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RAVEN INTERVIEW
By Mike Samuda
Wrestleline/WrestleManiacs
Raven has not signed his ECW contract, but he says we shouldn't read more into that:
MIKE: Have you signed your contract with ECW yet?
RAVEN: No, the lawyers are still hammering out the paperwork.
MIKE: And that's the only reason for the holdup?
RAVEN: Yeah.
MIKE: What do you think of the new regime in WCW that's about to take over the booking?
RAVEN: I think it's definitely a good thing for WCW, and it's a tremendous thing for the business. I think competition is tremendous. I think the fact that WCW, which has been extremely uncompetitive, will now be competitive once again, because Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara are quite accomplished at what they did, and I think it's going to up the ante, which will make Vince up the ante, which will make ECW up the ante, and I think it's going to be good for the business overall.
MIKE: How do you think this will affect the WWF?
RAVEN: I'm not sure. I really don't know how much. From what I gather they had quite a bit of say, but I used to work in Vince's office. I used to be an associate producer for Monday Night Raw when there was no Nitro, and Vince is a brilliant man. Vince thrives on adversity. So, maybe this is something Vince needs. Maybe this will get Vince even more motivated.
MIKE: There were rumors going around, and I don't know how true they are, that Paul E. was offered the job as WWF head scriptwriter?
RAVEN: I've heard rumors that I've been offered the job as a scriptwriter. Until any of these actually occur in life, I have to take it as purely speculation and rumor, and you know how notorious the internet is for rumor mongering.
MIKE: So you'll definitely be signing with ECW soon, and you will be with them for at least a year?
RAVEN: Yeah. I made a commitment. I'm not going to back out of it. I know there are a lot of rumors that Raven hasn't signed, and that Raven is considering going back to WCW now that Vince and Ed are there, but I made a commitment. I'm a man of my word, and I believe in Paul E. I believe in the product. I believe in the guys. The crew is a great crew; it's a phenomenal crew. I think there are some crews that have worked harder ... like the WWF guys have a schedule that's just unbelievable ... it's horrible, and I've been on that schedule - it's brutal, but I don't think anyone gives more per show than our guys do. I mean with these guys it's just a hunger, because they haven't been anywhere, and they want to make it, you know what I mean?
MIKE: Yeah.
RAVEN: And because they believe in Paul E. It's like Patton. You have to have a leader that you believe in, and if you don't believe in him, you can't give him everything you have. I think that's part of the reason everybody believes in Paul E. and his mental acumen. The only thing holding us down ... they're all over us that our ratings are crap right?
MIKE: Right.
RAVEN: The simple fact of the matter is the internet is really a very small community. It's probably about 900,000 people or whatever a 0.9 rating is. Nobody else knows we're on. Nobody watches TNN, so if they only advertise on TNN, still nobody else knows we're on. So until we get cross-network advertising, our ratings are not going to increase at all. As soon as we get that, I think you'll see the ratings go up dramatically.
MIKE: What do you think about the Tammy Lynn Sytch segment last Friday?
RAVEN: I thought it was interesting. I thought it could have been produced a little better. I liked it. I thought it was revealing, and I like that. I like anything that shows a real and humanistic side of people. I like anything that -- so-called -- breaks the wall of kayfabe.
It was kind of funny doing the chat with Raven while he tried to get a box of athletic tape at Sports Authority. I edited it out because it didn't translate well into print.
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