![]() ![]() At the same time, DDP has set his eyes on the US Title but no matter how many victories he picks up he is unable to convince JJ Dillon to give him a title shot.Īlong the way, we learn that Raven has dirt on Dillon which is the reason he has been facing ‘easier’ talent and able to avoid DDP and his chase for the title. Suspiciously however is the calibre of talent that he is defending against, usually lower-card cruiserweights like Hector Garza or El Dandy (I know, who the hell am I to doubt El Dandy?) or guys like Brad Armstrong. In the build-up to World War 3 ’97, Raven and Saturn solidify their allegiance and start performing in tag team matches, while Raven occasionally defends the US Title. During the match against champion Curt Hennig, Saturn appears from the crowd delivering a Death Valley Driver on Hennig to help give Raven the win and the championship. These types of events continue until WCW announces that as part of Raven signing his contract he is to be given an opportunity at Halloween Havoc for the WCW United States Championship. The following night he interferes in a match between Saturn and Dean Malenko, helping give Saturn the victory, but disappears before Saturn can acknowledge him. As both men rise to their feet, Raven looks to Saturn and nods while smiling slyly, spreading his arms in his iconic cross pose as he backs up and slides through the ropes. Following a hard-fought battle, Raven gets his hand lifted following an Evenflow DDT. His challenge would be answered by a familiar face in the form of Perry Saturn, also from ECW. Holding off his debut until that year’s Fall Brawl would allow the fans to become excited to see what Raven could do (at least the non-ECW fans) and have him send out an open challenge to any member of the WCW or NWO locker room for his debut match. Raven stands as a man without an island and without friends. In this timeline, there is never a Flock, no matter how badly WCW wants to give Van Hammer something to do. As opposed to this, simply have Raven start sitting in the front row as they went on to do, teasing that WCW was trying to sign him but he was playing coy. DDP would end up teaming with the debuting Curt Hennig at that show so Raven served as nothing more than a red herring. Raven’s introduction was done well, and really the only thing that would need to be changed is the weird suggestion that he would be the tag team partner of Diamond Dallas Page at the forthcoming Bash At The Beach pay per view. All of that said there is so much more that Raven could have done. We must also take into effect Raven’s self-admitted hard-partying lifestyle, surely another roadblock to the top of WCW. Maybe he should have gotten a better tan. ![]() Knowing this and the fact that Executive Vice President of WCW Eric Bischoff simply did not understand the appeal of Raven and his character, we must acknowledge a certain ceiling of elevation for Raven. At the time that he made the jump, we were in the height of the NWO angle, merely months away from the big blowoff at Starrcade 1997. In looking at the WCW run of Raven, one must take a few things into consideration. But what could have been with Raven in WCW? ![]() This would of course lead to his big return to ECW for the debut of ECW on TNN. In a famous 1999 meeting, Eric Bischoff would tell the roster that anyone who wanted their release if they weren’t happy would be immediately granted, an offer that Raven immediately took them up on. Taking part in arguably the most iconic feud in ECW history with Tommy Dreamer (read more about that here) as well as reigning as the ECW Champion involved in other iconic feuds with The Sandman and Terry Funk just to name a few, Raven was a hot commodity with an endless amount of potential thanks to his solid in-ring work and outstanding promo abilities.Īs we all know, while WCW seemed to give him a push right out of the gate, going so far as to give him a stable of misfits that they hoped Raven could get over in The Flock, yet it would all eventually be run into the ground. The same result would come from his run in the WWF as Johnny Polo, but when he teamed up with the genius of Paul Heyman and entered the land of Extreme, he would completely reinvent himself as Raven. Scott Levy had been in WCW in the early 90s as Scotty ‘The Body’ Flamingo but never had seen any real success. While not quite on the level of a Bret Hart or Lex Luger in the overall scheme, at the time there was a lot of excitement from fans about what Raven could do on the bigger stage. One of the most under-appreciated ‘big’ moves of the Monday Night War was WCW plucking Raven up from ECW in the summer of 1997.
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