One of the innovators of hardcore and the owner of House Of Hardcore, Tommy Dreamer, recently spoke with the Philly Influencer about his upcoming H.O.H. show in Philadelphia at the “old ECW arena”. Dreamer discusses learning the business from working behind the scenes of WWE and under Paul Heyman, and how those two helped him run his company. Dreamer talked about much more, which you can check out below.
Dreamer On People Needing To See This Upcoming Philly H.O.H. Show:
“I think every true wrestling fan needs to see a show at the ECW Arena. When I first started my company, everyone said it was a nostalgia act because I had myself, the Dudleyz and Rhyno on shows and if you put more than two people on a show, it’s an ECW show. To me, that was an amazing time in my life personally and professionally, now, I want people to experience the moments that I was able to experience back in the day.”
Dreamer On Learning From WWE & Progressing Himself And His Company:
“It was a natural progression of myself from doing everything in the original ECW; working behind the scenes in WWE. When I ran their developmental system which, now, in essence what NXT is, that was the progression for me. I look at it like we’ve been around about two going on three years where I said I’m going to do this full-time and invest in it and really, really give it a go. For me, I gotta keep on pressing forward because I love wrestling, I’m a huge fan. I still watch every Monday night and every Tuesday night but I just want to show the world something different and show them my vision of professional wrestling.”
Providing His Old Friend From TNA Petey Williams Another Chance At Wrestling:
“Petey told me ‘I got the itch again, can I come back and work for you?’ and I said ‘Absolutely’. If I’m able to give that little bit of a taste back for him, then great. He’s someone I want to have around me all the time. There’s a lot of men and women who I love to showcase their talent, I come from ECW where I had that creative blueprint.”
Learning From Paul Heyman & How Dreamer Got Better:
“I would go to the back through that curtain and I would have Heyman, Terry Funk, Mick Foley and sometimes Kevin Sullivan all helping me; telling me what I did right, telling me what I did wrong, telling me what I did wrong was the best thing. Nobody wants smoke blown up their butt, not everything we go and do is perfect. How could someone like me not get better? I was never the best wrestler, but I can have really good matches and I can also create emotion and people have always been invested in Tommy Dreamer, the wrestler. Same with the Dudleyz, same with Rob Van Dam. We had that amazing connection and that was so much because of Paul and what we did with ECW.”
Possibly Getting WWE To Feature His Company On The WWE Network:
“There are so many different ways to view content. The beauty of professional wrestling is people love to talk about it and people love to watch it. A while ago [talks had happened with WWE] but talks stalled and didn’t move forward. If that is a viable option for me, great. My biggest thing is this is my vision and it has to stay my vision and I will not let anyone corrupt that. When WWE brought back ECW, it was supposed to be different and it wasn’t. It turned out to be another WWE product. I won’t do that and I will never compromise myself or my company for that.”
“It’s extremely hard to promote professional wrestling. I have been blessed because of my reputation with the fans. When it comes to WWE, this will be House of Hardcore 33. I’ve had 39 people that have worked for me either go back or sign with WWE. At first, I really did get angry and then I was like, ‘You know what? I can’t offer these people and their families a full-time gig, so I’m okay with that.’ It motivates me to make new stars.”