Wrestling legend Tommy Dreamer had an incredibly dark past, but he was saved by one phone call.
Dreamer recently opened up about a troubling period in his life on his “House of Hardcore” podcast, a period that he only managed to escape because of announcing icon Jim Ross.
Dreamer was supposed to make his WWE debut during the company’s Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at WrestleMania X-7 in 2001, but plans changed and Dreamer became the odd man out. The triple-threat match featured Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz.
That was nearly the tipping point in the darkest stage of his life: Extreme Championship Wrestling, which was run by Paul Heyman, had just folded and Dreamer was back living with his parents.
As he spiraled into depression, Dreamer intended to take advantage of Texas’ lax gun laws to jump the rail at that WrestleMania in Houston, kill Heyman, who was announcing the show, and then kill himself.
“I remember I did a show there, and I saw a sign that said, ‘Guns Welcome,’ and I was in Houston,” Dreamer said, according to Uproxx. “I did an indie show, and I said, ‘What is this?’ I’m from New York, what do you mean, ‘Guns Welcome’? And they said, ‘Oh, you are allowed to bring a firearm into the venue.’ I was across the street from the Astrodome. When I tell you it resonated in my head so, so much.
“That I’ll tell you what I wanted to do. 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. The ultimate martyr, I was gonna hit my pose crack, boom, pull the trigger. Because I was that insane. Don’t know if I would have went through with it, but that’s what I was thinking about every day. I was like, ‘I will go down in history.’ Pop, boom. First they’d think it was an angle until I shot him. I was so severely depressed and so mental with rage, I needed help.”
A well-timed phone call from Ross helped save Dreamer from the terrifying plan.
“Randomly I get a phone call from a number I didn’t know … I didn’t pick up,” said Dreamer, who now owns the House of Hardcore promotion. “I remember having these thoughts, and it was bad. I had a gun, I was psssh, man. Could you think about the horribleness that I would have done for my legacy? I would have ruined WrestleMania, which I love, WrestleMania. For everybody. These thoughts were so, so crazed in my head. How dare that person, he screwed my parents over and I come from a mobster mentality. In my head I was like, ‘I would become infamous,’ which is famous for the wrong reason. I’m glad I didn’t do it.
“But when that phone call came from Jim Ross. Again, just said leave a message. It said, ‘Hey Tommy, it’s Jim Ross, just want to let you know we are still thinking about you, we are gonna get it done, just got to hang tight. Thank you.’”
Ross’ words helped Dreamer through his struggles, and a few years later, Dreamer would go on to hold the WWE Hardcore Championship.
“I am so happy I didn’t do it, I am so happy that I did get that phone call, from someone who was a stranger, I barely knew the guy,” Dreamer said. “There was another day, there have been a lot of other days.”