Home Artists Posts Import Register

Content

Today on 83 Weeks we’re discussing The Man They Call…Raven.

A bit of early background on Raven (Scott Levy)

Born September 8, 1964 in Philadelphia and grew up in Florida.

-Graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in criminal justice

-trained by Larry Sharpe at the Monster Factory and debuted in 1988 vs. Jimmy Jack Funk

-Early on, he wrestled as “Scotty the Body” in World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico, and in Memphis for Continental as Missy Hyatt’s toyboy.

-Then he worked in Florida, Vancouver, and Portland, OR.

-Had a WWF tryout in October 1990 vs Koko B Ware in Springfield, IL.

-Went to Global to wrestle and also dabbled in color commentary there.

-Joined WCW in early 1992 as “Scotty Flamingo”.

Did you get to know Scott in those early WCW days when you were an announcer? What did you think of the Scotty Flamingo character?

Scotty the Body won the light heavyweight title from Brian Pillman at Beach Blast 92, but lost it to Brad Armstrong 2 weeks later. The transformation from light heavyweight division to cruiserweight division was definitely a 180 degree upgrade was it not?

-Scotty would align with DDP and Vinnie Vegas very briefly as the “Diamond Line” and he had a Boxing match with Johnny B Badd at Clash of Champions November 92. DDP fills his boxing glove with water to help Scotty Flamingo win. Cutting edge stuff huh?

Briefly returned to Memphis in early 93 after leaving WCW supposedly over disagreements with Bill Watts.

Eric, do you recall anything regarding the circumstances of him leaving WCW in early 1993?

He then became Johnny Polo in the WWF in May 93 as manager of Adam Bomb, and the Quebecers.

Occasionally wrestled and worked a lot as a color commentator and co-host with Vince McMahon or Gorilla Monsoon on TV.

He wanted to wrestle though and the WWF didn’t want him as a wrestler, so he re-invents himself in ECW in 1995 as Raven.

When he left the WWF in late 1994, you were in charge of WCW by now Eric, did Scott or you make any approaches then about him maybe coming back to WCW?

DDP would help come up with the idea for the Raven character. Did Dallas ever mention this to you?

Most notable work in ECW is feud with Tommy Dreamer and later the Sandman, and a controversial angle where “Raven’s Nest” crucified Sandman.

Raven was forced to apologize on TV for the angle.

I know you didn’t watch ECW at the time but was anybody coming to you about his transformation? Kevin Sullivan maybe?

Also during this time was 2-time ECW World title champion before joining WCW in June 1997. How does the deal with Raven come together? Does he approach you or vice versa?

Did you watch any of the character at this point?

Did you see Raven as someone who would be working with the likes of Hogan or did you think he would be slotted in the midcard?

We covered Raven’s first appearance earlier this year in the archives on the June 30th Nitro…and it was always reported in ECW Paul Heyman & Raven worked together with the character. Was that a conversation between you & Scott?

The announcers play up he was a former world champion with another organization and tease he could be DDP’s partner for the upcoming Bash at the Beach PPV against Hogan & Malone…not a plan just a tease though right?

When are you presented with the opportunity to bring in Stevie Richards? Was that a Raven idea?

How much freedom do you think Raven would get? Was there confidence in him to do his thing?

At Bash at the Beach Raven and Stevie re-enact their old flunkie nerdy gimmick from ECW. Was this the best use of these guys? Was this entertaining to you?

There’s some legal battle over the right to Raven having the IP to his gimmick. From the Observer:

“They claim Scott Levy came up with the Raven name and character with the help of Diamond Dallas Page and that Page offered him to Paul Heyman more than two years ago. Heyman at first was reluctant figuring Levy was going to establish a new gimmick and go back to WWF, but Heyman was promised that Levy would stay a minimum of four months in ECW with the gimmick, and wound up staying closer to two-and-a-half years. Although Levy has acknowledged several times that he did sign a non-compete on PPV contract with Heyman that expires on 10/13, he claims not to have a copy of the contract although the claim is that as part of that deal Heyman acknowledged that all intellectual and mark rights of the Raven name and character were Levy's and not ECW's which would kill that point. Nick Lambros of WCW apparently asked Heyman to send a copy of the contract because they informed Heyman they were planning on using Levy on the 7/13 PPV show.

