Background and career
Thomas James Laughlin (born February 13, 1971), better known by the ring name Tommy Dreamer, is an American professional wrestler and promoter. Dreamer is best known for his tenures with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the 1990s and early 2000s and with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (previously the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)), primarily from 2001 to 2010. During this time, he held numerous championships including, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (which he held twice, being the only man to capture the title in both the original ECW and WWE's ECW brand). He has also held the ECW World Tag Team Championship and WWF/E Hardcore Championship. Dubbed the "heart and soul" of ECW, Dreamer regularly featured in prominent storylines for the promotion as well as holding many back office roles. Dreamer has also appeared in notable promotions such as Impact Wrestling/TNA Wrestling, Ring of Honor (ROH), and AAA. After departing from WWE in 2010, Dreamer joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and was a part of an ECW-inspired stable known as EV 2.0. In 2012, Dreamer started his wrestling promotion called House of Hardcore, named in honor of ECW's former wrestling school of the same name. Since then, Dreamer has made sporadic appearances with WWE in 2012, 2015, and 2016, as well as wrestling on the independent circuit.
Laughlin was trained in professional wrestling by Johnny Rodz. His first notable foray into the business came when he worked in International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW) under the name T.D. Madison. While there, he and his storyline brother, G.Q., held the IWCCW Tag Team Championship three times in 1991. He changed his name to Tommy Dreamer, reportedly after taking his given first name, and adding "Dreamer" in tribute to Dusty Rhodes, in 1992 while working in the New England based Century Wrestling Alliance (CWA). While in the CWA, he became its first Heavyweight Champion by defeating "Mr. USA" Tony Atlas in a tournament final held in Wallingford, Connecticut, on November 5, 1992. He held the title for over four months (March 1993) before losing it to The Iron Sheik in Burlington, Vermont. On August 17, 1993, Tommy Dreamer wrestled a dark match at a WWF Superstars taping in White Plains, NY, losing to The Brooklyn Brawler.
Dreamer joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in October 1993 at NWA Bloodfest. His first major gimmick in the company had him wrestling in matches in garish green suspenders and acting as something of a "pretty boy" – at least about the rest of the ECW roster. This gimmick got him soundly booed by crowds, even when he became the first person in wrestling history to kick out of the pin that follows the Superfly Splash of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka at The Night the Line Was Crossed. He teamed with Johnny Gunn to capture the ECW Tag Team Championships. They captured the titles from Johnny Hotbody and Tony Stetson in only nine seconds. Less than a month later, the pair would lose the titles to The Tazmaniac (later Taz) and Kevin Sullivan. Gunn suffered an injury and was replaced with Shane Douglas for a night, who turned on Dreamer to cost them the tag belts.
After Michael Fay was arrested in Singapore and sentenced to a caning, ECW head booker Paul Heyman decided to capitalize on the publicity by holding a Singapore Cane match between Dreamer and the Sandman – with the loser having to take ten lashes. After losing the match, Dreamer took his lashes, then asked the Sandman for another, causing the crowd to feel sympathy for him as he took the extra and another. This was a launching point to an angle that ended up blurring the divide between faces and heels in wrestling, as well as start a new way of working the fans, especially the "smarks" – fans with some amount of inside information. In a later match, Dreamer kayfabe accidentally blinded the Sandman, first by knocking a lit cigarette into his eye, then hitting the other with a Singapore cane. Immediately after, Dreamer seemed to break kayfabe and started aiding the Sandman. He professed that he "didn't mean to do it" and that it was "an accident" as other wrestlers – face and heel – swarmed out to help. The feud continued with Sandman planning to announce his retirement at an ECW show, only to attack Dreamer and reveal he was never actually blind. The feud ended when Dreamer defeated the Sandman in a No DQ/No-Holds-Barred match.
Though the blind Sandman angle was his first "major" feud in ECW, his later, years-long feud against Raven that started in January 1995 is arguably his most memorable. The two were portrayed as childhood friends who had been competing in different ways their entire lives. Raven's entrance into ECW had him accompanied by Beulah McGillicutty, an overweight girl from their kayfabe childhood who had a crush on Dreamer and was now a Penthouse Pet. Dreamer and Raven (and Raven's Nest) feuded for two years, with Dreamer never getting a win over Raven until Raven's last match in ECW, and a Loser Leaves Town match at Wrestlepalooza 1997. During the feud, Beulah had left Raven and was Tommy's valet. Throughout 1996, during the feud with Raven, Dreamer was also involved in an additional feud with "Prime Time" Brian Lee, who was brought in as Raven's bodyguard. The two had several encounters that ended with Dreamer being chokeslammed through tables. During other fights, the pair brawled outdoors onto the street and into traffic. The feud culminated in a scaffold match at High Incident in October 1996, where Dreamer sent Lee off the scaffolding through several tables in the ring below. On February 24, 1997, Dreamer appeared on WWF Monday Night Raw defeating D-Von Dudley during ECW's invasion in WWF.
After Raven went to World Championship Wrestling, Dreamer began a feud with the World Wrestling Federation's Jerry "The King" Lawler. The feud was largely symbolic, with Dreamer representing Extreme Championship Wrestling's "new school" style of wrestling as a concept and Lawler (with James E. Cornette) representing the World Wrestling Federation and United States Wrestling Association's more "old school" way of doing things. In 1998, Dreamer had a short feud with Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von), during which they "broke" Beulah's neck. In August 1999 at the Last Show at the Madhouse, on their last night in the company, they cited this incident to get Dreamer to accept a challenge for the ECW Tag Team Championship they had won earlier in the night. He did accept, and got the title, but was paired with the unexpected partner Raven, who slid into the ring at the last second and made the pin. The team only lasted a short time before it dissolved, with Raven taking the title and choosing Mike Awesome as his new partner. He also, begrudgingly, became World Heavyweight Champion in 2000 by beating Tazz at CyberSlam, only to lose it to Justin Credible just 30 minutes later. When speaking of his title reigns on The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary produced by WWE Home Video, Dreamer is quoted as saying:
