The "Innovator of Violence" started off in ECW as well, basically Paul Roma, a smiling babyface enhancement talent-type with muscles and suspenders. Somewhere along the way to being arguably the most beloved ECW wrestler with the worst win/loss percentage, he kissed two women at the same time, engaged in a captivating feud with Raven (and Beulah McGillicutty), made stars of many mid-card talents including the likes of Justin Credible and C.W. Anderson, and also aided in booking the promotion, too. In ECW being a wrestling company where the curtain was lifted, fans were aware that Dreamer always wearing ECW apparel wasn't a babyface appeal for sympathy, but rather, it was the truth. The blood he shed in the ring felt like the lifeblood of the promotion. In many ways, every table that Dreamer went through, every chairshot he took and every time he was busted open and bled was him winning his own ECW World Heavyweight Championship. ECW's tragic hero, he was certainly "hardcore" and deserves his perpetually beloved status in the eyes of ECW's forever faithful fans.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
