101 Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened
37. Tommy Dreamer Gets Sniped
Terry Funk was the unlikely voice of reason when Tommy Dreamer pitched this outrageous idea in the original ECW. Terry Funk. You know, the same veteran who'd been called "middle aged and crazy" for a generation, and who had put his body through physical hell in various hardcore settings for many years.
Paul Heyman was glad for Terry's wisdom, because he was having a tough time talking Tommy out of hiring an actual sniper so he could be "grazed" by a bullet to the shoulder whilst stood inside the ring. Dreamer reckoned that'd get the niche Philadelphia promotion some mainstream buzz and attention, but Heyman knew it could go badly, badly wrong.
He was worried that the bullet could miss Tommy and hit a fan instead. Or, maybe it'd bounce off Dreamer's body and go into the audience that way. It just wasn't an idea with any merit. Where do you even go with the story creatively after someone's been shot inside the ring?! Challenging the sniper to a match wouldn't exactly cut it.
The Funker didn't shake his head at Dreamer's pitch because he hated it though. No, Terry reminisced about his father being shot with a handgun back in Amarillo, Texas. From a psychological standpoint, Funk had this to say: 'If you don’t come back and kill the guy that shot you, the fans don’t believe in it'.
Tommy was going way too far by even throwing this out into the open to begin with - it was too wild even for ECW. You can't have a trained sniper open fire on unsuspecting paying punters...even in the land of extreme!