Tommy Dreamer (Born on February 13, 1971, in New York, U.S.) is a professional American wrestler and promoter. He is best known for his hardcore wrestling matches, which earned him the nickname “The Innovator of Violence.”
He is best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1993 to 2001 where he won the world championship team ECW three times with Johnny Gunn and then Raven and finally with Masato Tanaka.
He was also briefly ECW World Heavyweight Champion during this period. He then joined the World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (WWF/WWE) where he held the WWE Hardcore Championship 14 times and then the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
After leaving WWE in 2009, he wrestled in independent circuit federations. and appears more or less regularly in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. In 2012, he founded his own federation, the House of Hardcore.
Facts About Tommy Dreamer
- Born: 13 February 1971, Yonkers, New York, U.S.
- Birth Name: Thomas James Laughlin
- Nicknames:
The Innovator of violence
King of Extreme
Tommy Dreamer
TD Madison - Age: 50 year’s old
- Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
- Weight: 265 lbs (120.2 kg)
- Citizenship: USA
- First match: October 29, 1989
- Trainer: Johnny Rodz
- Wife: Beulah McGillicutty (m. 2002)
- Children: Kimberly Laughlin, Brianna Laughlin
- Net Worth: $1.5 Million (Approx)
- Quotes: I was actually pissed off. I wanted to go my entire ECW career without winning titles. The only reason I won titles is that guys left.
Personal Life
Tommy Dreamer has been married to Beulah McGillicutty since October 12, 2002, and has two children with her, the twins Kimberly and Brianna Laughlin. Laughlin’s daughters were born in May 2004 and in 2006 they were child actors in five episodes of the television series The Sopranos, which ran from 1999 to 2007.
Early Wrestling Career
Tommy Dreamer began his career in 1989 as Bobby Ocean in New England, where he trained by Johnny Rodz. He made his debut in International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW), a Massachusetts federation, under the name TD Madison and teamed up with GQ Madison with whom he won the IWCCW team championship three times during 1991.
The following year, he changed his ring name to that of Tommy Dreamer and in November won the title of heavyweight champion of the Century Wrestling Alliance after his victory in the final of a tournament against Tony Atlas.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
in 1993, Dreamer made his debut at ECW, Tommy played at ECW until 2001 when the federation went bankrupt. At first, Dreamer had a gimmick of a young, stylish handsome man. But then Tommy got really extreme (as he needed to be in ECW).
Tommy Dreamer quickly made his way to the main stars of the company, in the course of feuds with Sandman, Raven, Justin Credible, Shane Douglas, and Jerry Lawler. In 2000, Tommy finally became ECW champion by defeating Tazz, but after 18 minutes he lost the title to Justin Credible.
When ECW ceased to exist, Tommy worked in small promotions, and in 2001 with Paul Heyman, he moved to WWE.
World Wrestling Entertainment
In the fall of 2001, Thomas James Laughlin signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, where he mainly looked after the next generation of wrestlers. Here he was later able to secure the well-known hardcore title 14 times on RAW. In 2003 and 2004, however, he was used less and less as an active wrestler.
Laughlin was therefore hired as a commentator and coach with the WWE Development League Ohio Valley Wrestling. He was later employed by the other WWE development league, Deep South Wrestling. In addition, Laughlin did various office work for the WWE officials and worked there in the background.
Since the ECW One Night Stand in summer 2005, Thomas Laughlin has been active again as a wrestler and was jointly responsible for the WWE major event WWE One Night Stand. He has been a member of the current ECW squad since summer 2006.
From January 2007 he formed the team of ECW Originals together with Sandman, Sabu, and Rob Van Dam. At Wrestlemania 23, this group was able to prevail against their opponents, the stable The New Breed (then consisting of Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von, Matt Striker, and Kevin Thorn).
Thomas Laughlin has only appeared in the middle combat map several times at various WWE events. Although he was given the opportunity to play title matches several times, he was not allowed to decide for himself.
On January 13, 2009, Laughlin announced during a broadcast on the weekly ECW show that his WWE contract would expire on June 6, 2009. In this address, he informed the fans that he only had around 5 months to prove that he was not yet old iron. Should he not win the ECW Championship by then, he would not renew his contract and leave the WWE as a result.
On June 7, 2009, Tommy Dreamer was able to win a hardcore match against Christian and Jack Swagger at the pay-per-view broadcast “ Extreme Rules ” in order to become the new ECW champion. That was the requirement for Tommy Dreamer to renew his expired contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.