Raven Discusses Working With CM Punk In TNA, Returning To WWE In 2000 And More

- Former WWE, WCW and ECW star Raven spoke with Inside The Ropes Radio this past Thursday night. Below are some highlights. The full interview can be heard here.

Thoughts on the Johnny Polo gimmick:

"I'd been in the business like 4 years. They made me an Associate Producer of raw. They were grooming me to be on the booking committee. I used to write the second rate shows like All American. He also made me a manager because he thought I was too small, at the time the guys were bigger, all the smaller guys were in the tag team. I didn't like the Johnny Polo moniker. If anything the way I talk didn't fit me. I didn't feel I was the character. I wanted to wrestle. Shane McMahon should've been Johnny Polo, with the silver spoon in his mouth."

Origins of the Raven character:

"I was talking to DDP one day, I was saying I was having trouble getting booked anywhere. Page goes "it's because you're a chicken s–t heel" He said "you should be more of a bad ass" I didn't wanna be a bad ass because everyone wants to be a tough guy. Page had mentioned the Point break movie and said I looked like one of the red hot chilli pepper guys. He said I should do something alternative, so I drew on all the emotional baggage from my childhood and I created the Raven character. It annoys me when Page says he created it, which is ridiculous because I had to create the character, the promos, the concept. I came up with the idea that Dreamer and I went to summer camp and Beulah was the fat chick."

His WWF return in 2000:

"I get hired by JR. He says he can't give me a big downside because I'd just got clean. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon hated me. Michael Hayes told me Vince had said "Who the f–k hired Johnny Polo?" I still had heat for walking away. Who would dare walk away from the 4th floor office?! Then I was in the hardcore thing and got it over."

Thoughts on working with CM Punk back in TNA:

"He had a very inflated sense of self importance at the time. He thought he was so much better than he was. Not that he was bad, he just wasn't as good as he thought he was. I don't watch wrestling anymore, because it's too disappointing but I was doing a personal appearance where they show PPVs and you're watching the show. Wow, watching him, he became phenomenal. The two pay per views I seen, he was the best thing on them. I have nothing but respect for him. It was just back then, he had an inflated sense of self importance."

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