Tommy Dreamer Once Planned To Kill Paul Heyman And Himself At WrestleMania

The ECW icon once planned to kill Paul Heyman and take his own life, live on PPV.

by Andrew Pollard
Sandman Paul Heyman Tommy Dreamer ECW
WWE.com

ECW icon Tommy Dreamer has shocked the wrestling world by revealing how he once planned to kill Paul Heyman before then taking his own life.

In an extremely candid edition of Dreamer’s House of Hardcore podcast, the wrestling veteran explained how he intended to shoot Heyman during the WrestleMania X-7 broadcast which saw the former ECW head on commentary duties alongside Jim Ross.

With his beloved ECW having folded, Dreamer was originally planned to make his debut for the then-WWF as part of the TLC match between The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boys, and Edge & Christian. In the build up to the 2001 edition of the Showcase of the Immortals, plans for Dreamer’s debut were completely cancelled.

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Struggling financially, living back home with his parents, his dream job ripped away from him, Dreamer’s mental health struggles saw him plan to take advantage of Texas’ relaxed gun laws to take a firearm into Houston’s Astrodome.

As Dreamer explained, “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. [I] don’t know if I would have went through with it, but that’s what I was thinking about every day. I was so several depressed and so mental with rage; I needed help.”

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The former ECW Champion went on to add that he was saved by a surprise phone call from Jim Ross. Then working as WWE’s Head of Talent Relations, Ross called to let Dreamer know that the WWE still planned to bring in him in at some point and to just bide his time.

Ultimately, Dreamer would debut in WWE three months after ‘Mania X-7 as part of the WCW/ECW Alliance. He’d remain with the company until 2010, before then making several returns over the following years.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.