Various: Raven on Impact Hall of Fame Induction, EC3 on Demise of CYN & Relaunch Plans, Indies

Oct 19, 2022

Raven Comments on His Induction into Impact’s Hall of Fame

A recent episode of The Raven Effect podcast featured host Raven giving his thoughts about his recent induction into Impact Wrestling’s Hall of Fame.

“So the [IMPACT Wrestling] Hall of Fame, there I was, the Hall of Fame. What do you wanna know about it?
They gave me a plaque of sorts. It was one of those CableACE Award plaques.
So I got there Friday night, I run into Jimmy Jacobs. He goes, ‘You know, you got about eight minutes for this thing. Eight, nine minutes, 13 for the whole segment.’ I go, ‘What!? I expected a minute.’ He goes, ‘Nah. You got like eight, nine minutes. If you need less, you can do less.’ ‘All right.’ So I didn’t think about it that night because I didn’t want to be up all night thinking of spots to write in so I waited until I got to the show and double checked, plus I wanted to double check and so I got there and they go, ‘Yeah, you got eight, nine minutes.’ I was like, ‘All right,’ so I just started writing it and I wrote it out in one draft. One draft which a bunch of — well luckily my pen was erasable…
I never had time to memorize it but I feel like I memorized a good deal of it, more than I thought I could… So anyway, I haven’t watched it back yet. I’m terrified of watching it back because I’m like, I love what I wrote but… I’m extremely critical of my work.
That’s the worst DDT [that I did on Tommy Dreamer] but the best ending to a Hall of Fame. But you know what I like about it though? Is I brought up all my issues, and I feel like it was funny without Raven being Scott Levy, you know what I mean? And one of my favorite parts though was aye, I loved Dreamer’s speech. It was amazing. I think it’s one of the best things he’s ever done which I told him and he started laughing going, ‘That’s only because it’s about you.’ I go, ‘No.’ I really thought it was one of the best things he’s ever done, great promo and it was his idea for me to snub him when he walks over to shake my hand and I snubbed him. I didn’t want to at first because I was afraid it would give away the finish, but it didn’t at all.”

Raven also gave his thoughts on how Bully Ray and Impact EVP Scott D’Amore’s words of praise during his induction meant a lot to him.

“You know what was the best part? Besides doing the whole [IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame] speech and winning the Hall of Fame contest? Was the fact that a bunch of people that normally wouldn’t put me over, gave me — you know, like [Scott] D’Amore and Bubba [Ray], they gave me heartfelt — they came over and you know, we always hug and hi and say what’s up. But they said, ‘Thanks for really helping me,’ blah, blah, blah and it really meant a lot, you know? Because those are two guys that I love and they love me but they’re never gonna put me over in public, you know what I mean? I put myself over enough for my whole career, for my lifetime. I put myself over. They didn’t wanna put me over as well. So that was cool.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

EC3 on Demise of His CYN Promotion & Vision for “The Great Rebrand”

WrestleZone held a recent interview with EC3. One of the topics discussed included EC3’s thoughts on the obstacles that his CYN promotion faced that led to its demise.

“Control Your Narrative, my idea and presentation through Free The Narrative and what it was going to become got lost, lost in a disarray of misinformation and unnecessary online banter. My vision was been corrupted, and that is because I allowed my vision to be in the hands of honestly other people at times. I too may have been blinded and corrupted by the fact that, with what we had, that maybe something, we could expedite the process. I never wanted to be a promotion or the three-letter brand, but then all of a sudden, we kind of were positioned as one due to a streaming television deal and a possibility of live tours and things like that. But it all got lost in the concept and the idea.”

EC3 also stated that he is currently working on plans to relaunch his promotion in the future.

“The Great Rebrand is basically, I don’t know, people say the great reset, so I thought it’d be funny to say the Great Rebrand. But at the same time, if my vision initially didn’t work, it’s my vision and my responsibility and my accountability and all eyes on me. So what I did, I don’t feel is gonna work properly. What I’m going to do, with a clear vision and the experience behind it? That is in fact the Great Rebrand. It might not be so great as far as visual and a different concept, but it’s bringing true intention to what I wanted to do and seeing it through.
Touring aspirations and live events, those are still on the table. Is CYN going to be the ‘promotion’ hosting these? Or is it, what I really believe is, it’s like a concept, an idea and almost a faction of people who believe in the message and the idea becoming parts of other things. As the tour was progressing, my idea was to really make that a brand for other independents and high-level people and other talents to be able to be seen by the world if we had television behind it. If it was televised, this is just another platform for people to have their name out there, be recognized, be noticed. It was bold and ambitious. With Adam going back to WWE, it wasn’t in the cards at the time. It can still play, but I do also think the idea of Control Your Narrative being a group and faction, plus an idea that can find itself in any promotion, whether it’s televised, whether it’s independent, whether it’s international, and contributing a new, unique brand and interests and draw to those places, everybody can win.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Television network Speedvision reportedly will be relaunching this fall as a free ad-supported television (FAST) network with Bill Goldberg among the network’s financial backers and host of some of the network’s shows, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly currently do not have any plans to use Chris Dickinson for any of their events going forward, according to the Super-J Cast. Dickinson last worked for NJPW at their NJPW Strong Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2022 event this past September following his lengthy absence over past domestic abuse allegations from two women.

NJPW recently announced three new matches for the card of their Rumble on 44th Street event on October 28th in New York City, New York:

Clark Connors vs. Minoru Suzuki
Rocky Romero & YOH vs. Yujiro Takahashi & SHO
NJPW Strong Tag Team Championship – Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. Kevin Knight & The DKC. vs. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) (c)

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced a new match for the card of their Hard Times III event on November 12th in New Orleans, Louisiana: