Raven had an underrated career with noteworthy stints in ECW, WCW, WWE, TNA and multiple independent promotions. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Raven’s gimmick fitting into the time after his failed stints as Johnny Polo and Scotty Flamingo. Raven always had a great mind for the business and tapped into his creative side with the new character.
Most of Raven’s time came as a heel since each promotion felt it was ideal to book him as a bad guy. Raven’s actions showed him getting heat for often going too far to harm his opponents. The heel work is quite underrated when looking back at his career. Raven showed how evil he could be with the worst things he did as a character.
10 Crucifying The Sandman
The controversy associated with Raven attempting to crucify The Sandman in ECW showed how wild of a segment it was. Raven placed Sandman on a makeshift cross after a brutal attack and placed a set of barbed wire around his head.
Most topics about this segment today look at Kurt Angle attending and leaving in anger when ECW invited him to the show. Raven did get a lot of heel heat for this to the point where Paul Heyman sent him to the ring out of character to apologize.
9 Bullying Stevie Richards
Stevie Richards found most of his success in wrestling by getting paired with Raven in ECW. The storyline featured Raven showing no respect or appreciation for Richards, even though they were teammates in many tag matches. Raven’s Nest became a successful faction mainly due to Richards stepping up in the role. WCW even signed Richards with Raven to continue the act of Raven bullying him. This was a rare scenario where Richards never got his revenge in either promotion.
8 Injuring Scotty Riggs' Eye
WCW allowed Raven to once again lead his own faction playing into the ECW character. The Flock was the new name used for Raven’s group with names like Perry Saturn, Billy Kidman and Van Hammer all joining under his leadership. Scotty Riggs may have had the most compelling story of someone turning Raven’s invite. The follow-up to this saw Raven injuring Riggs’ eye in a match. Riggs wore an eye patch afterward and agreed to join after feeling Raven’s wrath.
7 Attacking Luna Vachon
One forgotten noteworthy name to spend time in ECW was Luna Vachon. The time in between Vachon’s WWE stints allowed her to join ECW and take part in bigger storylines for the smaller promotion. Luna became linked to Tommy Dreamer on-screen during his feud with Raven. ECW was the first major promotion to have segments of male wrestlers striking female wrestlers. Raven attacking Vachon to get in Dreamer’s head was among the first instances of this. The heel action showed that Raven would stop at nothing to get his way.
6 Lying About His Rich Family
WCW continued the Raven character from ECW with his unique character having a cult-leader vibe and groups following his lead. Raven claimed to come from a tough upbringing and sold that a horrible childhood made him this way. One change from ECW to WCW was the latter not fully buying into his gimmick. WCW gave it a lot of time, but Eric Bischoff has since admitted he didn’t think the character would work. The change came when Raven was revealed to have a rich, loving family, getting exposed as a huge liar.
5 Forcing CM Punk To Drink Beer In ROH
Raven had his final great feud in wrestling during his short stint in Ring of Honor. CM Punk was becoming the hottest name on the indie wrestling scene when facing off with the former WWE/WCW/ECW star.
The rivalry between the two grew personal enough for heated segments and violent matches. Punk’s straight edge lifestyle was insulted by Raven when he and Tommy Dreamer shockingly worked together for an attack. Raven and Dreamer trapped Punk to a cage and forced him to drink beer against his will.
4 Destroying Moppy To Hurt Saturn
The WWE stint of Raven in the early 2000s saw him in the mid-card picture the entire time. Vince McMahon didn’t believe in Raven as a star and rarely gave him storylines. One of the few angles for Raven at this time ended up being a negative for all involved. Terri Runnels became the new manager of Raven after dumping Perry Saturn. The bigger story was Saturn losing his mind and falling in love with a mop named Moppy. WWE had Raven put Moppy in a wood chipper to crush Saturn’s soul in a silly but evil act.
3 Helped Jerry Lawler During His Invasion
The rivalry between Raven and Tommy Dreamer paid off perfectly in ECW. Raven won every single televised singles match between the two and had never been pinned by Dreamer after a few years of intense action. ECW finally had Dreamer beat Raven in the latter’s final match before leaving for WCW in a great storytelling moment. However, it was followed up by the shocking invasion of Jerry Lawler. Raven willingly let Lawler and his cronies attack Dreamer while walking out to boos, despite the entire locker room trying to fight the invader.
2 Attacking DDP On MTV
Wrestlers appearing on talk shows used to be a huge deal in the ‘90s for WWE and WCW. The lack of the internet and social media meant fans would go out of their way to watch wrestlers on noteworthy shows. MTV’s top program TRL had Diamond Dallas Page appearing on the same episode as the Foo Fighters. Raven appeared on a television screen interrupting the interview before surprisingly entering the studio. Page was attacked as Raven delivered the DDT on him through a table as the Foo Fighters and Carson Daly looked on while Raven humiliated his greatest WCW rivalry on MTV.
1 Brainwashing Sandman's Wife & Child
No other evil heel act for Raven tops his mind games with The Sandman, taking a feud to new levels. Raven’s cult leader mindset was at its peak when he influenced Sandman’s wife and son to start following his vision. The young son of Sandman dressing like Raven and showing no love to his dad was heartbreaking enough to touch the cold hearts of ECW fans. Raven continued to escalate things by controlling Sandman’s family as a method to break him mentally.