Tommy Dreamer's Zero Hour

Well, this is it. Zero Hour. Tommy' Dreamer has rarely finished first, always playing second fiddle, ending up the third wheel, finishing forth, and fifth in line for things. Well, at least in the current iteration of ECW. Anyhoo, this is Tommy's final hurrah. He has to make this work, or he's gone. Yes, I know I blogged about this before, but I had to do it again because this is the day. This could be the final time we see Tommy Dreamer on television, in the WWE or even as a wrestler. For you Tommy Dreamer fans, it's a tough state of affairs to deal with, but it's reality. For you non-fans, some of you couldn't be happier. In general, however, this is the night where the direction of my blogs may change, if not subtlely. It's the night where an era can end.....or begin. It's "win or go home" for Tommy. But enough metaphors. Let's get on with the analysis.

Tommy Dreamer is entering the fight of his career tonight, where only he and a handful of others might have an idea as to how this will pan out. He enters the "Extreme Rules" PPV into a Triple Threat match for the ECW title against Christian and Jack Swagger. The gimmick: it's Hardcore Rules for this match. Wait, isn't that the essence of "Extreme Rules" anyway? Isn't that like naming the match after the PPV? Isn't Hardcore Rules just Extreme Rules? (I'll talk more about that on 6/28) I guess when they say this, they mean that the rules are that of what consisted of a WWE Hardcore match, which was ECW rules. There are no DQs, countouts, and falls count anywhere. If that's the case, then Tommy has this in the bag.

No one knows Hardcore rules better than Tommy Dreamer. He's been a multi-time WWE Hardcore champion. He's warred with some of the most violent people on the planet. His ECW moniker was "The innovator of violence". This meant that he found new and different ways to inflict punishment on his opponents, whether it meant handcuffing a person to a cage and beating him in the head with a chair, giving someone an "Ace Crusher" off of two ladders, or even giving someone a "Death Valley Driver" off the top rope through a table. This would have never happened if the original ECW fans didn't push Tommy to do these things. When he warred with Raven so many years ago, the fans wanted him to really get extreme as Raven kept making him look foolish. Tommy finally did by taking out Raven's flunkie, Stevie Richards, and then piledriving Raven's girl, Beulah, a person blown off by Tommy in high school because of her appearance (kayfabe). Later, Beulah would side with Tommy against Raven after faking her pregnancy. In reality, she married him, and they have two daughters. This is the family Tommy Dreamer has to feed every night when he gets paid. If he loses, how will he feed them? He can't lose. He knows all about hardcore matches. Yet, that hasn't really been a big help in the WWE as of late.

See, his opponents have proven that they can be as extreme or as hardcore as he can. Christian has been in his share of ladder matches, including the Tag Team Ladder Match of No Mercy 1999 that put him on the map as a major player. He's battled and brawled with the best of them. He's also been a hardcore champ, even though it was for a short time. He's even outsmarted and outcheated Jack Swagger in both ECW title matches on consecutive PPVs. That's impressive, to say the least. As for Swagger, he's taken a shortcut or two to get ahead. Let's not forget that when it came to getting extreme, he beat Dreamer at his own game. It was disheartening to Dreamer to say the least. So, yea, Dreamer has his hands full.

I wouldn't be making this out to be very important if I didn't mention the implications of the match. Should Dreamer be successful, he gets another run as ECW champion. As his track record has shown as of late, he has yet to really get a run going in regular matches against opponents. He has yet to beat Christian, has yet to beat Swagger, and has lost his share of regular matches to others. In a hardcore environment, he's at home and stands a fighting chance, unless his opponents outsmart him. So, his title run will be mired in inefficiency with many people likening his potential victories to luck and his losses to his being an undeserving champion. Should Dreamer lose, then he's gone for good, despite the rumors. There was a rumor going that he'd become the new GM of ECW upon re-signing, but he has made it clear that he does not want that to be the case. His contract expired, so if he loses, he's gone: no GM position, no returns, nothing. In fact, there was another rumor going around that the WWE expected him to do that should he re-sign. But, that's not going to be the case. It would be tough though, as ECW can use a pretty decent GM other than the rather pointless form of eye-candy known as Tiffany (I have a key idea myself for the blog on the first Sunday of July). But, if Dreamer loses, then the only thing linking this version of ECW to the past currently will be gone. So, then, this ECW can't be considered original, let alone connected to the original ECW. You might as well call this brand something completely different because it won't be ECW, no matter how you slice it. With no past, how can they have a present? Now, I know what some of you are thinking. The WWE has the ECW tapes and such and they have their past already. News flash: that was when ECW was its own entity with its own owners, and it's own bookers. There's a reason why ECW is listed differently on Wikipedia than its counterparts, ECW on Sci-Fi and ECW on TNN. The reason is the content, plain and simple. If you have to change your content in any way, shape, or form that's remotely contradictory to the original idea, then it really isn't connected to it. I could be wrong about that, and I could be right, but that's how I feel. Calling this version of ECW, by the acronym ECW would be sacrilege, illogical, and downright ridiculous. There's no Heyman, no Styles, and maybe no Dreamer. So, what makes this ECW? That phony belt? No, not even close.

This is a big night for Dreamer. How the WWE handles this will determine ECW's future. I'll even blog about the outcome next week, if not sooner. This is going to be a big move on the WWE's part. Do they reward Tommy Dreamer, despite all the stars they can use, and despite his embarrassments? Do they keep Dreamer from the title, ending his career, effective immediately, and the ECW era altogether? Catch Extreme Rules on PPV tonight and see for yourself. I know I will, and I'll have my fingers ready for the typing as of next week.