Black Widow
04-16-2008, 05:46 PM
TOMMY DREAMER DISCUSSES WHAT SETS WWE APART FROM EVERY OTHER COMPANY, RETURNING TO A BACKSTAGE ROLE, BEULAH, WRITING THE FIRST ONE NIGHT STAND PPV AND MORE
An over-achiever, Tommy Dreamer uses plenty of heart, hard work and smarts to achieve success in a very tough business.
''Do I miss the old ECW? Yeah, but my life has changed dramatically, and I'm still very fortunate to be doing what I'm still doing,'' said Dreamer, a former Extreme Championship Wrestling original who wrestles for WWE's version.
``Every once in a while, like the Extreme Rules match that I recently had, that was a taste of what I used to do on a constant basis.
``Building up to it, I thought it was really, really good, and ratings wise, the ratings have been up lately, and I think that's cool. Chavo [Guerrero] and I just wrestled, and it was one of the highest rated [WWECW] segments in a long time.''
Dreamer made a name for himself in the renegade promotion ECW.
A match made in hardcore heaven, ECW fans took to this Dreamer. He wasn't the quickest, biggest or strongest nor the most talented in-ring performer, but Dreamer realized his dream by giving 110-percent each time which captured the hearts of hardcore wrestling fans.
Over-dramatic, per se, Dreamer's intensity in his actions and words brought audiences to their feet. He earned the nickname the Innovator of Violence, creating new ways to inflict hardcore style punishment on opponents while also taking a beating -- battered, bruised and bloodied.
Dreamer, 37, also has a good mind for the business and a good rapport with his peers, working behind the scenes in the original ECW.
When WWE Chairman Vince McMahon decided to establish a third brand in his company, he developed his own version of ECW with Dreamer one of the first hired.
''I'm happy with the show's progression,'' he said. ``For one point, it totally was away from what the original ECW was about. Again, it's Vince McMahon's vision. He owns it. He can do what he wants with it.
'You can not knock the success of WWE and Vince McMahon and his vision. So how can you go and tell somebody, `Hey, this can be better.' Vince is an amazing man because he listens. He has pulled me aside. We have argued. He has told me things. He's admitted things when he was wrong. I have more respect for Vince than I ever have.
``He has to make so many decisions. We couldn't do half the things we did then. In the original ECW, we did things that were illegal. Sandman's music, my music, that's illegal. What we did. Fighting in the audience. Fans could just sue you. Fans are suing even if you're not there.''
A native New Yorker, Dreamer was trained by WWE Hall of Famer Johnny Rodz. He made his debut in 1989, working the indie circuit in the Northeast. In 1993, he joined Eastern Championship Wrestling which quickly became Extreme Championship Wrestling, based in Philadelphia.
''I still think there's a lot more fight and interest in Tommy Dreamer,'' he said. ``Hopefully, Vince can see that.
``I love being creative. I was beyond hands-on in the original ECW. When we had the 2-05 pay-per-view, I wrote that whole thing, and Vince McMahon said I want it to be different, and he got different. It did amazing buy rates, the DVDs. Vince has to go with his heart and his gut, and he's a very successful businessman.''
Dreamer, standing 6-2 and weighing 255, has experience as a wrestler, booker, office associate, trainer and color commentator. He is also a family man.
'Would I like to be behind the scenes now? I love doing any task given to me. I am very, very creative. I love writing stories. I'm an artist, mentally. You can not ask me to paint a picture like, `Hey Dreamer, go paint me the Mona Lisa' and then last minute go put sunglasses on the Mona Lisa because that's not the Mona Lisa. It has to be my vision, and you got to trust me, and if you don't like my vision, then fire me.
``That's something for maybe down the line. I still love being in that ring. I love seeing the progression of ECW, and I'm on an amazing, amazing ride. I've been wrestling since I'm 19. I'm 37, and this is my second WrestleMania. Last year it was awesome. I was there with my friends, my family, and I'm here again this year, and I'm riding this as long as I can, until my body totally says no more.''
Through his 18-year career, Dreamer broke his neck and back but shows no signs of any physical drawbacks in the ring.
