Placing a rising star or stars alongside an established wrestler is not a concept that TNA invented, regardless of the success that the company has had with this formula. Even “Stone Cold” Steve Austin when first entering the then WWF was paired up with Ted DiBiase.
As one can tell by the previously mentioned example, combining the past with the present is not always successful. For every Alex Shelly and Kevin Nash pairing in TNA there seems to be a combination that spirals downward such as Shane Douglas and the Naturals.
One such group currently on the fence between success and failure is Serotonin, the latest incarnation of Raven’s Nest, which first began in ECW during the debut year of Scott Levy’s character Raven in 1995. What makes this group different from past versions of Raven’s Nest is that Levy is in his 40’s and is winding down in his career as a result of years of injuries and other dilemmas.
As is the case instead of centering on Raven as an in-ring competitor, younger stars, namely Frankie Kazarian, Maverick Matt, and Johnny Devine are getting a chance to shine in the spotlight. Well that is not entirely true. The stable, which has shown to have heel overtones by cheating against faces during matches and helping AJ Styles attack Rhino has yet to display one important aspect of any heel gathering, dominance.
Perhaps the most dominant heel stable of all time is the New World Order. This group rose in popularity by having wrestlers both interfere and compete in various main events on WCW Monday Nitro, the then flagship show of WCW.
However, the New World Order did more than simply appear on the main event scene. The stable soundly racked up win after win often making their opponents, many of whom had been on the WCW upper midcard and main event levels for years, appear as little more than jobbers.
Getting back to Serotonin, the group has not appeared without some authority. Recently at TNA’s February pay-per-view, Against All Odds the group emerged victorious in its most powerful display to date. The problem is the win occurred on the pre-show of the event. Likewise their opponents were Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal, two wrestlers who have been lost in the shuffle of TNA’s enormous roster in the last few months. With such wins, rather than comparing to the New World Order, Serotonin appears to have a level of dominance somewhere between the WWF’s incarnation of Kai En Tai and The York Foundation in WCW.
Regardless of how successful they have appeared so far, Serotonin may still eventually enter the limelight. Justification for this can be given through the fact that Raven’s stables have almost always gradually accumulated power rather than breaking onto the main event scene all at once.
The core of Raven’s character is based off of a slow build. This was shown when Raven first was introduced by Stevie Richards in ECW. Up to that point and to some extent even now, Richards was/is in kayfabe little more than a flunky. When Richards promoted Levy’s entrance he did not advertise Raven, but rather Johnny Polo, the persona Levy used in the then WWF.
In the WWF Polo did not work as a full time wrestler, but rather a manager, and an annoying manager at that, far from the level of a Bobby Heenan or Jim Cornette. With his whining voice and cliché heel tactics, Polo managed the Quebecers, who went onto have three runs as the WWF World Tag Team Champions. Eventually though Polo left his role as manager and began to host WWF All American Wrestling in 1993. The show was cancelled in 1994.
So when Richards set the stage for Johnny Polo, the very embodiment of sports entertainment at a time when ECW was just beginning to form the perception of a renegade wrestling company little could be expected. However, ECW fans got a big surprise when Levy came out in street clothes and had a general moodiness about him. This was a far cry from Johnny Polo, the clean-cut rich kid, who appeared previously in the WWF.
Rather than being a flop, Raven became a character present in someway or another for more than a decade in mainstream American wrestling. His feud with Tommy Dreamer even helped buildup ECW to the point where the organization was able to put on pay-per-view events.
This slow building theory may work in a different manner as it applies to Serotonin. With Raven and the rest of the group coming out in “A Clockwork Orange” inspired garb, the stable has the unique look needed to set it apart from other factions. However, more than just the look of “A Clockwork Orange” is being borrowed as much like the story’s protagonist Raven is not above inflicting pain on his followers.
In “A Clockwork Orange,” the followers of the main character, Alex eventually turn against their leader, which has already happened to Raven before in WCW. Though this helped give Raven’s former subordinates Perry Saturn and Billy Kidman modest pushes, whether this will work for Kazarian, Matt, and Devine depends on them.
Additionally if the rest of Serotonin rises up against Raven, whether the stable itself could actually be considered successful or not must be called into question. After all while the members of the group may receive attention the faction in its original form would no longer exist.
To be an unarguable success, Serotonin has to be portrayed in a way that shows Raven’s abuse has been working and that his followers respect him for it. One way that this could be done is by having Raven abuse one member of the group to the point where he is put on the shelf in kayfabe. The remainder of the group then continues to suffer Raven’s punishment until they win the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Despite being injured by Raven, the shelved member would eventually return to the fold willing to help defend these titles in a fashion similar to Demolition in the early 1990’s WWF.
Serotonin currently may not appear to have the brightest future in TNA. Regardless Raven will more than likely continue to be a presence in mainstream American wrestling for years to come. As such it will only be a matter of time before the next grouping of Raven’s Nest takes place leading to a whole new set of possibilities.
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