Raven Admits He Felt Like a Failure Because WWE Never Made Him a Top Guy

Raven isn’t holding back about how he really feels about his WWE run—and in his words, the company completely missed the mark on what he brought to the table.

The hardcore wrestling icon, known for his cerebral promos and boundary-pushing matches in ECW, WCW, and TNA, opened up about his WWE career frustrations in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet. Despite having a résumé stacked with success across multiple promotions, Raven said he spent years feeling like a failure—because he was never booked as a top star in WWE.

“I wanted to be the top guy in the top promotion. You know, 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.”

The turning point came through therapy, where he eventually made peace with the gap between what he accomplished and what he thought he should have:

“It took a lot of time on a therapist's couch to let myself off the hook… You hold yourself to such a high standard that you can’t see the forest for the trees. My career was incredibly—if anybody would’ve came up to me and told me my career was theirs, I would’ve said, ‘Man, you’ve got a really successful career.’ But I couldn’t count it that way for me because I didn’t get to be the world champion of the WWE.”

When asked point blank if he felt underutilized by WWE, Raven didn’t hesitate, “Oh, yeah.” And he firmly believes the company left money on the table by not using him to his full potential.

“They should have pushed me. They didn’t really push me at all. I should have been used at least as a strong mid-carder, if not a main eventer… I think I could have drawn money for them.”

Raven added that while he enjoyed working hardcore matches—because of the added creativity—he felt like he was purposely kept out of the spotlight.

“Most of them I didn’t get a chance to work with because they stuck me out of the way on Heat matches mostly or hardcore matches.”

Despite never breaking into the main event scene in WWE, Raven’s influence on wrestling remains undeniable, from his psychological character work to his innovation in hardcore storytelling. But in his mind, the company missed out on something much bigger.

Do you think Raven was held back in WWE, or did he max out where he belonged? Drop your thoughts below—we want to hear what you think about Raven’s run.

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