''I'm glad I don't have a lot of muscle,'' he said, ``and as long as my %#@ continues to get bigger, I think I should be fine.''
Dreamer and his wife, Trisa Hayes, better know as ECW's Beulah McGillicutty, have twin daughters, Kimberly and Briana, who have appeared on the hit cable TV series The Sopranos.
• MMA and pro wrestling matches on the same show
``I used to Muay Thai box. I've been in a lot of real fights. I almost was in a real fight with Floyd Mayweather's posse. Would I see them on the same show? I think they are two totally different genres. I don't know if those guys would want to compete. We have some legitimate bad *^$#@ in our company. If you're an MMA guy, and you get your butt beat by a professional wrestler, I don't know how they would react.
``We have a boxer on our show. It's interesting to see how it translates. Shelton Benjamin is an amazing, amazing amateur wrestler. We have some guys who can go. To me I don't know the whole thing about credibility. There are some die-hard MMA fans who may feel like they're losing credibility and may tune off. It's all entertainment to me. I like it. I don't watch it all the time. I will watch any wrestling program over boxing, over anything.
``Ken Shamrock was here [WWE]. He's an amazing UFC guy. His wrestling career was kind of ahh, but he's made it in other genres. If guys want to fight, it's a &^%$ of a way to earn a living just like ours.''
• TNA, Ring of Honor on WWE's website
``That's good business. WWE talks about wrestling news from other groups and companies other than WWE on its website. People will go to WWE's website as opposed to going to a website that's not that credible.''
• TNA's impact
'I know a lot of guys root for TNA just because they're the underdog like ECW used to be. You need more places for guys to wrestle. I don't think no one will ever takedown WWE for the simple fact of `why even bother.' There's how many baseball teams? How many football teams?
'Again, it's huge business. Me coming from the original ECW and trying to compete. I remember last year when we were doing WrestleMania, and we had a three-bus police escort from our hotel to downtown Detroit. They closed every highway. I sat back and turned to my wife, and I was like, `ECW could never have made this. Look at this. They're closing a highway for us just to get to a show.' That's a testament to how hard the guys work. There's so many office people who don't get enough credit. This is a huge, huge publicly traded, multi-conglomerate company, and when WWE is behind something, they go full-throttle.
``WWE bought out the Marriott Hotel [in Orlando for WrestleMania Weekend]. There's only us there. When the doors close, there's a life-size poster of Big Show and a life-size of Floyd Mayweather, and it's us in the hotel. I was like, `Wow, that is awesome.'
• Super Bowl of wrestling
``WrestleMania has become as big as the Super Bowl. If you even think about the Hall of Fame, I think our largest Hall of Fame ticket sales was 2,000. The first one that we did was 500 people, and now we've sold out the Amway Arena. We have a sellout on Saturday [Hall of Fame], a sellout on Sunday [WrestleMania], a sellout on Monday [Raw] and a sellout on Tuesday [SmackDown!/WWE's ECW]. Then, we go overseas for 15 days, and every show is soldout.
``We are an amazing touring company. The fact that wrestling fans still want to pay to see all these guys go. I always will say without the wrestlers, the talent is what fuels the company, but without the fans, they pay my salary, and that's why I go out there, and I bust my &^% every single night because they pay my salary. They put food on my table. They send my kids to school, and I live a comfortable life, and that's why I do what I do.''
• Wife return?
``No. She came back in the 2005 pay-per-view, and then Edge speared her in the 2006. She says she's getting old. She's feeling it way too long afterward. She hurt her ankle in the last one, and she's happy being a mom, and she's a great mom.''
• WWE inducting old school wrestling talent into the WWE Hall of Fame
``That's smart business. You're incorporating your older fans with your new fan base. We were in Biloxi, Mississippi, and they showed the video of Eddie Graham. You had little kids cheering. They didn't know who Eddie Graham was, but they understand this is nostalgia.
