WWE Hall Of Famer Blames Himself For Raven’s Original Underwhelming WCW Run

WWE

WWE Hall of Famer and former executive producer for WCW Eric Bischoff has opened up about Raven’s underwhelming backstory, and the role he had to play in the development of it.

Speaking on the October 3 episode of his podcast, 83 weeks, Bischoff discussed the build-up and arrival of Raven to the WCW roster.

Eric Bischoff said he felt that they were lacking additional context about Raven, and this may have helped to develop a more compelling story for him, saying:

“That was actually me putting heat on myself for not creating a backstory, not allowing the audience to get why your character was in the frame of mind it was in. It was like that grunge kind of frustrated, that angst that was such, at least to me, a part of that character, but the audience never got a chance to understand why…

“…and I think had that backstory played itself out for a period of weeks or months, and then we integrate the Raven character, and physicality and then storyline, I think it would have had a much better opportunity to be successful.”

Raven, real name, Scott Levy, joined WCW in 1992, where he fought under the ring name Scotty Flamingo.

The Scotty Flamingo gimmick was vastly different from the grunge-inspired character he is best known for and involved a Californian surfer gimmick

After a stint at WWE (WWF) where he wrestled under the ring name Johnny Polo, Levy went to ECW in 1995 where he developed the Raven character who was known for his loquacious promos and references to Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven.”

The character would feud against Tommy Dreamer and notably The Sandman in the mid-1990s.

In the years since, Raven has made returns to WCW and WWF, but this time with his own name and backstory.

Raven has been prolific in his career, holding an accumulative total of 37 titles across WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA.

He was recognised by IMPACT wrestling and inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2022 where he joins legendary names such as Sting, Earl Hebner, Jeff Jarrett and Ken Shamrock.

Transcription via PWMania.

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• eric bischoff
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