Thomas Laughlin
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Tommy Dreamer
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Tommy Dreamer T.D. Madison
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)1
Billed weight	255 lb (116 kg/18.2 st)1
Born	February 14, 1971 (1971-02-14) (age 37)23 Yonkers, New York23
Resides	New York, New York
Billed from	Yonkers, New York1
Trained by	Johnny Rodz2
Debut	October 29, 19894

Thomas Laughlin³ (born February 14, 1971)²³ is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Tommy Dreamer. He is currently under contract to World Wrestling Entertainment and wrestling on the ECW brand.¹

In addition to his current role, Dreamer is best known for the time he spent in the Philadelphia based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, of which he has been called the "heart and soul".⁵ Though he only held the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once in his time with the company – for a grand total of about 30 minutes⁶ – he was regularly embroiled in the company's most visible angles on screen and involved in the booking, some of the business decisions, and, like a number of other ECW wrestlers, was part of the day to day operations of the company off screen.⁷⁸ Today, he is remembered for his legitimate passion for the old ECW, and constantly participates in angles where he longs with all his heart to be ECW Champion at least one more time.

Career

Breaking in

Laughlin was trained in professional wrestling by Johnny Rodz.² His first notable foray into the business came when he worked in International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW) under the name T.D. Madison.⁹ While there he and his storyline brother, G.Q., held the IWCCW Tag Team Championship three times in 1991.¹⁰ He changed his name to Tommy Dreamer, reportedly a play on the song Army Dreamers by Kate Bush, in 1992 while working in the New England based Century Wrestling Alliance (CWA), where he held the CWA Heavyweight Championship once.¹¹

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–2001)

Tommy Dreamer joined Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1993, just before its name change to Extreme Championship Wrestling. His first major gimmick in the company had him wrestling his matches in garish green suspenders and acting as something of a "pretty boy" – at least in relation to 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" out of the pin that follows the Superfly Splash of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.¹²

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 10 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 wrestlings "face" and "heel" divide, 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 in 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 eventually ended with Sandman planning to announce his retirement at an ECW show, only to attack Dreamer and reveal he was never actually blind.¹³

Though the blind Sandman angle was his first "major" feud in ECW, his later, years long feud against Raven that started in April 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, a Loser Leaves Town match. By the end of 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 the October 1996 High Incident event, where Dreamer sent Lee off the scaffolding through several tables in the ring below.

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.¹⁴

In 1998, Dreamer had a short feud with the Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von), during which they ([kayfabe]] broke Beulah's neck.¹⁵ In 1999, 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.¹⁶ He also, begrudgingly, became ECW World Heavyweight Champion in 2000⁶ by beating Tazz at CyberSlam, only to lose it to Justin Credible just one match later.¹⁷

When speaking of his title reigns on The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary produced by WWE Home Video Dreamer is quoted as saying:¹⁸

Dreamer stayed with ECW until it folded in 2001, defeating C.W. Anderson in an "I Quit" match at Guilty as Charged¹⁹ – the final pay-per-view – and teaming with Danny Doring in a win over Julio Dinero and EZ Money in the final independent ECW show.²⁰

World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (2001–Present)

After ECW closed its doors Dreamer spent time in various independent leagues throughout the country such as Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Combat Zone Wrestling before he signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He was introduced to WWF audiences on the July 9, 2001 episode of Monday Night Raw as a member of the WCW/ECW Alliance during the Invasion angle.²¹ When the angle ended in November, Dreamer was sent to the WWF's "farm territory" Heartland Wrestling Association.²²

He was brought back to the main roster of the now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment in April and placed on the Raw "brand". There he was given a gimmick that proclaimed he was "Just a Regular Guy", for which he was featured in vignettes and backstage segments showing him in normal situations that were then augmented by "disgusting" antics such as brushing his teeth and his dogs teeth with the same brush²³ and eating food from the floor.²⁴ However, this angle was short lived. He soon reverted back to his "Innovator Of Violence" gimmick and amassed fourteen reigns as Hardcore Champion. During this time;²⁵ he was the final person to hold it before it became unified with the Intercontinental Title in a match with Rob Van Dam.²⁶ After losing the Hardcore Championship, Dreamer renewed his feud with Raven, defeating him in a Loser Leaves Raw match on June 24 to send him to Raw's sister show, Heat.²⁷

As 2003 and 2004 went on, Dreamer was used less and less on WWE television,⁹ and they began allowing him to take independent bookings, and work as color commentator for their "farm territories" Ohio Valley and Deep South Wrestling. When his performers contract expired, he took a succession of "office jobs" inside World Wrestling Entertainment.²⁸

ECW brand

Dreamer and a fan drinking beer at an ECW live event.