In the letter it specifically stated that if Heyman didn't respond in ten days, they were going to put Raven on the show. Heyman never responded nor sent WCW a copy of the contract, which from a legal standpoint, because of the warning, WCW feels it was in the clear to use Levy on the show, a point agreed with by one contract lawyer I spoke with regarding that point. Eric Bischoff in a Prodigy chat with Bob Ryder basically acknowledged the same point. It was a last minute deal on the PPV as the company was expecting Heyman to spring the contract on them at the last minute and if they felt it was binding, the Raven-Richards segment would have been scrapped from the show.``

You’ve said before this was all about Paul getting $200,000 from Turner everytime right? Did you ever feel like you wanted to have Lambros fight it just to fuck with Paul?

At the Clash 35 Raven makes his in-ring debut and it announces he wouldn’t wrestle unless it was a no DQ match. Was this to make Raven different from the rest?

He would defeat Stevie Richards with the DDT in just over 5 minutes. Was this the right debut for him looking back?

He would slowly build up Raven’s Flock as he would sit front row at WCW TV the next few months. It would grow with Van Hammer, Sick Boy, Billy Kidman…was it the land of misfit toys for a little?

His first Nitro match wasn't until October 27, where he defeated Scotty Riggs and would help change Riggs look over time with using a drop toe hold into a chair to take out his eye.

Later Riggs would join Raven’s Flock after losing to him again at the World War 3 PPV.

Did Raven make suggestions on who would go in to the Flock?

Raven has often been discussed as one of the great minds in the business. Did you get a lot of time to speak with Scotty and get to bend his ear on what he thought was going on in the business?

Saturn would eventually join the Flock as well - Raven & Saturn together made a lot of people think it was similar in terms of putting two ECW guys together. Was there a thought behind that or did you not care?

It was 1998 before Raven really started to see his star rise when DDP & Chris Benoit would engage in a feud with him. Was it Dallas’ idea to help elevate Raven?

At Uncensored 98 DDP would defeat Raven & Benoit in a 3-way to keep the US title but really this helped elevate both men. Dallas didn’t forget all the help he had gotten the year before did he?

Raven attacked DDP on the set of MTV’s TRL show in the spring of 1998.

https://youtu.be/fCnUpogCUNk

Thunder April 9 - Raven is doing a promo sat in the corner and is dragged out of the ring by a fan. Do you remember talking with him about that?

Raven defeated DDP for the WCW US title at Spring Stampede 98 on April 19 under “Raven’s Rules”

From the Observer: “9. Raven won the U.S. title from Diamond Dallas Page in 11:52. A wild brawl all over the place with tons of interference. Basic using every shortcut in the world match. Page used a drop toe hold with Raven crashing on a sink, and then Kidman went off the top rope and when Page moved, hit Raven, but Raven kicked out of the near fall. Sick Boy hit Page with Lodi's crutch but Page kicked out. Page used an inside cradle for a near fall. Hammer came off the top rope and accidentally clotheslined Raven and Page hit Hammer with the sink and got another near fall on Raven. Raven came back with a low blow. Finally Lodi threw in the dreaded Stop sign but Page got it from Raven and hit Hammer and Reis with it and then used a diamond cutter on Kidman who tried to interfere. At this point Hulk Hogan nephew Mike Bollea (Horace Boulder) came out dressed as a stage hand and clocked Page with the Stop sign and Raven DDT'd Page onto the sink for the pin. ****”

What a match and what a way to really give Raven that next step right? I mean even putting Horace Hogan with him would be a way to get him involved with Hulk right…

Well, wrong, as Raven lost the US title to Goldberg the next night on Nitro on April 20, 1998. I’m sure Raven had no issue with this and it was better than having Goldberg beat DDP but do you think that killed Raven?

On May 9, and the disastrous WCW/MTV Ultimate Video Bash show:

“The MTV special on 5/9 from Chelsea Pier in Manhattan was so bad that all standards of bad for this industry have now become passe. The real problem is it was pouring rain and windy as hell and the event was held outdoors. There were about 40-50 fans watching. Announcers Tony Schiavone and Zbyszko acted as if they didn't want to be there. There were supposed to be eight matches in a three-hour special, but due to the rain, they only had one match, a 90 second bout where Public Enemy beat High Voltage, and the rest were bad interviews, bad angles and bad weather. The show ended up being cut to two hours, and it was so bad that the scheduled replay showing of it later that evening was canceled.

