Tommy Dreamer

Thomas Laughlin
Thomas Laughlin
Born	February 14, 1971; Yonkers, New York
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Bobby Ocean; T.D. Madison; Tommy Dreamer
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight	260 lb (118 kg)
Trained by	Johnny Rodz
Debut	1989

Thomas Laughlin (born February 14, 1971), better known by his ring name Tommy Dreamer, is an American professional wrestler who is of Italian and Irish descent who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling for the ECW brand.

Career

Breaking In

Laughlin started wrestling in the New England area as Bobby Ocean against "Curly Moe" (a wrestler with a gimmick inspired by the Three Stooges) in 1989. He soon changed his name to T.D. Madison to team with G.Q. Madison as The Madison Brothers in International World Class Championship Wrestling, where they won the tag team titles twice.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Laughlin debuted as Tommy Dreamer in 1993 for Extreme Championship Wrestling and was a mainstay there until it closed in 2001. While there he was often considered "the heart" of ECW and a number of the best remembered moments from ECW involve him, including his attacking an opponent with a Shiwala wash (a car-washing brush) while ECW was being aired on SportsChannel America. The Shiwala attack was mostly a joke as infomercials for the Shiwala Wash were often aired on the same channel, sometimes right after the ECW show ended^{[citation needed]}. He was also the first wrestler to kick out of "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka's Superfly Splash.

His original gimmick was that of a pretty boy, wearing suspenders and loose fitting tights. As time went on Dreamer evolved with the ECW mindset becoming more and more extreme. One of the catalysts for the change was his first major feud with The Sandman which saw him (kayfabe) accidentally hit The Sandman, which knocked a cigarette into his eye when he struck him with a Singapore cane. When The Sandman went down to the mat grabbing his eye Dreamer (seemingly) broke kayfabe by standing over what moments ago was his opponent and screaming about how he "didn't mean to do it" and that it was "an accident". In truth this was all a (rather revolutionary) planned out ECW angle that was designed to blur the line between real life and the world of wrestling.

Though the blind Sandman angle was his first major feud in ECW, his most memorable came against Raven and started in April of 1995. The two, who had been (kayfabe) childhood friends, constantly brawled through ECW for over two years. They threw everything they had at each other, including Raven bringing another childhood friend Beulah McGillicutty out as a way to get into Dreamers head. Dreamer was unable to score a pinfall on Raven for the entire feud until he pinned Raven in a Loser Leaves Town match before Raven went to World Championship Wrestling.

He also feuded with Justin Credible and Shane Douglas while there, and was the main ECW representative in the ECW vs. United States Wrestling Association (USWA) feud with Jerry Lawler in 1997.

In 1999 Dreamer found himself actually teaming with his former blood enemy Raven when he returned to ECW. He would also become an ECW World Heavyweight Champion when he won the belt in 2000 from Taz, but then lost the belt just 18 minutes later to Justin Credible via interference by Francine.

ECW would close its doors soon after and Dreamer would follow former ECW owner Paul Heyman to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2001 after a few appearances on the independent circuit.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

Dreamer started his World Wrestling Federation career as a part of the WCW/ECW Alliance during The Invasion storyline. When the storyline ended and the Alliance was dissolved, and (the renamed) World Wrestling Entertainment "split the brands" Dreamer was signed to RAW, where he won the Hardcore Championship on 14 occasions, and was the Champion going into the unification match with the Intercontinental Title. In the unification match, Dreamer lost to Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam.

After losing the Hardcore Championship Dreamer renewed his feud with Raven, picking up another win over him, this time in a Loser Leaves RAW match on June 24, 2002 which sent Raven to RAW's sister show, HEAT. Having come out on top of this feud he was moved into a short-lived gimmick where he ate disgusting things to entertain people, very likely based on MTV's Jackass. He also feuded with The Big Show, Christopher Nowinski, and the tag team of William Regal and Lance Storm.

As 2003 and 2004 went on, Dreamer slowly began to drop off of WWE television and could occasionally be found wrestling on the independent circuit — with WWEs permission. He was also utilized as a guest commentator commentary for WWE shows as well as appearing in their farm territories, Deep South Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling, forging a close association them which led to his becoming a part of RAW's creative team and then, when his performers contract expired, a road agent.

ECW brand

Dreamer played a major part in the revival of Extreme Championship Wresting in WWE as a third brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. He main-evented, and along with Paul Heyman, booked the 2005 One Night Stand pay-per-view event (Vince McMahon was largely responsible for the 2006 event) and became a part of the main roster for the brand when it was revived full time and given its own show on the Sci Fi Channel.

During the build up to the relaunch of ECW in 2006 Dreamer feuded with the partially retired Mick Foley and RAW's Edge leading to a match at One Night Stand which saw Dreamer, Terry Funk, and Beulah lose to Foley, Edge, and Lita. At the kickoff of the brand he briefly feuded with the Big Show before embarking on an "old school versus new school" feud with the Sandman against Test and Mike Knox. The feud ended on August 22, 2006 when Dreamer pinned Knox in his first TV win in a WWE ring since October 2003 (and in ECW since January 2001).

On August 9 WWE announced that Dreamer was no longer director of WWE's developmental program, opting instead to become a full-time wrestler and Mike Bucci (also known as Super Nova and Simon Dean) replaced Laughlin.

In ECW Dreamer had a brief two week feud with Kevin Thorn where Dreamer handed Thorn his first loss. At December to Dismember Dreamer was put into a match with Daivari, after which he was attacked by The Great Khali, beginning a feud between him and the two of them. The feud ended on January 9th, 2007 when Khali defeated Dreamer in the former's farewell match with ECW before moving to RAW. Following that feud Dreamer found himself hooking up with a number of other ECW Originals to fight off the New Breed of ECW.

Personal life

On October 12, 2002 at the Lake Isle Country Club in Eastchester, New York, Laughlin married Trisa Hayes (Beulah McGillicutty), with whom he later had twin girls, Brianna Laughlin and Kimberly Laughlin.

The twins appeared in a sixth season episode of "The Sopranos" (The Ride) as Domenica Baccalieri, Tony Soprano's baby niece.

Career Outside of wrestling

Tommy has appeared in comedy shows such as Comedy At Club 54 ^{[citation needed]}

Tommy Dreamer made a cameo in the adult film Whack Attack 5 by Extreme Associates.^[1]^[2]

He and New Jack appeared together in an episode of the TV series "Early Edition" as bikers.

In wrestling

Finishing and signature moves

Dreamer DDT (Vertical snap DDT)
Spicolli Driver (Death Valley driver)
Dreamer Driver (Sitout side powerslam)
Dreamer Cutter (Cutter)
Tommyhawk (Reverse crucifix hold into cutter)
Piledriver

Signature foreign object

Barbed wire-wrapped 2x4

Managers

Nicknames

"The Innovator of Violence"

Theme music

For the majority of his ECW career, Dreamer used the Alice in Chains song Man in the Box for his theme music. At the 2005 One Night Stand he used an instrumental of Man in the Box performed by "Harry Slash & The Slashtones". Yet another version (this time by WWE music head James A. Johnston) was introduced for the WWE vs. ECW special on June 7, 2006, and he has since adopted that as his theme for the new ECW.