Raven is one of the most sought after professional wrestlers in the country today. He's made an impact in almost every promotion he's worked for in his career. He stands 6' and weighs in at 225 lbs. From The Bowery, Raven recently celebrated his 16th year as a wrestler, and looks to extend his stay in the ring.

The man born Scott Levy, Raven has had several different aliases in his career. He made his professional debut on February 20, 1988 for Pacific Northwest (PNW) as Scotty the Body. Upon his debut, he quickly made an impact and was a force to be reckoned with. His first title came on July 8, 1989 when he teamed with Top Gun to win the PNW Tag Team Titles in Portland, OR. Raven is not one to play well with others, he quickly turned on Top Gun and the titles were vacated. The vacancy didn't last long as Scotty teamed with PNW mainstay The Grappler to win the titles on August 8, 1989.

Scotty wanted to add more titles to his resume, so on September 2, 1989, he defeated Jonathan Boyd, Rex King (Timothy Well from Well Dunn in WWE) and Carl Styles in a one-night tournament to win the PNW Title. After losing it to Rex King, Scotty regained it from King on October 14, 1989. He would go on to win his third and final PNW Title on June 2, 1990 defeating his former tag team title partner The Grappler. Scotty was the last mane to hold the PNW TV title when he defeated Ricky Santana on March 17, 1989. Before he left for another territory, Scotty won the PNW Tag Titles a third time on December 3, 1990, teaming with Steve Doll (Steven Dunn of Well Dunn in WWE).

Soon after his final reign as the PNW Tag Team champion, Scotty left Portland and ventured to the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) in Dallas, TX. The moniker Scotty the Body was left in Portland, and now Raven was christened as "The Palm Beach Heartthrob" Scott Anthony. Scott Anthony's time in the GWF was a lackluster one. He was engaged in a feud with The Handsome Stranger, who would go on to become Buff Bagwell. Their angle was based on who was more over with the ladies. Scott Anthony did do some entertaining work as color commentator for the shows that aired on ESPN.

Raven finally got the chance to move up into the big time. World Championship Wrestling (WCW) offered Raven a contract in 1992 to compete in their new light heavyweight division, which only had "Flyin'" Brian Pillman as its star of the division. New company meant another change in identity, as Raven became Scotty Flamingo. He was a bit more flamboyant in WCW than he was in the GWF. Flamingo made his pay-per-view debut on May 17, 1992 and defeated his old nemesis from the GWF, Marcus Alexander Bagwell, at Wrestle War. At the following pay-per-view entitled Beach Blast, Flamingo defeated Pillman for the light heavyweight title on June 20. Flamingo ended up losing the title to Brad Armstrong the next month. After floundering in the mid-card, Flamingo was embroiled in a feud with Johnny B. Badd which was based on who was the prettiest man in WCW.

Flamingo kept his name for a little while longer when he left WCW and ended up in the United Stats Wrestling Association (USWA) for a brief stint. He teamed with "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher and defeated The Moondogs for the USWA Tag Team Titles on March 22, 1993 in Memphis, TN. The Moondogs regained them seven days later, and Flamingo left the company soon after.

Raven got another opportunity at the big time as he was offered a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 1993. However, due to his small stature and Vince McMahon's reluctance to push light heavyweights at the time, Raven found himself as a manager. Oh yeah, he had another name. He was now known as Johnny Polo. His character was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and his parents showered him with money. His first charge was Adam Bomb (One half of Kronik, Bryan Clark). Having no success with Adam Bomb, Polo shocked the early Monday night crowd on September 13, 1993 when he helped The Quebecers upset The Steiner Bros. for the World Tag Team Titles in New York City. As well as being a manager, Polo was also a co-host for Monday Night Raw, alongside Vince McMahon. He was pretty funny as a color commentator and did a good job of filling Bobby "The Brain" Heenan's massive shoes on Monday nights. Vince saw that Polo was smart and asked Polo to help book the television shows. Polo decided in 1994 that he wanted to wrestler rather than work behind the scenes, and parted ways with WWE.

It was now back to the independents for Raven. Looking to rid completely of the Johnny Polo gimmick, Scott Levy reinvented himself as the man he is now known as today, Raven. He was now a grungy anti-socialite. He joined an upstart promotion in January 1995 known as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He debuted as Tommy Dreamer's childhood nemesis. And the two embarked on the most hated feud in the history of not just the company, but also the entire wrestling world. The feud was hot from 1995 up until 1997, and the fire started back up in 1999.

During his first few months in ECW, Raven was also wrestling for the MEWF, which was based in Maryland. On April 23, 1995, Raven won his first title under his newest moniker defeating The Ultimate Comet for the MEWF Title. On June 20, 1995, Raven got his first taste of ECW gold as he teamed with his flunky Stevie Richards to defeat The Public Enemy in Philadelphia. They were involved in a bloody feud with The Pit Bulls and ended up losing the titles to them a short time later. Raven & Richards won their second ECW Tag Team Titles when they defeated The Pit Bulls on October 7, 1995, but then lost it to The Public Enemy later than night.

One year after making his ECW debut, Raven defeated The Sandman for the ECW Title on January 27, 1996. During the summer of that year, Raven checked into rehab. Stevie Richards defended the title for Raven in a tag team match, which saw The Sandman regain the strap. Raven eventually returned and won back the belt he never lost on December 7, 1996 as he defeated The Sandman in Philadelphia in a barbed wire match.

