WHAT ABOUT HIM? WHAT ABOUT RAVEN
JANUARY 2003
2nd January 2003 - House Show
Raven battles Freakzilla, Big Poppa Pump, in quite an extrordinary matchup, prehaps Raven will be given a big push if he is fighting the likes of Steiner. Although Steiner has something to prove not yet wrestling in front of a
camera, so Freakzilla got some training for his Royal Rumble WWE debut.
Both men got a decent pop from the fans but it was not a match for Raven as he seemed to take alot of punishment, in a match not won by pinfall, but
submission, via the Steiner Recliner, I could never have seen WWE making
any other decision on this match.
3rd, 4th January 2003 - House Show
Raven took on Test and all his Testicles along with the ever present Stacy Keibler. Both matches pretty much the same, with Raven playing up Test's
sudden rise to popularity. Stacy used a distraction a few times and who wouldn't be distracted by that fine speciman. Not sure on this part as I have been told Raven kissed, and kicked Stacy causing her to fall off the apron,
not sure which is accurate but Raven turned round and faced the Big Boot
for the Pinfall
4st January 2003 - HeAT Show
Raven nor anyone else featuring on HeAT due to the 2002 lookback edition.
Expect Raven to make his comeback on RAW in the near future. I know he
is not due to fight this week's RAW yet could still make an impact backstage
with a interview prehaps. Those from the USA will see this on Monday,
whilst those in the UK will have to wait till Friday. RAW seemingly enough
has been promised to become... the Year of The Bisch
6th January 2003 - HeAT Taping's for 12/01/02
Stevie took on the runt of the Dudley litter in Spike Dudley, not much to
tell here but Stevie made his way to ringside with Victoria, and had the match
won with the Ste-Vie-T. Finally the King of Swing is getting a bit of a push
hopefully. I know this is mainly Raven but I also like to comment on some former Flock members. If his finisher is called the Stevie-T (DDT) then
why does he have to be annonced Steven, it sucks and I refuse to name
him that.
Jeff Hardy also took on Hurricane, good pop for both guys, Hurricane won with the Shining Wizard yet I am telling you this because after the match
Raven made his way to the ring and beat on Hurricane before Jeff came back
for the save with a dropkick that he does. Double clothesline by the face's. Raven goes down. This is a HeAT story involving the two, not sure how it
will progress.
7th January 2003 - House Show
Raven was part of a 8-Man Tag Table Match pitting all three of the WWE Dudley Boyz, along with the Innovator of Violence, Tommy Dreamer against
Raven, Stevie, Storm and Chief Morley trying to get revenge for King and
J.R's win on RAW lately. I find it interesting how their teaming Raven and
Stevie up, I thing this could be a sign. As for Storm and Morley, well I guess
Regal must have been injured slightly or something but Storm seems to be
sucking up to The Bisch now.
Rico came to the ring with the heel team, (Storm, Morley...) The came...
If I Can Be Serious For a Minute as Lance took the microphone to add...
"Maybe El Paso wants to see tables, but your are not getting the Dudley
Boys, because if you saw RAW yesterday then you know that my partner
and I are the new Tag Team Champs and you know what we did to the Dudley�s"
Spike and Tommy made their way down first for the good guys then came
the big boom as the Dudleyz arrived. Proved to be a good match in all with Storm and Chief Morley playing the greater parts of the heel seen as they are actually involved with this storyline. I guess Raven has something to do with Morley after talking to him last week and getting his RAW place back.
The match ended with Lance Storn receiving the Dudley Death Drop (3D)
through the Table for the victory.
13th January 2002 - RAW Show
Raven at long last made his RAW return, but what I didn�t get was why
J.R and the King didn�t explain why Raven was on RAW. They didn�t
explain how Raven had claimed back his place by defeating Tommy
Dreamer a couple of weeks back.Been a watcher of RAW and Smackdown, people would not have understood why he was back with a cheap remark
from King saying�
�Hey�is that Raven�Where�s his hair�Where�s his hair go�
Yeah King its Raven, you can talk about his storyline�s King, it doesn�t have
to evolve around Triple H on RAW� What About Raven. Raven had made
his way to the ring sporting proper wrestling black trunks which
personally didn�t look to good.
Hair now cut short above shoulder length looking like a Steve Austin with bleach blonde hair. Hopefully this will change shortly when he starts
getting into some storyline or other.
Match begins with a tie up, Raven hits a shoulder block as we are told that
this is a more serious and no-nonsense Raven getting a quick two count.
both men get thrown outside the ring, Raven�s positioned for the Swanton
but moves out the way before Jeff jumps and Jeff gets his leg smashed on
the Corner Post for his efforts. Later Jeff goes for another high risk manouver. Raven dodges and goes for the cover to receive another two
count. Raven goes for a triple load of those Spinning Leg Locks that
every wrestler has on the ECW Hardcore Revolution PS1 Game before
getting shoved off. Jeff does that Low Blow type move with both legs to
gain the advantage, Raven kicks out. Jeff then fell off the top rope
mistakedly, what a fool, Raven been a experienced master knew how to
handle it. Raven hit the slingshot into the Top Turnbuckle, was going for
the EvenFlow but Jeff held onto the rope went up top for the Swanton win.
All in all I think the return of Raven should have been marked with a win, if they wanted Jeff in the Rumble why demolish Raven�s reputation a little on
his comeback, he needs his newer, ring attire looking at, fresh change,
here�s me wishing he could go back to his ECW attire. Why not pit Jeff
against someone else, why not save Raven for the Rumble. Anyway I was looking forward to Raven�s Return but this proved quite disappointing with
the ring attire and the loss and all. Hopefully Raven will be given recognition and hopefully we will see the rise of the Flock, I can only hope.
When King said�
�Does this mean Raven has to go back to HeAT�
I told him a piece of my mind and it angered me how WWE handled this comeback in this manner
Stevie also had a match pitted against Hurricane which I thought was quite interesting seen as Raven had been having a splutter with Hurricane on the previous HeAT. Maybe connections are beginning to show or could it be just coincidence. Trish accompanied Hurricane, Victoria with Stevie, the girls got scrapping, Hurricane hit the Eye of the Hurricane for the three count, and the face couple cleared the ring at the end. Stevie and Victoria are a great couple, and as Victoria cheered her man on you could clearly here the words�
�Come on Stevie�
Its Stevie dammit, he has the Ste-Vie-T so why not cut the �N� and give us back that �IE� If anyone can please tell me why this isn�t possible then e-mail me at [email protected].
20th January 2002 - Boardroom Decision
Raven along with Justin Credible have officially been released by World Wrestling Entertainment. Here's the quote left on WWE.com
WWE parts ways with Raven, Justin Credible
"World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., has released Raven and Justin Credible from their contracts. WWE wishes both men good luck in their future endeavors."
I am against this, as you may have sensed but I first want to talk about
Justin. Justin came to the WWF/E as an allie of X-Pac's.
I thought this role was quite good for him but X-Factor seemed tarnished
as soon as Albert was added to the mix. After this Credible hasn't been given
a chance and once half of a great Tag Team named the Impact Players, now faces the Wrestling Scrapheap. I find it sad when people like Justin find themselves behind Mark Henry, Bill DeMott and Albert with no place else to turn since the closure of both WCW and ECW. Other Federations have arisen yes, but I can not see them getting close to what WCW or ECW had never mind WWF/E.
On to Raven, Raven came as a shock to everyone, over the past four months, WWE have been building up his character on HeAT in a quest to bring him back to RAW. They change his Attire (Clothing) once again and give him a losing debut. I mean the match didn't really have the pulling power to gain
max viewers, Raven's appearance wasn't even explained. How's he supposed
to make an impact on a debut like this. The following quote was taken from
RajahWWF.com stating...
Raven proposed a new storyline concept for himself to WWE writers
before last week's Raw. It is said that the company was going to go forward with it which supports why Raven wrestled on TV and with a completely
new look. However, two days later on Wednesday, he was abruptly fired and not much is known about why.
Raven was about to be given a storyline. Let me ask what storyline starts
with a loss. I thought about this and felt in anger of the loss Raven could call
on those he has relied on in the past. Just think of the TV what could have been made, Raven meeting Stevie and Victoria in the back, with the camera been able to pick up some words on ECW past times. Other segments of Raven
talking to Dreamer, Justin and Kanyon leaving viewers wanting to know
whats happening. I mean we've had to deal with Torrie, and Dawn fued.
If they think, or should I say thought, this would suck, then it couldn't
have sucked any more than Torrie/Dawn.
Raven will find employment, XPW, or NWA, he's too talented to go on the
scrapheap, Credible too, WWE's intentions have always been to destroy the
great name of E-C-Dubya
22nd January 2003 - NWA-TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) Show
In a matter of days Raven was snapped up by the NWA, appearing on
one of the shows, already expected by some of those in attendance.
Yeah didn't take long for someone to recognize Raven's talent, not only for
his experiance in the ring, but his top notch mic skills aswell.
Loads of people, well from what I have seen, had 'Lodi Style' Signs for
Raven, one read 'McMahon Fears Raven' in a cheap pop at the WWE.
Anyway, the appearance, Russo had previously come out to the ring at the start of the show declaring that a new talent had been signed as part of his budding faction 'Sports Entertainment Extreme' which noticable has been shortened
using the letters S.E.X. Not sure what this is implying.
Later on whilst Double J, Jeff Jarrett, was been interviewed in the ring, by Mike Tenay, a man dressed in leather made his way into the ring from ringside.
