Andrew Lutzke
Taped in 2008
Hosted by Sean Oliver
Presented by Kayfabe Commentaries
Sean Oliver opens the DVD by explaining the “fantasy booking” gimmick for this edition of guest booker. Raven is being tasked with the idea that he is the ECW booker in June of 1996, and Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are jumping to ECW instead of WCW.
Raven created the “Dudley Brothers” gimmick.
Paul Heyman was using the tease of ECW holding a PPV to keep his roster happy and focused on future big money payoffs.
Most of the roster was inexperienced and had Hall and Nash showed up, they would have marked out for the big stars joining them.
Raven, Shane Douglas and Terry Funk had worked in the WWF and WCW and knew the ins and outs of the bigger wrestling circuits.
Top guys in wrestling used to have say in their own angles. They knew their gimmicks and could create and adapt to make feuds work. The modern product, with writers putting words in everyone’s mouths, gives no one has a chance to be a breakout star.
Raven would have had Hall and Nash sit down with Shane Douglas in the back and try and work out their past issues. If it took violence to straighten matters out, so be it.
The booking:
Hall comes in first. Hall cuts a promo putting over ECW and does some shootish comments on Lex Luger’s Lex Express sidetracking his own path to the top.
Raven and his Flock interrupt and confront Hall. Hall gets the best of Raven’s lackeys, but Raven would back off.
Shane Douglas then gets to cut a promo on the Kliq and how they sunk his WWF career.
Several weeks go by, with just promos adding to the clips from Hall’s debut.
Hall makes sure the fans knew he was after Raven’s title.
Raven cuts a promo listing all of Hall’s failed gimmicks. Hall ends up getting jumped by Brian Lee, the Blue Meanie, Stevie Richards and Raven at the next ECW arena show. Hall is left in a pool of blood.
An angered Hall then warns Raven that he’s got friends on his side too.
Raven’s lackeys do some comedic promos, with Raven scolding them for not being serious.
A handheld camera video airs that shows Raven at a sleazy bar. Hall is revealed to be behind the camera. He hands it to his “friend” and Hall attacks Raven. Raven sees the cameraman is Nash, but the fans do not see him yet.
When the next ECW arena show arrives, Raven and Brian Lee are in the ring, but Hall’s partner never shows up. Raven reveals his Flock have beaten down his partner in the back. Then “Dr. Death” Steve Williams charges down and helps Raven and company beat down Hall.
Raven cuts shootish promos on how Hall’s “mystery” friend used to be Raven’s friend in WCW. Raven turns the tables and makes himself the grieved party.
Hall and Nash finally get their chance for revenge in August as Dr. Death and Brian Lee face off with them. Raven’s goons all get their asses beat but Raven escapes after a few blows. A defiant Raven reminds Hall and Nash that he is still champ.
On a later TV show, Nash is on commentary while Raven’s team beats up some other schlubs. Sean Waltman makes a run in for the save.
September sees Raven and Scott Hall meeting one on one for the titles. Nash battles Dr. Death on the same card. Raven then changes his mind and makes it Nash/Waltman against Brian Lee and Dr. Death
Tommy Dreamer returns from his summer long injury angle that is attributed to Lee.
Lee gets hurt by Nash and is taken off TV.
Hall prepares to finish Raven with a Razor’s Edge in the main event, then the Flock runs in – Waltman runs in and clears the ring, then turns on Hall to set up Raven winning.
October sees Raven facing Hall in a rematch and Nash challenging Waltman.
Hall and Nash attack the Flock several times leading up to the matches.
Waltman ends up falling short against Nash. Raven spends most of the main event running from Hall. Tommy Dreamer, Waltman and others interfere and ultimately Raven steals the win.
November sees Scott Hall facing Raven in a lumberjack strap match, Nash against Dr. Death and Dreamer facing Waltman.
Raven gets confused at this point and they spend several minutes looking back at the booking sheets and trying to remember what happened so far.
Hall spends more time beating up Raven’s goons. Raven loved his goofy sidekicks and they made for great cannon fodder.
Nash injuries Dr. Death to take him out of the picture. Raven screws Hall out of yet another win.
December sees Raven facing Hall in a cage match. Any interference will lead to Raven losing the belt. Dreamer will rematch Waltman and Terry Gordy will seek revenge on behalf of Dr. Death as he challenges Nash.
Waltman tries to seduce Beulah.
The Flock and Hall and Nash have a pull apart brawl on TV to push the angles.
Hall beats Raven for the belt and Nash smashes Gordy. Beulah ends up getting blinded “accidentally” by Waltman.
Terry Funk cuts a promo about the Hall/Raven angle.
Sandman attacks Nash and Dreamer. Funk attacks Hall.
January sees Hall/Nash/Dreamer vs. Funk/Sandman/Waltman.
Funk continues to talk about his long career and the World title.
Raven is hungry and flies through the rest of the booking so he can eat.
February has Hall/Dreamer vs Funk/Waltman and Nash against Sandman. Sandman injuries Nash before the match.
Hall wants to prove that he should have been a World champ for years and his career not taking off sooner was a fluke. Funk wants the title to mark the anniversary of his NWA title win.
Dreamer continues to try and kill Waltman for blinding his valet.
Nash will return and he’ll go after Sandman.
Funk loses to Hall at the PPV in April.
They show Raven eating over the credits. I think they were going for humor, but I can also see it as them being annoyed by Raven worrying about eating instead of the shoot they were paying him for, so they aired this to mock him a bit.
Final thoughts: Raven did not plan this out beforehand, so a lot of this is him going “ummmmm…let me think” which got old after a while. He then talked in circles and made the booking and re-booking all kind of a mess to explain.
Unlike previous editions of this series, we did not get an extensive breakdown of Raven’s booking philosophies, which is more often than not the most interesting part of these DVDs. This overall was pretty much a waste of time.
For a much better shoot with Raven, check out this one:
