www.dailynewsmckeesport.com
(Local News paper in Pittsburgh area)
WCW Wrestling
At: A.J. Palumbo Center
Dates: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $25, $20, $15
Info: Call 412-323-1919
WCW star Raven is truly an enigma.
In just the past few months, he has managed to become a major part of the rebirth of tag-team wrestling in WCW and become one of the promotion’s most popular fan favorites without raising a finger.
“I’m probably the only guy in the business ever to go babyface without doing anything,” Raven said in a phone interview from Atlanta.
Raven will be one of the featured wrestlers when WCW presents a show Wednesday night at 7:30 at A.J. Palumbo Center.
It is commonplace for wrestlers to switch from babyface to heel in wrestling, but usually a storyline takes place to explain the conversion and to give the fans a reason to either love or hate the individual.
“In my case, they (WCW) didn’t do crap,” he said.
The most WCW did was put him in a series of vignettes with partner Kanyon that showed him revealing the manic side of his manic/depressive character. Fans found out the persona came from a rich family despite his ragged appearance and normally depressed demeanor in the ring.
WCW officials thought the clips would make people hate Raven, but he knew better.
“Raven’s a pretty bad-ass character,” he said of his persona. “People want me to be their anti-hero ... I knew as soon as I showed a funny side of me, people would like me.”
Another area in which Raven helped prove WCW wrong was in the area of tag-team wrestling. Just a few months ago, tag matches were few and far between in the promotion, and it seemed the tag team title belts were doomed for dissolution.
However, tag wrestling was brought back in an angle where on-screen WCW President Ric Flair ordered a tournament for the dormant titles, and it has caught fire ever since.
Raven has re-united with Saturn to form one of the best teams in WCW in the last few years. His team is currently locked in a feud with the teams of Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko and champions Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman.
Raven thinks there is much more creatively that wrestlers can do in a tag-team match than in a singles match because more participants are involved.
“You take me and Saturn against Benoit and Malenko and you throw in the referee because he’s a big part of the match, and Arn Anderson, who’s the heel manager, and you have six guys to work with,” Raven pointed out. “And if you have Misterio and Kidman, that’s eight guys!”
Raven and Saturn lost to Benoit and Malenko in one of the best tag team matches this decade at the recent Spring Stampede.
“We built the match as a roller coaster ride,” he said. “But we also built a good story.”
And there will be eight participants at May’s Slamboree pay-per-view when all three teams square off for the tag titles.
Although Raven has been wrestling for many years, the birth of his current persona was born a few years ago in Extreme Championship Wrestling. After taking on such gimmicks as Scotty Flamingo in WCW and Johnny Polo in the WWF, he re-invented himself as he entered the Paul Heyman-owned company.
Raven said his character is a result of a very insecure childhood in which he had wealthy parents, but was unpopular. The new persona was more of a cry for attention.
“You’re going to find it’s pretty much me,” he said.
He did gain attention in the hardcore ECW. He became one of the promotion’s top and most interesting stars. He had a group of followers that consisted of Beulah, Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie, and it was not uncommon for him to lash out and deliver beatings to his own friends.
And, of course, Raven was the recipient of many a beating as well. In fact, in the day of multiple-chairshot attacks, dives off of balconies and massive bloodshed, Raven took arguably the most recognized beating in ECW history. And it consisted of just one chairshot.
He was facing Tommy Dreamer in a cage match, and while handcuffed to the meshing, Dreamer delivered one of the most devastating shots in wrestling history.
“I love that that’s my legacy,” Raven said.
Raven said the art of the entire spot came from how he sold the punishment he just received. He said one punch can be just as devastating as 20 depending on how the man on the receiving end sells the punishment.
“I told (Dreamer) to hit me as hard a humanly possible and do it once,” Raven recalled. “There was one shot and I just crumbled ... and don’t get me wrong, he killed me.”
Raven gained most of his notoriety in ECW. It was an atmosphere he loved, especially with the workers who were assembled.
“It was so laid back. Everyone showed up drunk ... it was like a night club,” he said. “Everyone belonged where they did, and everyone was a team until the money problems started.”
Raven said although he loved his time in ECW and considers Heyman a genius, ECW could not grow as emotionally and fiscally as he would have liked so he knew it was time to move on.
“I knew it was time to go,” Raven said. “WCW made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Now Raven is a part of WCW’s latest re-birth. He is confident in booker/wrestler Kevin Nash’s attempt to inject more soap opera-ish aspects into the product while not sacrificing the athleticism, but letting it enhance the story.
Raven said story telling is the most important part of the business, and it helps those who are watching experience a whirlwind of emotion.
“I want my emotions played with,” he said. “People want to live vicariously through others, and we give people that opportunity.”
Sentiment had been expressed by some sources that wrestlers inside WCW were concerned Nash was trying to bring the company down, but Raven dismissed those notions. He thinks Nash will help WCW reclaim its distinction as the top wrestling company in America.
“I think Nash is going to do it,” Raven said. “I think he’s going to be the man to make the comeback and beat Vince (McMahon).”
Raven will surely be a huge part of WCW’s re-birth, just as he was a part of the rejuvenation of tag team wrestling.
