [[Old Shame]]: His "Scotty Flamingo" and "Johnny Polo" gimmicks. This was even joked about in some of Raven's indy appearances, where chants of "Johnny Polo" from fans -- spurred on by Mick Foley! -- started driving him insane.

* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: [http://www.facebook.com/SelinaKyleNetFB#!/SelinaKyleNetFB?sk=info See for yourself.]

* [[Wangst]]: In WCW, Raven's nihilistic attitude was revealed to be a result of his incredibly wealthy family being annoying rather than due to depression.

 

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