Tommy Dreamer, a renowned veteran in the world of professional wrestling, known for his contributions in ECW and hailed as the Innovator of Violence, has recently shared some unfortunate news. He announced on his House of Hardcore podcast that he is battling skin cancer for the third time.
Taking a break from his wrestling career, Dreamer had dedicated time to be with his mother, who unfortunately passed away in April. Amidst his grief, Dreamer revealed his ongoing struggle with skin cancer this year.
Describing his condition, Dreamer humorously addressed the shiny appearance on his head, attributing it to the skin cancer. He acknowledged the repercussions of his years as a “Guido” catching up to him, and revealed that this was his third encounter with skin cancer. He detailed the Mohs surgery he would undergo to remove the cancerous growth.
Dreamer shared the details of the surgical process, including the numbness induced during the procedure. He candidly discussed the unsettling aspects of the experience, such as the smell of burning skin during cauterization and the audible sounds of the scalpel and stitching. The surgery resulted in a substantial number of stitches—42 in total.
Acknowledging the potential side effects of tight stitching, Dreamer humorously contemplated the idea of walking around with a raised eyebrow, akin to The Rock’s “people’s eyebrow.” He explained that his decision to step away from television was influenced by various factors, including his mother’s situation and his own health concerns.
Dreamer emphasized the importance of sunscreen, particularly due to his larger forehead, and took responsibility for his use of tanning beds in the past. While he briefly mentioned differing thoughts on vaccines and COVID-19, he chose not to delve into those topics.
Expressing gratitude that the surgery successfully removed the cancer, Dreamer reflected on the healing process and the discovery of discomfort before recording the podcast.
“I know you’re all looking at this and saying, ‘What the hell is so shiny on your head? Are you going to town? Are you having barbed wire matches? Being crazy?’ No, guess what ladies and gentlemen? That’s skin cancer. That’s right. Being a Guido all these years has caught up to me. This is the second time, no, the third time I’ve had skin cancer, and of course, it’s on my head but I’m not a pretty boy anymore. I’m hardcore.”
“Scary when they tell you you have cancer and it’s the best form of cancer, but you have to get it removed for this. They’re able to cut it out. It’s called Mohs surgery. I’ve had it before. I’ve had it here on my chest, I’ve had it on my head, and now I have a bigger one on my head. What you’re looking at is the grossness of 42 stitches. I had 23 outside and 19 inside. You don’t feel it when they’re cutting you. It’s weird. They numb your whole head. The weirdness of it is they have to cauterize your stuff, so you could smell your skin burning. The part that I didn’t like, you can hear the scalpel cutting open your head, and the worst part is you can hear them when they’re putting in the stitches. It’s a long task to get that many stitches, but it’s in your head. They can numb it, you’re not feeling it, but you can hear it. You don’t feel it, but you can hear it going into your skin and the tightening of the thread. It’s gross.”
“I also learned if they pulled too tight, they have to do each one differently and they kept on looking straight ahead at me because the tighter you pull, you can raise your eyebrows, though me walking around with a people’s eyebrow, hey man, that could be pretty cool, but it’s like giving yourself a bit of a facelift, which I definitely need, but not just on one side/one eyebrow because the doctor was like if he pull too tight, your eyebrow is going to be raised.
That’s kind of why I took myself, many reasons why I took myself off of TV, dealing with my mom. I never told my mom. I didn’t want her to worry. I’ve known for about two months because of, almost three, because of the waiting time to get the surgery, I’m just like, man, is this going to be bad? Thankfully they got it all and it has all worked out.”
“I don’t blame the sun. I do blame lack of sunscreen, having a giant forehead, but most importantly, I do blame tanning beds. I used to go in tanning beds all the time.”
“I could go down a whole other rabbit hole, but I’m not gonna with vaccines and all that stuff because I do think differently, but I’m not going to put that out there on this one, but just because I’ve had this 10 years ago and all of a sudden it had come back and kind of same thing would happen with my mom, like her blood wasn’t clotting. How come all of a sudden that happened? So I mean, there’s, I’m just not a very, very, COVID, will, there’ll be a whole bunch of other stuff that’ll happen once you got vaccinated. That’ll be a whole other generation from now.”
“But for me, I had to deal with it. I got a new hole in my head. It’s not healing the way I did and just before I went on doing this podcast, which was Thursday, June 15th. I noticed every time I put something on it, something would hurt. It’s not supposed to hurt, kind of like a pinch.”
