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.
At the PPV “Night of Champions,” Dreamer had to hand over the ECW title to Christian on July 26, 2009.
Due to the planned discontinuation of the “ECW roster” on the part of the WWE, Tommy Dreamer asked for the early termination of his current contract. [3] In the course of a specially drafted resignation, storyline Dreamer lost a match against December 29, Zack Ryder. As a result, Dreamer had to leave the ECW roster and also the WWE.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Tommy Dreamer made his Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut at Slammiversary VIII, appearing in the crowd during the fight between Brother Ray and Jesse Neal, causing a distraction from Brother Ray, causing Jesse Neal to win the match.
After this, he reappeared on June 24 during a match between Shannon Moore & Jesse Neal against Beer Money, Inc., this time with Raven and Dr. Stevie. After several appearances alongside the other ECW wrestlers, on July 15 at iMPACT!, Dreamer and the others interfered during an Abyss promo, helping Rob Van Dam.
After this, several ECW and TNA fighters entered the ring and began to fight. The following week, TNA President Dixie Carter agreed to give former ECW wrestlers a PPV, Hardcore Justice: The Last Stand, giving Dreamer control of the event.
Dreamer made his in-ring debut on TNA on July 29, losing to Abyss in a No Disqualification match. After the fight, Abyss tried to attack him, but Raven got out. However, Raven attacked Dreamer instead of Abyss, starting a feud with him.
Both faced in Hardcore Justice with Mick Foley as referee of the fight. However, Dreamer lost after Raven applied an Even flow DDT on a chair. The next day, during an ECW celebration, they were attacked by members of Fortune, starting a feud between both stables, focusing Dreamer on AJ Styles.
However, he was defeated by him on Impact and No Surrender in an “I Quit” match. Although he paid his respects to him in the next edition of Impact, he was attacked by Fortune, so the feud lasted until Bound for Glory, where both stables met in a Lethal Lockdown match, where EV 2.0 (Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Stevie Richards, Raven & Rhino) defeated Fortune (AJ Styles, Frankie Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm & Matt Morgan).
After Bound for Glory, Eric Bischoff told Rob Van Dam that there was a traitor within EV 2.0, Van Dam becoming suspicious of everyone. Finally, he became suspicious of Dreamer, so the two clashed at Turning Point, winning Van Dam. However, at the end of the fight, both embraced, leaving Van Dam suspicious of Dreamer.
Then between the month of March, a feud began with Bully Ray facing both in Victory Road winning Dreamer after a 3D with the help of Brother Devon. Months later, on the May 5 issue of Impact!, Dreamer attacked AJ Styles during a fight against Bully Ray, teaming up with Immortal and turning Heel.
Later, it was revealed that he had joined Immortal due to blackmail from Ray. At Sacrifice, he faced Styles in a No DQ match, a match he won thanks to the intervention of Bully Ray. The following week, he completely turned heel when he said he attacked Styles because he liked him.
He ended his feud with Styles when he was defeated with Ray by Styles & Daniels in a Street Fight match. At the end of the fight, Styles applied a Piledriver to him with Daniels. On June 6, he announced on Twitter that he was not going to renew his contract with the company and that his last fight would be on June 11, where Styles & Devon defeated him and Ray.
House Of Hardcore
Tommy Dreamer announced his intention to open his own wrestling federation, and the promotion debuted on October 6, 2012, at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Return to WWE
On November 30, 2015, Dreamer appeared in the Raw episode to help Dudley Boyz against The Wyatt Family. On December 13, 2015, Dreamer, Rhino, and The Dudley Boyz fought against The Wyatt Family in the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs (2015) in an elimination table fight.
Dreamer and his team lost the fight, with Dreamer being eliminated by Luke Harper. The following night Dreamer, Rhyno, and The Dudley Boyz faced The Wyatt Family in an Extreme Rules match, where they were again defeated with a splash by Erick Rowan in Rhyno at a table followed by a pin.
Tommy Dreamer Net Worth
Tommy Dreamer has a net worth of $1.5 million (Approx) and his Salary is around $80,000. Dreamer has many luxury cars and expensive houses.