The world of professional wrestling can be very cruel and merciless at times and it pushes some performers over the edge. This is what happened to Tommy Dreamer, as he almost committed murder.
During a recent House Of Hardcore podcast, Tommy Dreamer talked about the extent to which his depression worsened. He went into detail and revealed that he could have brought a gun to the stadium due to Texas’ lax gun laws and he considered shooting Paul Heyman in the head in front of millions of fans, before taking his own life, at Wrestlemania 17 in Houston.
When ECW went out of business I was 29 years old. I had a lot of my money, my parents’ money, trying to float the company. Paul Heyman, who I thought me and him were super tight, he screwed me over big time. He was in the WWE, the whole time. I had turned down hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to WCW. And now was unemployed. I went from a $750,000 offer, and Paul Heyman crying to me, that if I leave ECW, it will go out of business. Meanwhile, he was getting a paycheck from WWE. I don’t begrudge him, but then I did. I was depressed as depressed can be. I had women, I had fame, I had everything and yet it was the worst time of my life. It really was. I was doing indies, making decent money on the indies. But, I lived at home…
This is crazy for me to admit it, but I am doing it for a reason, just like I admitted to other things previously. Wrestlemania Houston (X7) Paul Heyman told me I was going to debut. All this stuff, when they had TLC and Spike Dudley came in, and Rhyno came in, and Lita came in. That was supposed to be my spot and then uh, that got ixnayed. Then there was gonna be a hardcore 24/7 thing, that was gonna be “all about you”. That was when I was supposed to debut. I remember I did a show there, and I saw a sign that said “Guns Welcome” and I was in Houston. I did an indie show, and I said: “What is this?” I’m from New York, what do you mean “Guns Welcome?” and they said “Oh you are allowed to bring a firearm into the venue.
I was across the street from the Astrodome. When I tell you it resonated in my head so, so much. That I’ll tell you what I wanted to do. It’s sick that I think this. At Wrestlemania, I was gonna hop the rail and I was gonna whack Paul E. in the back of the head right at the announce table, then I was gonna whack myself. The ultimate martyr, I was gonna hit my pose crack, boom, pull the trigger. Because I was that insane.
Don’t know if I would have went through with it, but that’s what I was thinking about every day. I was like “I will go down in history.” Pop, boom. First, they’d think it as an angle until I shot him. I was so severely depressed and so mental with rage, I needed help. That help came from a phone call from Jim Ross. Randomly I get a phone call from a number I didn’t know… I didn’t pick up, and I remember having these thoughts, and it was bad. I had a gun, I was psssh man. Could you think about the horribleness that I would have done for my legacy?
I would have ruined Wrestlemania, which I love Wrestlemania. For everybody. These thoughts were so so crazed in my head. How dare that person, he screwed my parents over and I come from a mobster mentality. In my head, I was like “I would become infamous.” Which is famous for the wrong reason. I’m glad I didn’t do it. But when that phone call came from Jim Ross. Again, just said leave a message. It said “Hey Tommy it’s Jim Ross, just want to let you know, we are still thinking about you, we are gonna get it done, just got to hang tight. Thank you.
Think of how stupid I would have been, how dumb and how messed up my thoughts would have been if they would have come to fruition. I am so happy I didn’t do it, I am so happy that I did get that phone call, from someone who was a stranger, I barely knew the guy. There was another day, there has been a lot of other days.
Thankfully, it did not go that way and Tommy Dreamer did not go through what he intended to do. Depression is a very serious issue and it can push people to go to lengths they never would have.
h/t to Bodyslam.net for the transcription.
