For years, Scott Levy, better known as Raven, rose through the ranks of the original ECW to become one of the very top stars of the extreme promotion. Now, a new documentary aims to spotlight the man behind the character, as well as the high-risk, high-reward lifestyle of the original Extreme Championship Wrestling.
This week, fans caught their first trailer for Nevermore: The Raven Effect. NightSchool Films, the team behind the documentary, describes the project as follows:
The man behind pro wrestling’s punk rock revolution.
“Wrestling is such a brutal business, it doesn’t surprise people that it attracts sociopaths, fame whores, coke whores and adrenaline whores, but why did it attract an artist?” Asks Billy Corgan, frontman for the Smashing Pumpkins and wrestling promoter. It’s the question posed in Nevermore: The Raven Effect, which examines a pivotal shift in wrestling history, through the eyes of Raven, a brilliant but complicated performer who simultaneously self-destructs while establishing the tone of ECW, an exciting, but extreme and hazardous indy wrestling promotion that
features bloody matches, involving real weapons. Featuring: Raven, Chris Jericho, Billy Corgan, Rob Van Dam, Diamond Dallas Page, Bubba Ray Dudley, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, Perry Saturn, Kevin Sullivan, Blue Meanie, Shane Douglas, Lodi, Brian Meyers, D’Lo Brown, Buff Bagwell, Sami Callihan, Moose, Scott D’Amore
The trailer doesn’t hold back as several wrestlers and wrestling personalities open up on the rampant drug use in ECW during the company’s first run. The long-term effects of ECW’s violent nature are also spotlighted in the trailer, with Jim ‘The Sandman’ Fullington, struggling to know the name of the CTE he states he is dealing with.
With the success of the Iron Claw biopic, Netflix’s Mr. McMahon docuseries, and VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring, there is a clear market for in-depth looks at wrestling’s past. Stay tuned to SEScoops for all the latest from Nevermore, which is sure to be an extremely informative watch for fans of Raven and the original ECW.