Raven On How He Came Up With His Character Name, Whether WWE Underutilized Him & More

Hardcore legend Raven recently appeared on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, where he opened up about his WWE-related aspirations, his stint with the company, how he came up with his character name, and more.

Raven established himself as a major force in Extreme Championship Wrestling during the mid-1990s. He held the ECW World Heavyweight Championship twice and the World Tag Team Title four times. He also had a fairly decent stint with World Championship Wrestling. Raven, who had a one-year stint with the then-WWF in 1993/94, returned to the company in September 2000. He was eventually released in January 2003.

Below are the highlights:

On how he came up with the character name Raven

“I was watching The Crow for inspiration, and the character’s name was Eric Draven. I go, ‘Draven. Raven. Quote The Raven. Nevermore.’ All right, I got a name and a catchphrase. Boom, now I need an outfit. I put the outfit together in like two minutes, because it wasn’t hard to figure out. Then I came up with the idea of a concert t-shirt, because I’m a big believer in ring jackets. You gotta have a bunch of ring jackets, because to be a star, you gotta look like a star. But Raven’s character wouldn’t care about looking like a star. I had to get an anti-star look that still was a star, made me look like a star. So I figured with the concert shirts, I’d have a different shirt every day. So every match I could have a variety without having to change my jacket. Plus, I had no chest.

“I always wanted to be a bodybuilder, but I never had the genetics for it. So I had a thick waist, no abs, flat chest, but I had big arms and shoulders at the time, until injuries took their toll, but that’s a long story. So I figured I would wear a concert t-shirt with sleeves cut off and show off the arms. You want to accentuate your strengths and hide your weaknesses. And I hid my weaknesses. And another weird thing about that is I had really good legs, like really good thighs, but I had such a thick waist that it took away from it, but my thighs were really good. But for the look I needed to cover them, because if I would have wore short shorts, I would have looked like Steve Richards. So sometimes you have to pick one or the other, you know what I mean. But it’s such a unique thing, trying to get the most out of everything you can with the least amount of effort.”

Raven on whether a WWE return was on his mind during his stint with ECW

“I was really happy at ECW, but yes, I wanted to go back to WWE. I wanted to be the top guy in the top promotion. I got to be the top guy in the number three promotion. And for a long time, I felt like my career was a failure because of that. I think I talked about it in the movie, in the documentary, but it took a lot of time on a therapist’s couch to let myself off the hook. Because you hold yourself to such a high standard that I can’t see the forest for the trees. If anybody would have came up to me and told me what my career was, and it was theirs. I said, Man, you got a really successful career. But I couldn’t count it as with that for me, because I didn’t get to be a World Champion of the WWE.”

On whether he feels he was underutilized in WWE

“They should have pushed me. They didn’t really push me at all. I should have been used, at least as a strong mid-carder, if not a main eventer. But that’s me. I mean, I could be biased, and I’m sure I am, but looking at it objectively, I think I could have drawn money for them.”

Raven is best known for his run in ECW, having memorable programs with the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, Blue Meanie, Shane Douglas, Kurt Angle, and others in Philadelphia. He has a notable win over Chris Jericho in ECW. He is also a former WWE Hardcore Champion. He had a brief run in WCW where he formed The Flock and also won the WCW Tag Team Titles with Perry Saturn as well as defeating Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW United States title. He also has had runs in TNA.

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