F-BaC: Freebird!


by Freakboy

Freakboy's Big @$$ Wrestling Column - 05/30/00

'Seven years on wax and I still ain't sold out.'-Kid Rock

'Two years on Scoops, sold out and loving it!'-FReaKBoY

Welcome to the special 2nd Anniversary edition of FReaKBoY'S BiG @$$ CoLuMN.

I am he who writes the columns that make the whole world sing, and come to think of it there's nothing special about this column after all. It's just been two years since a young John E. Funk first started his journey here at Scoops. Then John E. Funk begat Freakboy, who begat FReaKBoY, who begat the BiG @$$ CoLuMN. Yeah me!

This week, instead of giving me all the love, share some with the true unsung hero of Scoops, our Editorial Assistant Phil. It's because of Phil that you get all of those clips from the shows that you love so much, and it was because of him being a dunderhead and leaving his office keys at home that I got a day off on Friday. So please take a few minutes to e-mail him at phil@ign.com and say how much you appreciate all the hard work he does. Lie if you have to.

Anyway, here's the column, thanks for reading, enjoy!

iF He LeaVeS HeRe ToMoRRoW

Picture it. Las Vegas, August of 1999. Eric Bischoff holds a meeting backstage before Nitro starts (FLASHBACK: F-BaC #84) and tells the roster that anyone who wants to leave can BUT, they can't go to the WWF until the duration of their existing WCW contract is up. Raven (who was with WCW at the time) stood up, walked out, and within weeks was at an ECW show winning their Tag Team titles with Tommy Dreamer.

Here's the catch. Raven made it perfectly clear to anyone who would listen that we was only planning to stay in ECW until the following June, when his WCW contract was up and he could jump to the WWF.

June 1st is in a day or so and he was given his release from ECW last week. The question is, now what?

I think we can pretty much rule out staying with ECW. Even though his profile is still up on the ECW Website, at the Brian Pillman Memorial he was turning down interview requests because he'd 'only shoot* on Paul Heyman**.' So that leaves us with the WWF and WCW, two places he's been to before and two places where he'd fit in nicely now.

World Wrestling Federation


Though Raven was never in the WWF, Scott Levy (the man who plays Raven) was. Take a walk back in time with me to the early to mid Nineties. Grunge was ruling the airwaves. A young Jaleel White made us laugh. In the WWF, right around the birth of Monday Night Raw, there was a manager called Johnny Polo. Replace the hockey jersey and polo shorts with a leather jacket and a few Sandman (Neil Gaiman's opus, not the Hardcore Icon) t-shirts and you have Raven.

Scott Levy, besides managing the tag team champion Quebecers, was also an associate producer of RAW when it first started. Jim Ross, the guy who hires new talent, has had nice things to say about Levy in his Ross Report ever since he returned to ECW. All WWF bias aside, they do seem like the most logical place for Raven to jump to.

But what does the WWF do with him? I think, even though the WWF tends to not use wrestlers the same way they were used by their previous employers, a good idea would be to hook him back up with Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie***. Both Richards and Meanie are highly entertaining wrestlers who have unfortunately fallen into limbo as of late. Putting them back together with Raven, who would undoubtedly get an immediate push upon making his debut, would be a great way to both introduce him and re-introduce them to the WWF audience.

Another wrestler they can involve him with could be another former ECW wrestler who hasn't made that big of an impact yet, Tazz. Without even mentioning the initials E, C, and W, they can create a storyline where Raven comes out and attacks Tazz each week. He can say that he's knows where Tazz has been and that he's 'lost his edge, ' or something to that extent.

World Championship Wrestling


WCW is a little more of a long shot, only because of it being the company he left in June because he 'wasn't given a chance. ' Eric Bischoff was the main catalyst in that, and he's still in charge, but so is Vince Russo who is an admitted fan of Raven's. WCW also has something to offer Raven that the WWF doesn't. They have room on their roster. The WWF roster is the tightest it's ever been, and anyone trying to break into it now is going to have a tough time doing so. On the other hand the WCW roster has plenty of room and because they're still in a 'throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' state of mind, anyone debuting has an equal chance of getting a push. It's feasible that Raven can look past any problems he had with Bischoff for that reason alone.

The one thing that may be holding him back from either fed is because he spent the last ten months doing absolutely nothing. He's been criticized by many for letting himself get out of shape and for not giving ECW is full attention because he felt he had a free ride to the WWF. If the two feds can look past that, Raven is also known for having one of the most creative minds in wrestling. If he can get himself back to the Raven of a few years ago, he should be a hot commodity for anyone who's lucky enough to sign him.

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