'With the Internet, with WWE being more entertainment, more mainstream, you're seeing fans becoming more knowledgeable, and they're like these are the predecessors that helped. Back in the day, it was WWE, and they didn't acknowledge anybody else. Now, Vince is like, `Hey, there was other things,' and that's commendable again as a businessman.''
miamiherald.com
An over-achiever, Tommy Dreamer uses plenty of heart, hard work and smarts to achieve success in a very tough business.
''Do I miss the old ECW? Yeah, but my life has changed dramatically, and I'm still very fortunate to be doing what I'm still doing,'' said Dreamer, a former Extreme Championship Wrestling original who wrestles for WWE's version.
``Every once in a while, like the Extreme Rules match that I recently had, that was a taste of what I used to do on a constant basis.
``Building up to it, I thought it was really, really good, and ratings wise, the ratings have been up lately, and I think that's cool. Chavo [Guerrero] and I just wrestled, and it was one of the highest rated [WWECW] segments in a long time.''
Dreamer made a name for himself in the renegade promotion ECW.
A match made in hardcore heaven, ECW fans took to this Dreamer. He wasn't the quickest, biggest or strongest nor the most talented in-ring performer, but Dreamer realized his dream by giving 110-percent each time which captured the hearts of hardcore wrestling fans.
Over-dramatic, per se, Dreamer's intensity in his actions and words brought audiences to their feet. He earned the nickname the Innovator of Violence, creating new ways to inflict hardcore style punishment on opponents while also taking a beating -- battered, bruised and bloodied.
Dreamer, 37, also has a good mind for the business and a good rapport with his peers, working behind the scenes in the original ECW.
When WWE Chairman Vince McMahon decided to establish a third brand in his company, he developed his own version of ECW with Dreamer one of the first hired.
''I'm happy with the show's progression,'' he said. ``For one point, it totally was away from what the original ECW was about. Again, it's Vince McMahon's vision. He owns it. He can do what he wants with it.
'You can not knock the success of WWE and Vince McMahon and his vision. So how can you go and tell somebody, `Hey, this can be better.' Vince is an amazing man because he listens. He has pulled me aside. We have argued. He has told me things. He's admitted things when he was wrong. I have more respect for Vince than I ever have.
``He has to make so many decisions. We couldn't do half the things we did then. In the original ECW, we did things that were illegal. Sandman's music, my music, that's illegal. What we did. Fighting in the audience. Fans could just sue you. Fans are suing even if you're not there.''
A native New Yorker, Dreamer was trained by WWE Hall of Famer Johnny Rodz. He made his debut in 1989, working the indie circuit in the Northeast. In 1993, he joined Eastern Championship Wrestling which quickly became Extreme Championship Wrestling, based in Philadelphia.
''I still think there's a lot more fight and interest in Tommy Dreamer,'' he said. ``Hopefully, Vince can see that.
``I love being creative. I was beyond hands-on in the original ECW. When we had the 2-05 pay-per-view, I wrote that whole thing, and Vince McMahon said I want it to be different, and he got different. It did amazing buy rates, the DVDs. Vince has to go with his heart and his gut, and he's a very successful businessman.''
Dreamer, standing 6-2 and weighing 255, has experience as a wrestler, booker, office associate, trainer and color commentator. He is also a family man.
'Would I like to be behind the scenes now? I love doing any task given to me. I am very, very creative. I love writing stories. I'm an artist, mentally. You can not ask me to paint a picture like, `Hey Dreamer, go paint me the Mona Lisa' and then last minute go put sunglasses on the Mona Lisa because that's not the Mona Lisa. It has to be my vision, and you got to trust me, and if you don't like my vision, then fire me.
``That's something for maybe down the line. I still love being in that ring. I love seeing the progression of ECW, and I'm on an amazing, amazing ride. I've been wrestling since I'm 19. I'm 37, and this is my second WrestleMania. Last year it was awesome. I was there with my friends, my family, and I'm here again this year, and I'm riding this as long as I can, until my body totally says no more.''
Through his 18-year career, Dreamer broke his neck and back but shows no signs of any physical drawbacks in the ring.
''I'm glad I don't have a lot of muscle,'' he said, ``and as long as my %#@ continues to get bigger, I think I should be fine.''
