Tommy Dreamer Recalls Vince McMahon Not Wanting Paul Heyman To Be At ECW One Night Stand

Tommy Dreamer recently appeared on Busted Open Radio, where he spoke about Vince McMahon not wanting Paul Heyman involved in ECW One Night Stand.

“I always got along with him from early ECW when we were having secret meetings. And I mean Vince is the first person I ever heard in professional wrestling. He was doing the commentating when I first saw my first ever match. I remember the first day when I actually went to WWE with the whole Alliance and Paul was giving Vince [an earful] and Vince was kind of having a heated discussion. He looks at me and he’s like, ‘how did you deal?’ And I go, ‘he’s your problem now.’ So that was like kind of set the tone…I’ve had, I mean one argument with him but the rest were and for a lot of people it’s pick and choose because the guy is so, so busy. But I’ve had nothing but great experiences with Vince. I worked in the office, I literally shared the office next to him, which the only thing I didn’t like was he would keep his office so cold, hence, my office would be cold. And I’m a heavyset guy, I normally like the cold.

I’ve worked out with him. I’d be working out and people would be leaving the gym when he walks in. And I would be the only one there working out with him. And I also saw him when he just had his quad surgery and he [had the] double, double cast in his leg. And he’s in a wheelchair that’s kind of sticking straight out both legs, and he’s still working out.

And also even when I returned, and even when I before when I left, I had great meeting with him about why I felt I wanted to go. And even when I came back like or even when every time I would visit. I always have fun. And like Mark [Henry] said he’s a manly, man, as well as like, he likes to poke jokes and play jokes. I do too. And like I would always like you know, set up. Either I’m eating something that Vince sees and he would just be disgusted about what I would eat or, you know, kind of being a little bit on the heavyset side. So just stuff like that. And I’ve also hung out with Vince after shows where, you know, I know the business is different, but Bully, Mark myself and we signed the contract.

My biggest time would be the resurgence of ECW and John Laurinaitis as head of talent relations. I worked for John, and that big push for it was with Johnny through Shane, but everything has to be through Vince McMahon’s approval. And Johnny basically comes in and then I get called into the big office. And they basically tell me that I’m in charge of it. I’m writing the whole show. I want this to be different. And I’m, it’s just me, [Vince says] do whatever the hell you want. hire whoever the hell you want in this again, just for the first ECW One Night Stand, you’re writing it, you’re doing it and I was very, very, like, wow. And I remember, like sitting back in my office, and I called Beulah. And I was like, ‘I can’t believe this. Like they finally see it in me.’ And like I had, like this great nirvana. But back into the meeting. He’s like, ‘this is all you blah, blah, blah. The only caveat, we don’t want Paul involved.’ Paul was at the time hated, sent to – He wasn’t even really doing OVW stuff. He was just, he was in the doghouse for whatever reason, I don’t know. And I’m sitting by myself, I’m in total control. I could have been a jerk and kept Paul out. But I’m saying to myself, how do you keep Paul Heyman out of something ECW. And I always knew me and Paul worked great together. And I then had to devise a plan how I had a go to Johnny, for hey, how do I navigate this through the political waters? How do I get Paul Heyman booked, and on this ECW show. And he basically helped me and basically, again went to Vince and I was like, ‘Vince, you said, I’m in charge. Everything’s good. But Paul has to be on it.’ And he was just like, ‘you know, Paul was shipped off to nana land.’ But he was like, ‘if that’s what you want. You got it.’ And me and Paul got to work together. Paul [at the] last minute made a change to the pay per view because Vince also wanted Steve Austin involved and Paul’s changes and he was always being very, very politically correct, which he never had to be with me. [Paul said], ‘But like if you don’t want to change it, you can do it.’ But I was like, ‘Paul, listen, number one, like you’re putting a promo in for yourself, and how could Paul Heyman not do a promo and how is that not going to benefit the show?’ And then we had the whole involvement with JBL and the WWE guys.

The show came off without a hitch. But that was like my most I don’t want to say positive but I was just like, wow, like the proverbial pat on the back, this is mine. And I ran the agent’s meeting. And Vince just sat back and any questions by the agents and Vince was like ‘Tommy’s the agent of every match’ and he gave me the ball, it delivered.

Another quick fun story. The fire marshal, we’re doing the flaming table, I’m in a suit and we have to do a test run. So in a suit, I’m holding the production meeting [and] have to run down from the Hammerstein [Ballroom]. Bubba puts a little bit of lighter fluid on the table. I’m in a suit. Vince is up on the top floor watching. I get powerbombed through the table. I’m like ‘that’s good.’ And fireman’s like, ‘that’s it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ Quick [run] back up and I go do the meeting after I just was powerbomb through a flaming table. Vince was just like chuckling about it. We did the meeting and the rest was history, though. Bubba kind of exaggerated the lack of lighter fluid he used for the fire marshal, as opposed to the barbecued Dreamer he did later but when everyone says, ‘Oh, you go in with this mindset and Vince wants one thing, but you can’t change his mind, I’ve never experienced that.”