Raven In WWE - What Went Wrong?

The bulk of the Raven character's journey is one that remains genuinely delectable to those that lived through it, but one that might end up being lost to the increased speed at which pro wrestling moves in the 2020s.

There's lots of it to see. Old episodes of ECW Hardcore TV - the gimmick peaked before the company made it to pay-per-view in 1997 - are more accessible than ever before thanks to the WWE Network, but this is a blessing and a curse. Some of the edits, filming techniques and even matches themselves simply do not hold up now, even through the rose (or bloody) tint of nostalgia.

To try and cut an incredibly long story short, the former Scotty Flamingo and Johnny Polo came to ECW reborn as the Raven character in 1995. A stoic, disillusioned nihilist, Raven was the embodiment of a certain corner of youth culture Paul Heyman typically had a great feel for, as well as being the reinvention Levy required to make the most of his underrated promo ability and above average in-ring game. Bulkier and broodier in all the right ways from the Johnny Polo persona that had left WWE months prior, he was just the right amount of same and different in the land of Extreme, not least when word spread of his complex backstory.

Tommy Dreamer had taken some brutal sh*tkickings to finally gain the acceptance of the Philadelphia locals as a babyface, but his world was to be turned upside down by Levy's debut. It turned out that they'd been best friends at a summer camp as kids, but the jock Dreamer had abused Raven and "overweight, acne-ridden" girlfriend Beulah McGillicutty. Raven's violent streak was thus Dreamer's cross to bear, as was the news that Beulah had since become a model and was back alongside the misanthropic newcomer.

She wasn't alone in her adoration of Raven, fleshing out another part of the gimmick that literally every other company apart from WWE were willing to exploit...

CONT'D...