Dreamer and his wife, Trisa Hayes, better know as ECW's Beulah McGillicutty, have twin daughters, Kimberly and Briana, who have appeared on the hit cable TV series The Sopranos.
• MMA and pro wrestling matches on the same show
``I used to Muay Thai box. I've been in a lot of real fights. I almost was in a real fight with Floyd Mayweather's posse. Would I see them on the same show? I think they are two totally different genres. I don't know if those guys would want to compete. We have some legitimate bad *^$#@ in our company. If you're an MMA guy, and you get your butt beat by a professional wrestler, I don't know how they would react.
``We have a boxer on our show. It's interesting to see how it translates. Shelton Benjamin is an amazing, amazing amateur wrestler. We have some guys who can go. To me I don't know the whole thing about credibility. There are some die-hard MMA fans who may feel like they're losing credibility and may tune off. It's all entertainment to me. I like it. I don't watch it all the time. I will watch any wrestling program over boxing, over anything.
``Ken Shamrock was here [WWE]. He's an amazing UFC guy. His wrestling career was kind of ahh, but he's made it in other genres. If guys want to fight, it's a &^%$ of a way to earn a living just like ours.''
• TNA, Ring of Honor on WWE's website
``That's good business. WWE talks about wrestling news from other groups and companies other than WWE on its website. People will go to WWE's website as opposed to going to a website that's not that credible.''
• TNA's impact
'I know a lot of guys root for TNA just because they're the underdog like ECW used to be. You need more places for guys to wrestle. I don't think no one will ever takedown WWE for the simple fact of `why even bother.' There's how many baseball teams? How many football teams?
'Again, it's huge business. Me coming from the original ECW and trying to compete. I remember last year when we were doing WrestleMania, and we had a three-bus police escort from our hotel to downtown Detroit. They closed every highway. I sat back and turned to my wife, and I was like, `ECW could never have made this. Look at this. They're closing a highway for us just to get to a show.' That's a testament to how hard the guys work. There's so many office people who don't get enough credit. This is a huge, huge publicly traded, multi-conglomerate company, and when WWE is behind something, they go full-throttle.
``WWE bought out the Marriott Hotel [in Orlando for WrestleMania Weekend]. There's only us there. When the doors close, there's a life-size poster of Big Show and a life-size of Floyd Mayweather, and it's us in the hotel. I was like, `Wow, that is awesome.'
• Super Bowl of wrestling
``WrestleMania has become as big as the Super Bowl. If you even think about the Hall of Fame, I think our largest Hall of Fame ticket sales was 2,000. The first one that we did was 500 people, and now we've sold out the Amway Arena. We have a sellout on Saturday [Hall of Fame], a sellout on Sunday [WrestleMania], a sellout on Monday [Raw] and a sellout on Tuesday [SmackDown!/WWE's ECW]. Then, we go overseas for 15 days, and every show is soldout.
``We are an amazing touring company. The fact that wrestling fans still want to pay to see all these guys go. I always will say without the wrestlers, the talent is what fuels the company, but without the fans, they pay my salary, and that's why I go out there, and I bust my &^% every single night because they pay my salary. They put food on my table. They send my kids to school, and I live a comfortable life, and that's why I do what I do.''
• Wife return?
``No. She came back in the 2005 pay-per-view, and then Edge speared her in the 2006. She says she's getting old. She's feeling it way too long afterward. She hurt her ankle in the last one, and she's happy being a mom, and she's a great mom.''
• WWE inducting old school wrestling talent into the WWE Hall of Fame
``That's smart business. You're incorporating your older fans with your new fan base. We were in Biloxi, Mississippi, and they showed the video of Eddie Graham. You had little kids cheering. They didn't know who Eddie Graham was, but they understand this is nostalgia.
'With the Internet, with WWE being more entertainment, more mainstream, you're seeing fans becoming more knowledgeable, and they're like these are the predecessors that helped. Back in the day, it was WWE, and they didn't acknowledge anybody else. Now, Vince is like, `Hey, there was other things,' and that's commendable again as a businessman.''
miamiherald.com