• TNA Hall Of Famer Went To Therapy Because He Couldn’t Become WWF Champion
On The Ariel Helwani Show, Raven revealed that he once sought therapy after feeling unfulfilled in his wrestling career – specifically because he never became the WWF (now WWE) Champion.
During the early 2000s, Raven admitted he viewed his career as a failure, despite success across ECW, WCW, WWF, and TNA. He believed not winning WWE’s top title meant he hadn’t truly “made it.” It was only through therapy that he learned how unrealistic and self-destructive that mindset was.
Raven recalled his therapist telling him that the standards he held himself to were impossible, and that he was punishing himself emotionally for not meeting them. Over time, this helped him realize that his worth wasn’t defined by championships, but by the impact he left on the industry and the fans who connected with him.
The session also made him confront deeper emotional wounds – particularly his relationship with his father. Raven described his father as a man with a sharp “insult humor” style, comparing him to “Don Rickles roasting his own son.” Growing up constantly mocked damaged his self-esteem, and he regrets not getting therapy earlier in life to process that trauma.
He acknowledged that he repeated those same behaviors in adulthood, using sarcasm and cutting humor with friends without realizing how hurtful it could be. Looking back, he considers not addressing that pattern sooner as one of his biggest regrets.
Today, Raven says he has reached a point of acceptance. Though he still carries regrets, he’s proud of who he became – someone self-aware enough to confront his past instead of hiding from it.
Raven was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2022.
• WWE Broke A Big Promise To Karrion Kross
During his appearance on Chris Van Vliet’s Insight podcast, Karrion Kross revealed that WWE once promised to connect him with Hollywood film producers – a promise that was never fulfilled.
Kross said he told WWE officials he wanted to be a “big player” in the company and was interested in doing film work alongside wrestling, not as a replacement for it.
He was told he’d be flown to Los Angeles to meet people in the industry, but the meeting never happened. He followed up multiple times and was eventually “ghosted.”
Instead of being discouraged, Kross decided to take matters into his own hands, learning filmmaking himself and becoming the executive producer of his award-winning film, Blue Evening.
