Raven is beloved among ECW fans, and if Paul Heyman's old promotion had a Hall of Fame, he'd surely be in it. The former ECW World Heavyweight Champion found some success in WCW, WWE, and TNA, but never quite replicated his many ECW achievements.
Widely considered one of the best talkers on the microphone, his feud with The Sandman in the mid-90s remains one of the most iconic rivalries in professional wrestling history. When WWE acquired WCW and ECW, Raven was initially part of the "Invasion" angle, but never really managed to move beyond the midcard.
Pretty much everyone Vince McMahon plucked from his former rivals faced similar challenges, and in an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Raven made the argument that he was underutilised in WWE.
"They should have pushed me. They didn’t really push me at all," he said. "I should have been used, at least as a strong mid-carder, if not a main eventer. But that’s me. I mean, I could be biased, and I’m sure I am, but looking at it objectively, I think I could have drawn money for them."
"I was really happy at ECW but yes, I wanted to go back to WWE," Raven admitted. "I wanted to be the top guy in the top promotion. I got to be the top guy in the number three promotion. And for a long time, I felt like my career was a failure because of that. It took a lot of time on a therapist couch to let myself off the hook. Because you hold yourself to such a high standard that I can’t see the forest for the trees."
"If anybody would have came up to me and told me what my career was, and it was theirs. I said, Man, you got a really successful career. But I couldn’t count it as with that for me, because I didn’t get to be a World Champion of the WWE."
Despite never managing to capture the WWE Championship, Raven became one of the most prolific Hardcore Champions in WWE history. Asked how many times he won the belt, he replied, "39, they only give me credit for 27 though. At some point, I go, Yeah, I wonder how many of these I’ve won. And so I counted back and then I counted forward after that, I got 39."
"But they get 27 so, yeah, but then a lot of times it would change hands three or four times in the night," Raven added, referencing how the Hardcore title—very much like the ill-fated 24/7 Championship—could be won anyplace, anytime.
You can hear more from Raven on his legendary career in the player below.