Tommy Dreamer is widely recognized as the
standard-bearer for
ECW. Working for the company from its years as
Eastern Championship Wrestling all the way through
Extreme Championship Wrestling's
bankruptcy at the beginning of 2001, he has been one of the only in-ring constants in a wrestling company known for its frequently-changing talent roster and the youth of its wrestlers.
Initially hated by ECW's fans for his pretty-boy looks, Tommy Dreamer eventually became loved as the Innovator of Violence and one of ECW's most hardcore wrestlers.
He is currently active in the WWF as a member of the ECW faction, where his invasion of the WWF with Rob Van Dam helped to spark a re-birth of ECW.
The most notable story in his career is a long and mostly one-sided feud with Raven. In an on-again off-again rivalry that spanned years, Raven consistently got the better of Tommy Dreamer in match after match. It wasn't until after Raven signed on a contract with WCW in 1997 that Dreamer finally went over Raven with a clean pinfall, "forcing" Raven to leave ECW.
Their feud also included a complex love triangle with ECW's Beulah McGillicutty.
In a bizarre twist, Raven and Dreamer eventually became the ECW tag team champions together after Raven's return to ECW in 1999.
Raven and Dreamer's feud seems to have been finally put to rest; at the ECW reunion during WWF Raw on July 10th, 2001, Raven and Dreamer embraced in the ring, showing that they were putting their rivalry aside for the good of ECW.
Tommy Dreamer's finishing move is the Spiccoli Driver; he is also known for using the DDT and a vast array of foreign objects in the ring. Ironically, the Innovator of Violence's greatest claim to fame is absorbing an incredible amount of punishment at the hands of his opponents.
In ECW, he entered the ring to Alice In Chains's Man in the Box.
His most well-known tag partners were Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, the Sandman, and (of course) Raven.
He got his start in wrestling training alongside ECW's Taz/Tazz under Johnny Rodz.