Raven was the ECW champion when ECW had is first pay-per-view called Barely Legal in March of 1997. Raven faced Terry Funk in the main event and lost the title to the veteran. It was learned soon after that Raven was in negotiations for a return to WCW. After finalizing a contract, Raven finished off his dates in ECW and faced Tommy Dreamer at WrestlePalooza on June 7, 1997. Dreamer had never beaten Raven during their storied feud, but got the better of him that night, and sent Raven packing to ECW.

Some would say ECW never really recovered after Raven left ECW. Maybe it was just coincidence. ECW's loss was now WCW's gain. Raven debuted on the June 30, 1997 edition of Monday Nitro. He sat at ringside and claimed not to be under contract to WCW. After several months of sitting at ringside, Raven made his in-ring return to WCW on August 21, 1997 when he defeated his former lackey Stevie Richards on Nitro. That match was held under "Raven's Rules" since he was not yet "under contract" to WCW. He "officially" signed with WCW on the November 24, 1997 Nitro as JJ Dillon gave him an ultimatum.

On April 19, 1998, Raven defeated Diamond Dallas Page at Spring Stampede for the WCW US Title. The night, he dropped it to Goldberg. For the rest of the year, Raven was in feuds with Perry Saturn over his faction known as The Flock. On May 9, 1999, Raven and Saturn reunited and defeated Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman for the WCW Tag Team Titles. Raven continued to toil around in the middle of the card again. Before he left WCW, he formed a faction with Vampiro and The Insane Clown Posses known as The Dead Pool. After months of frustration, Raven took Eric Bischoff up on a release from his contract at a meeting held before Nitro on August 23, 1999.

Raven returned to the company that made him three nights later, agreeing to a one year deal, in Queens, NY and won the ECW Tag Team Titles with long time enemy Tommy Dreamer from The Dudleys, who were headed to WWE. Raven's second stint saw him feud with Dreamer as they teamed and was also in a feud with Justin Credible and Lance Storm. Raven teamed with ECW champion Mike Awesome to defeat Tommy Dreamer & Masato Tanaka for the ECW Tag Team Titles on March 4, 2000. Raven's return to ECW wasn't as successful as it should have been. Raven had been vocal wanting Paul Heyman to release him from his ECW deal so he could go back to WWE, but Heyman refused. He wanted Raven to stick to his word.

When Raven's time in ECW was up, he returned to WWE, this time as a wrestler. In August 2000 at Unforgiven in Philadelphia, Raven returned to help Tazz defeat Jerry "The King" Lawler and forged a partnership with Tazz. Raven made his WrestleMania debut at X7 in Houston, TX in 2001. He lost the WWE Hardcore Title to Kane in a Triple Threat Match, which also involved The Big Show, who did the job. When ECW reformed on WWE TV, Raven jumped back to the extreme. At Invasion, Raven represented ECW and defeated then-WWE commissioner William Regal.

Raven went on to win the WWE Hardcore Title about 26 times total. That's what he did mostly after the Alliance invasion was over. He wrestled briefly in WWE's then developmental territory Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) in 2002. He teamed with Hugh Morrus to defeat Lance (Garrison) Cade and Steve Bradley for the HWA Tag Team Titles.

After the brand extension in April 2002, Raven was part of the Raw brand, and began as a color commentator for Sunday Night Heat. Raven was back calling matches. After being vocal about wanting to wrestle more, Raven lost a match to long time nemesis Tommy Dreamer on Raw, which saw Raven get taken off Monday nights, and wrestled exclusively on Sunday nights, which didn't have much of an audience. Heat became more or less the Raven show. It was centered around him. But with low ratings, it didn't get him much exposure.

Raven was finally brought back to Monday nights sometime between December 2002 and January 2003. His final match on Raw saw him job to Jeff Hardy for a spot in the Royal Rumble match. Several days after the match, Raven was released from WWE.

Raven had been lost in the WWE shuffle for a long time. Now he could wrestle on the independent circuit again. One week after his WWE release, Raven made his National Wrestling Alliance: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) debut stealing the NWA Title. Raven had been demanding a NWA Title match for months and finally defeated AJ Styles in a Ladder Match on March 19, 2003 to become the #1 Contender to the NWA Title.

Raven wrestled more on the indy scene. He made his debut for such companies as USA Pro, 3PW and Ring of Honor (RoH). Raven added more gold to his long resume as he defeated Balls Mahoney for the USA Pro Title on May 31, 2003 in Franklin Square, NY. Raven would go on to have successful title defenses against such marquee names as Al Snow, The Sandman, D'Lo Brown, and Low Ki. He finally lost the title to "The Franchise" Shane Douglas on February 14, 2004 in Bethpage, NY.

On November 22, 2003, Raven was named commissioner of 3PW and put himself in a match against Sabu later that night for the vacant 3PW Title. Raven defeated the hardcore legend to add yet another title to his resume.

Raven continues to be a major force in the industry, competing in events throughout the country. His quality of work gets better with every match. He is in the best shape he's been in some time and it shows in the work he puts in the ring. As of this writing, Raven continues to chase Jeff Jarrett for the NWA Title, which is another title Raven would love to add to his list of championships.

John Gjoni
johnftw7533@aol.com

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