It was Raven. Raven attacked Jarrett and hit the EvenFlow, making a big
impact on his debut. The Master-Piece Storyline seems to have been too much
for the WWE to handle, Raven claiming the WWE was beyond his salvation.
There was all these TNA Asylum Guys in the ring watching in shock, as Raven stole the NWA Heavyweight Title, and made a quick escape out of the ring.
Russo was there too claiming Raven was indeed the newest member of
Sports Entertainment Extreme and Russo had appointed Raven his hitman
against tradition as the show went off the air.
After this Sports Entertainment Extreme retreated to the backstage area.
All the faces (Good Guys) paraded the ring (Ron 'The Truth' Killings, Jerry Lynn, Jeff Jarrett, and Rhodes.)
They were all calling Raven out, but Raven wouldn't come. Russo came down, still no Raven, then Low Ki and then Christopher Daniels amongst other members of Sports Entertainment Extreme.
Jarrett was furious and wanted his title back. Russo ordered his Guys to the back so they could celebrate with Raven and the show ended.
All sounds pretty good to me, I'm looking to see what'll happen next. Its a
damn shame their no NWA-TNA for UK Viewers but Raven is getting an
oppertunity, unlike he got in the WWE. He may have been Hardcore
Champion a load of times, I can remember good matches with Rhyno, which involved a SuperMarket Trolley aswell. The WrestleMania (I Think) match
against the Big Show and Kane was pretty decent as well. Raven never got
his oppertunity though, and while the WWE has Bill DeMott, and Rikishi,
NWA has a prized new asset in Raven.
26th January 2003 - Hot Talk 1280 Show (US Radio)
This was an interview taken with NWA-TNA's own Vince Russo. In this
Russo slated WWE Script Writers in a question of why they could not
find a way to put Raven over, heres the quotation from Russo...
"I mean you know again ... were open to anything, anyone and anybody and
it just boggles my mind."I mean, I mean given the opportunity, I mean I knew Raven when he was Johnny Polo and Scotty Flamingo and all that But it just boggles my mind how the "creative geniuses" cannot find something for a
guy like Raven to do and cannot figure out a way to get a Raven over. I mean thats what I mean about the politics in this business you know the guy never got a fair shake because of whatever political b.s. was going on behind the scenes because this is a guy that is one of the 5 smartest guys in the
wrestling business that I have ever met and the fact that they didnt know
what to do with him is a disgrace to the writing team as far as I'm concerned and I'm thrilled that he's with us and he will be a main character. I mean,
I can think of things for Raven to do from now to Kingdom Come."
So Raven is been recognized by his new boss, and it seems to me that Russo
can't take his foot of the gas when it comes to mocking the WWE.
Isnt he right though, your damn right!!
29th January 2003 - NWA-TNA Show
Raven is at the center of a storyline finally, and as you will know last week stole the NWA Heavyweight Belt from Double J Jeff Jarrett.
Raven is shown standing in the ring now going back to the red kilt, yet slightly different from his WWE look.
Raven talks of possession been nine tenths of law and claiming why it was right for him to take the belt last week, showing Jarrett his errors in his own ways.
"What I have planned for you, Jeff, is something you will never ever forget. Welcome to Raven's clockwork orange house of fun. Quoth the Raven, Nevermore."
Jarrett then made his way down to the ring with a Trash Can, a basically gave Raven a beating using Chairs, Trash Cans and the Title Belt. Jarrett took the NWA Title from Raven's waist and positioned Raven layed on a Trash Can ready for a big move from the Top Rope. Jarrett stuttered and Russo came down in time to grab Jarrett down. Raven could then fight back and regained the NWA Belt. No Stop Stuff, I know, thats why its called Total Non-Stop Action
Once all thats sorted, AJ Styles appears demanding a Title Shot from Jarrett.
Raven makes his way to the ring from through the crowd. Raven says he is
the NWA Heavyweight Champion now and Raven doesn't feel AJ is Champion
material so he won't be getting s shot. In return AJ cracks the is a scringe in your skirt or are you just pleased to see me gag. It's a kilt dammit.
Raven fires back in his usually manner excuses AJ of looking like Elton John's partner dressed like N-Sync. Styles rebounds with a cheap S.E.X. Heroin gag.
The two get set to square it off, referees come down followed by Jarrett who knocks Raven out over the ring before whacking AJ Styles with the NWA Belt and re-claiming it
Raven and Russo then decide they want the title back and they want it back tonight. Fairly? Who knows at this point. Both men gave ach other a beating which ended with Jarrett giving Raven a taste of the belt literally.
Jarrett then challenged Russo to come and take his title but AJ Styles makes his way out and jumps Double J from behind. Grabs the belt and buggers off.
So this week the NWA Heavyweight Title belongs to... AJ Styles, whats going on, is certainly make good of Raven's character though I guess. We'll See.
HOME BACK TO NEWS