Raven Discusses Why He Had Heat With Vince McMahon
Long before Raven became "Raven" with the jean shorts, flannel and leather jacket, he was known as Johnny Polo in WWF. The character was a spoiled, preppy kid and Raven mostly managed during this time, appearing in only a handful of matches.
Going from Johnny Polo in WWF to Raven in ECW was a complete 180 and Raven talked about his early gimmick when he joined Scheduled for Two Falls.
"It's not what I wanted to do; it's not me. Shane McMahon should have been Johnny Polo," Raven said before being asked if his friendship with Shane at that time made Vince McMahon uncomfortable.
"Yeah that's true. Me and Shane used to be really tight but we drifted apart. He'd go out with me every night. Big heat with Linda and Vince. The boys thought I was kissing ass for my career but it actually killed my career, giving me heat."
In the early 90s Raven worked for WCW under the name of Scotty Flamingo. There he won the Light Heavyweight Championship where he defeated Brian Pillman and the two had a friendship outside the ring as well. Raven talked about traveling with Pillman and how he'd prepare for his infamous promos.
"He was so funny. Him, me and [Steve] Austin used to ride together and we called ourselves the comedy trio," revealed Raven. "Pillman had the most amazing working vocabulary. He could pull words out of his ass. I knew what the word meant but couldn't use them in daily life.
"I'd be in front, Austin driving and Pillman lying in the back seat reading his vocabulary book. His level of diction was amazing and just added to his promos. He was so verbose, witty and clever."
Raven has been very open about his drug addiction during his career in which he says he tried to emulate his character too much as life imitated art. Many years have passed since Raven's drug troubles but he revealed the after effects that he still lives with today.
"I still have constipation because of all the opiates I did," admitted Raven. "My system is still messed up. Constipation sucks. If I go four times a week it's a great week."