Tommy Dreamer is a Man In The Box. He’s also a man of his word.
Dreamer recently spoke with Phil Strum on the Under The Ring podcast. Dreamer talked about his history with Kenny King and how it led to a title vs. career match at IMPACT’s Victory Road event. Dreamer gave some background about a recent IMPACT event and how the venue had a bar attached to it. He then explained how he found Kenny King and Sheldon Jean at a bar in the venue, not watching the main event, which was a sign of disrespect.
“And then it’s, ‘Well, I’ll give you my career.’ You want to be such a tough guy, you don’t want to watch the main event. And then I also threw the biggest question out there, like stop taking shortcuts, stop settling. Because I still have goals for myself. And also, hey you’re the Digital Media Champion. Cool. How come you’re not — we’re coming up on 1,000 episodes — how come there’s not all of these great Kenny King moments? How come your name isn’t held with the same regard of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe?”
Dreamer said King likes to blame everyone but himself, and he had to call him out on it. Dreamer also knows that he’s at peace with retirement if it happens.
“And if there’s a great place to go out, minus it being at the ECW Arena,” Dreamer noted. “I wouldn’t mind it being in that venue.”
IMPACT Wrestling’s Victory Road event takes place at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York, which is less than 30 minutes away from his hometown of Yonkers. To date, Dreamer’s most notable match in White Plains was a Stairway To Hell match with Justin Credible in December 1999.
A Man Of His Word
Dreamer joked about his post-retirement plans and said his fallback plan was going on the road and playing the Wrestler Name Game with fans. That said, Dreamer pointed out that if he says he’s retiring, he’s sticking to it.
“I do want to say one thing; when I did announce that, people on social media were like, ‘Hasn’t Tommy Dreamer already put his career on the line before?’ No — [it was] ‘Hasn’t Tommy Dreamer retired before?’ And I never retired. I left WWE’s ECW and I put my career on the line before, but I haven’t lost. When I say I’ll retire, I’ll never come back to wrestle,” he stated. “I will never wrestle. I do not wrestle because I need the money, I wrestle because I love it. But I’ve always been a man of my word.”
Dreamer cited examples of sticking to his word, like never wrestling Raven* against after Hardcore Justice, or not returning to the ECW Arena unless it was on his terms.
“In a world that ‘stipulations aren’t real’ from Paul Heyman’s brain,” Dreamer explained, “they’re real if I’m in charge.”
Dreamer closed by saying “If I lose, I lose. No more matches.”
*Dreamer has worked with Raven since then, but it’s implied that he meant he wouldn’t work any singles matches with him. WrestleZone reached out to Dreamer, who confirmed he meant singles matches specifically.
More must-reads: