Raven In WWE - What Went Wrong?
Quoth the Raven, "Never Pushed"
"Who the f*ck hired Johnny Polo?"
Not the ideal start to a second life with a resurgent World Wrestling Federation in 2000, but the one Raven apparently received. The above words were those of Vince McMahon, apparently so ensconced in his company's incredible growth and becoming a billionaire for the first time that he'd not done any of the work in bringing Scott Levy back to Stamford.
So goes the story - as told to Levy by Michael Hayes - Jim Ross had to 'admit' to the room that he'd gone to the trouble of signing a marketable upper midcard talent, but McMahon's chagrin at being out of the loop might have marked his cards.
There was tangible evidence of a certain separation between the two sides on the very night he debuted. To the utter thrill of ECW fans that still held out hope that all their Philadelphia favourites weren't just going to be squashed like bugs, Raven appeared at Unforgiven 2000 and helped (!) Tazz (!!) defeat Jerry Lawler (!!!).
Over top of a pretty sizeable pop, Ross screamed "where in the hell did he come from?" on commentary, before going on to note with bizarre clarity that he "didn't work" there. Any extra element of that was dropped in the (limited) follow through, but an otherwise-impactful debut feels retrospectively tainted knowing the conversations that had occurred beyond the scenes.
It was a strange tact to take on a performer that had only just been brought in. The goods weren't exactly box-fresh, but they weren't particularly damaged either. It would take decisions such as this and countless others like it to render a potentially profitable endeavour completely valueless, but Levy's arrival coincided with that philosophy becoming the troubling norm.
CONT'D...