2. Tommy Dreamer
More than anyone else, Tommy Dreamer is the epitome of what ECW was and always will be. His loyalty and dedication to the brand is legendary, and he continues to "rep" ECW to this very day. Tommy's journey in ECW was an interesting one. He started off as a bit of a "pretty boy", and the ECW fans hated him for it. Then, by a single act of showing how hardcore he really was, he won those fans over forever. After losing a Singapore Cane Match to The Sandman, Dreamer's punishment was that he had to receive ten lashes across the back with one of the Singapore Canes (aka Kendo Stick) by Sandman himself. As Sandman continued to hit Dreamer as hard as he physically could, Dreamer kept taking the shots and actually began to ask for more. The fans began to feel bad for Dreamer, and Sandman is on record saying that the entire thing was so emotional that he nearly cried for Dreamer as he was hitting him. The fans saw Tommy in a different light, and he was a "made man" from that point forward. He would be the first one to admit that he was never going to be mistaken for a technical wizard in the ring, but you have to wonder how things would have been if the exact same gimmick, from "pretty boy" to "Mr. ECW", had been given to someone with more in-ring prowess. Someone who could get "hardcore", but wouldn't have to rely solely on that style to make his matches work. It's something fun to think about. Picture someone with, say, Kurt Angle's in-ring skills taking on a gimmick in ECW like that, where he was the poster boy for the company and what they stood for, but could use his skills to defeat a variety of different opponents.