The show offered the audience to call a 900 line to vote for bands with the winners advancing in a tournament and the final winner would become the MTV champion. And faster than you can say consumer 900 line fraud, it was over with Page and Raven, who the entire show was set up as a personal vehicle for the two which had everything gone right would have been a clever idea, in the finals.

They did an angle where Raven tried to jump him after losing the phone vote making Page the champ, and Page laying both he and Sick Boy out using the bullrope. Page also got to lay out Brad Armstrong earlier in the show with the diamond cutter.”

What do you remember of this and all the bad weather? Could this had been something much bigger if the weather had cooperated?

DDP defeated Raven in a Bowery Death Cage match at Slamboree 98 on May 17 effectively ending that feud.

As Raven blamed the Flock for him losing the US Title, this eventually led to the group disbanding when Raven lost to Saturn at Fall Brawl 98 - was it time to split them up and move on?

At Halloween Havoc Raven refuses to take on Chris Jericho for the TV title but is convinced and loses before taking time off.

Raven would reappear by doing depressing promos and started airing vignettes in early 1999, in which a camera crew followed Raven to his supposed childhood home, where he had led a privileged upper class lifestyle. He was also reunited with his former valet Chastity, who WCW claimed was his sister.

Was this let’s just send Scotty down with a camera crew and see what we get? Was there something there with this malcontent person being rich?

Raven and Saturn would reunite to win the tag titles in May 1999 at Slamboree - and you’re almost 2 years into the Raven experiment. What did you think of what you had with Raven at this point? Did you think it was a failure?

They lost the titles 3 week later to the Jersey Triad - DDP & Bam Bam Bigelow - however Raven was injured and was replaced in the match by Kanyon. Did this help speed up Raven leaving the company you think?

Raven would join Vampiro and ICP as The Dead Pool but he wasn’t happy at that point in time was he?

Well in August of 1999 Raven goes on Mancow and well I’ll let the Observer describe it…

“Raven has been very vociferous about his unhappiness with the promotion. He's about one month away from returning to the ring. He was on Mancow in Chicago and ripped the company claiming they use camera tricks to make it appear some wrestlers aren't as over as they really are and talked about the same problems everyone talks about. He also went on the ECW website and said he'd rather be working for ECW. He's told a lot of people that when his contract is up, which is about ten months away, he's gone.”

Did you have conversations at this time before with him about his unhappiness? Or was this the first you had heard about it?

Observer 8/30/99:

Bischoff called a meeting of the wrestlers before Nitro on 8/23 in Las Vegas and began singling out various wrestlers for public tongue-lashings. He began by saying that he was going to turn things around and only wanted wrestlers in the company who wanted to be in the company. His first target was Scott Levy (Raven), who he yelled at for his remarks negative to the company publicly, in particular on the Mancow radio show out of Chicago. He offered Raven a release and Raven walked out of the meeting.

Observer 9/6/99:

“The return of Raven, who was given a limited release by WCW after Eric Bischoff's nutty escapade on 8/23, to where he could work ECW but not WWF until his WCW contract expires in about ten months, resulted in his signing with ECW and debuting on 8/26 in Queens, NY.”

“Raven agreed to a one-year deal. Raven was earning approximately $275,000 on his WCW contract, and took an ECW deal believed to be in the range of $150,000 for the year. He had told friends he'd finish up the time frame of his WCW contract in ECW before going to WWF, but in the ECW dressing room, noted that his original plan years ago was to work four months in ECW before moving on, and he ended up staying three years.”

Were you happy to see him go? Sad? Walk us through your thought process with Raven and letting him go.

Was Raven just someone that was dealing with you at the end of your rope at the time in WCW? If you were happier would that had gone down that way?

Was the next time you saw Raven when you started with WWE? Did you get a chance to discuss things with him or was it all just business?

Raven would go on to have some success in WWE but not really. His highest profile after this was becoming NWA champion for TNA in 2005. Was it Raven’s demons that held him back from reaching his full potential in your mind?

You got to work with Raven again in TNA in 2009 and he had various roles and gimmicks. He would even help you take out Abyss. What was it like working with him again?

Raven would leave the next year…any highlights you would remember from his TNA run?

Speaking of his TNA run he will be inducted into their Hall of Fame at Bound for Glory. Well deserved wouldn’t you think?

What is your overall opinion of Scott Levy?

Comments

No comments found for this post.