How A Phone Call Prevented An On-Camera Murder Suicide at Wrestlemania 17

 

Former ECW Owner Paul Heyman and Former ECW Superstar
Tommy Dreamer. Credit: WWE

Wrestlemania X-Seven. Considered the greatest Wrestling event of all time, the WWF's seventeenth installment for their flagship event saw Chyna become the Women's Champion, Kane beating Raven and The Big Show to capture the Hardcore Championship, and Eddie Guerrero becoming the European Champion after beating Test. It also saw the Undertaker maintain his streak of Wrestlemania wins with a victory over Triple H, Edge and Christian captured the Tag Titles in a triple-threat Tables, Ladders & Chairs match, and Stone Cold beating The Rock for the WWF Championship. To say it was an all-time great card was an understatement; Many regard it as the definitive greatest pay-per-view wrestling card ever made. 

However, it nearly had a much darker legacy. Preparing to head over to Houston, Texas' Astrodome was a dejected and irate Tommy Dreamer, with a gun in his hand. Dreamer was looking for one man: Former ECW Owner and at-the-time WWF Commentator Paul Heyman. Heyman was working commentary that night alongside the legendary Jim Ross, unaware his life was in very real danger. 

Dreamer and Heyman went way back to ECW. Formerly a manager known as Paul E. Dangerously in WCW, Heyman had a falling out with WCW's booker, Bill Watts, which would come to legal blows. However, Heyman wasn't done with wrestling. He would move to Eastern Championship Wrestling and turn it into Extreme Championship Wrestling. In ECW, He would help to create and market many stars; Rob Van Dam, Raven and Sabu were just some of the names attached to Heyman's Legacy. Additionally, it was the place that "Stunning" Steve Austin first debuted the traits that would turn him into WWF World Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. 

However, the Heart and Soul of ECW was Tommy Dreamer. A multi-time ECW Champion who held the Heavyweight Championship twice and the ECW Tag Team Championship once, Dreamer was a fan-favourite who worked with the best of the company and even got to have a feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler when the WWF and ECW Worked together for a time. 

Tommy Dreamer during an ECW Match in 1997. Credit: @WrestlingIsKing, Twitter.

Tommy Dreamer was a star for ECW, and people began to recognize it. Toward the end of ECW's run as a major promotion, Dreamer got a call from Ted Turner's WCW, offering him a 750,000 dollar contract. In the 1990's, that was massive money. It'd be like getting a 1.5 million dollar contract now, and that's not even counting the fact that that 750k would get you way further than 1.5 million would now. 

With Dreamer being deathly loyal to ECW and Heyman, even having put his own money in the company, he went to Heyman to tell him about the offer he had received. Heyman pleaded with Tommy not to take the offer, stating that the company would die without him. Dreamer, caught in between a crossroads of what was best for him and what was best for his friends, declined WCW's offer, choosing instead to remain with ECW. He pumped a bunch of his own money and even money borrowed from his parents into the company to continue to help it grow and continue to turn into the promotion that is so beloved today.

Then, a few years later, in April of 2001, ECW shuttered its doors for good. Heyman had already jumped ship, and went to work with the same WWF Brand he had talked negatively about during his time at ECW, and Dreamer went out of work. Dreamer had invested his life savings, and his parents had invested theirs, all for nothing. However, Heyman kept calling him about taking a job at WWF; Yet, despite Tommy always being willing, the opportunity failed to materialize.

Alone, and desperate, a broken Tommy Dreamer made a plan; he was going to kill Paul Heyman.

April 1st, 2001 was Wrestlemania 17, and Paul Heyman was set to be on commentary that night. Dreamer was going to purchase a gun, drive to Houston, and buy a ticket to the show. Once getting his piece past the guards, he would take his seat. Then, during the middle of the show, he would walk down in the stands behind the commentary section, and shoot Heyman with his pistol point blank in the back. Then, during the ensuing pandemonium, he would walk down to the ring, enter the ring, doing his ECW entrance without the music, and then shoot himself in the center of the ring. 

And so Dreamer sat there on April 1st, preparing to go to the Astrodome in Houston, ready to go through with his plan. That's when he got a call. It was from Jim Ross, WWF's Commentator, but also their Head Of Talent Relations. After letting it go to voicemail, Tommy played the recording. "Hey Tommy, it's Jim Ross" the voicemail said. "Just want to let you know we are still thinking about you. We are gonna get it done, just gotta hang tight. Thank you." According to Dreamer, that call was all he needed to rebuild even the tiniest fraction of hope. According to him, it was the first time that someone other than Heyman had reached out and spoken to him about anything WWF related.

That was all Dreamer needed. He abandoned his plan to kill Heyman, and did exactly as Ross said; he lied in wait. The wait didn't last much longer. Dreamer was introduced to the WWF universe on July 9th, 2001, just a hair over 3 months later. Dreamer spent the next decade on-and-off with the promotion, still holding some of his reputation as the ECW fan-favourite. As for Heyman, he still works with the company today, and has been directly worked with some of the biggest stars in the industry such as Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Today, he is working with Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker, building a new stable. However, all this could have easily changed had Jim Ross not picked up the phone. The legacies of many wrestlers would change, and Wrestlemania X-Seven would have went from a shining beacon as to the best WWE has to offer, to a tragedy the likes of which we have never seen. All that was needed was a phone call and the promise of better futures on the horizon. Sometimes, that's all you need.