8 Wrestling Gimmicks That Were Much Darker Outside WWE
2. Raven
It's fair to say that Raven had mellowed somewhat by the time he returned to WWE in 2000. Some six years after his prior stint in Stamford, whilst not exactly Johnny Polo, he'd been reduced to a generic hardcore wrestler who just happened to wear denim cut-offs and had a flannel shirt wrapped around his waist.
WWE just didn't 'get' Raven - or didn't want to. As far as they were concerned, the gimmick meant a bird squawking over his entrance theme. In a past life, it had been one of the most subversively dark the industry had ever seen.
After leaving New York the first time, Scott Levy arrived in ECW courtesy of Stevie Richards, where he dropped the gilded lifestyle of Johnny Polo, replacing it with a grungy aesthetic straight out of Nirvana's playbook (he even used them for his music). 'Raven' - named for the Edgar Allan Poe poem - was a nihilistic sociopath who immediately set his sights on childhood friend Tommy Dreamer, subjecting the ECW mascot to a saga of psychological torture. Across the next three years, Dreamer fought tooth and nail to dispatch his nemesis, the compelling feud drawing eyes to the rebel promotion in the process.
Another thing we never saw WWE's watered down Raven do was crucify anybody. That, we guess, was reserved for The Undertaker, who no doubt drew inspiration from Raven hitching The Sandman up on a cross years earlier - much to the chagrin of a watching Kurt Angle, who refused to be part of the show on transmission. It's quite something to say it was the most controversial angle in the regularly controversial ECW's history.
Even in WCW, whilst the violence was toned down, Raven continued to be a cerebral presence, surrounded by his Flock of outcasts. So how did Vince McMahon see him when he crossed the divide again? Just some bird, innit.