In 2005, Dreamer was a major part of the ECW One Night Stand "reunion show" pay-per-view held under the World Wrestling Entertainment banner. He, along with a number of former ECW stars, took part in promotional hype for the event on episodes of Raw and, with the Sandman, he wrestled the Dudley Boyz in the main event.²⁹ For the 2006 event, he was placed into an angle that had him and Terry Funk – who had been his "mentor" in the early days of the original ECW – at odds with Mick Foley and Edge over the meanings of "extreme".³⁰³¹³² The angle ended with a six-person-intergender-tag team match at the pay-per-view where Dreamer, Funk, and Beulah McGillicutty lost to Edge, Foley, and Lita.³³

When the ECW brand officially launched on the Sci Fi channel, Dreamer and the Sandman were put into one of the brands first feuds, an "old school versus new school" feud, against Test and Mike Knox.³⁴³⁵ In November and December he engaged in a short feud with Daivari and The Great Khali, but Khali was sent to the Raw brand before it could come to a conclusion.³⁶³⁷ Not long after Khali left ECW, The New Breed stable was established, consisting of wrestlers new to ECW. In response a stable of ECW Originals was created, and the two battled throughout the spring of 2007 until a number of roster moves left the Originals nearly barren.

In late 2007, Dreamer took part in the ECW brand's Elimination chase to name a number one contender to the ECW Championship. During the series of matches, also involving Stevie Richards, Elijah Burke, and Kevin Thorn he added a bandana, worn on his head, to his ring gear. He received the original one from a young boy with a brain tumor, and from then on began wearing one as a sign of solidarity and strength to anyone going through that struggle.³⁸³⁹ Dreamer emerged victorious in the final match against Burke, only to be surprised by ECW's General Manager Armando Estrada forcing him to face Big Daddy V, who promptly beat him for the number one contendership.⁴⁰

In the beginning of 2008, Dreamer was put with ECW brand jobber Colin Delaney as a sort of mentor after Delaney was repeatedly squashed on the weekly ECW television show.⁴¹⁴² At The Great American Bash on July 20, 2008, Delaney turned on Dreamer, costing him his ECW Championship match against Mark Henry.⁴³

Personal life

Dreamer married Trisa Hayes, better known by her ring name Beulah McGillicutty, on October 12, 2002, ² with whom he has twin daughters – Kimberly and Briana.⁴⁴ Kimberly and Briana appeared in a sixth season episode, "The Ride", of the HBO drama The Sopranos playing Domenica Baccalieri, Tony Soprano's baby niece.

Outside of wrestling

Dreamer made a cameo in the adult film Whack Attack 5 by Extreme Associates.⁴⁵ He also appeared, along with fellow ECW wrestler New Jack, in the "Mel Schwartz, Bounty Hunter" episode of the TV series Early Edition as a biker.⁴⁶ Dreamer participated in wrestling documentary, Bloodstained Memoirs. The footage was filmed at an AWA UK show. ⁴⁷

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Dreamer DDT (Snap DDT, sometimes landing the opponent's on the top of their head in a vertical position)
  • Dreamer Driver (WWE)¹ / Spicolli Driver (ECW) (Death Valley driver, sometimes proceeded by spinning the opponent around)
  • Piledriver
  • Sitout side powerslam
  • TommyHawk (Reverse crucifix cutter) – ECW
  • Cloverleaf
  • Diving splash
  • Fallaway slam
  • Falling neckbreaker
  • Flipping gutwrench cutter
  • Low–angle running dropkick to an opponent in the tree of woe position, usually preceded by shouting "E–C–W!!!"
  • Pumphandle suplex
  • Reverse DDT, sometimes proceeded by a scoop lift
  • Running one–handed bulldog
  • Spinning sitout spinebuster

• Signature foreign object
  • Kendo stick

• Managers and valets
  • Francine
  • George
  • Paul Heyman
  • Jazz
  • Alexis Laree
  • Beulah McGillicutty
  • Luna Vachon
  • Kimona Wanalaya

• Nicknames
  • "The Innovator of Violence"²
  • "The Heart and Soul of ECW"⁴⁸
  • "The O.G. of Extreme"

• Entrance themes
  • For the majority of his ECW career, Dreamer used the Alice in Chains song "Man in the Box" for his entrance music. At the 2005 One Night Stand pay-per-view, he used an instrumental version of Man in the Box performed by Harry Slash & The Slashtones. Yet another version – this time by WWE music head Jim Johnston – was introduced for the WWE vs. ECW special on June 7, 2006, and he has since used that as his theme.

Championships and accomplishments

• Border City Wrestling
  • BCW Can-Am Heavyweight Championship (1 time)⁴⁹

• Century Wrestling Alliance
  • CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)¹¹

• Eastern Championship Wrestling | Extreme Championship Wrestling
  • ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)⁶
  • ECW World Tag Team Championship (3 times)⁵⁰ – with Johnny Gunn (1), Raven (1) and Masato Tanaka (1)

• International World Class Championship Wrestling
  • IWCCW Tag Team Championship (3 times)¹⁰ – with G.Q. Madison

• International Wrestling Association
  • IWA Hardcore Championship (1 time)⁵¹

• KYDA Pro Wrestling
  • KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time)⁵²

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him #28 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2000⁵³

• Southwest Premier Wrestling
  • SPW Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^{citation needed}

• World Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Entertainment
  • WWF/E Hardcore Championship (14 times)²⁵

References

External links

Professional wrestling portal

• Tommy Dreamer at WWE.com
• Tommy Dreamer at Online World of Wrestling
• Tommy Dreamer at the Internet Movie Database
• Tommy Dreamer at TV.com