Tommy Dreamer ready for Philadelphia homecoming with House of Hardcore

Tommy Dreamer was born Tommy Laughlin in Yonkers, N.Y.

He is a New York Mets fan and still resides in the city he was raised in and was billed from throughout his wrestling career.

However, he refers to Philadelphia as home.

It is no secret that Dreamer gained notoriety in the wrestling industry in the original incarnation of Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the majority of his exploits with that promotion was done in front of the passionate fans that packed into the indiscriminate building at the corner of Swanson and Ritner in South Philadelphia.

Although that was 20 years ago, Dreamer still feels obligated to give maximum effort when he performs in front of those loyal fans. He will look to do so once again Saturday when he brings his House of Hardcore promotion back to the 2300 Arena.

"What I always do when I return to Philadelphia, especially with House of Hardcore, this is my Super Bowl, this is my World Series and I always want to deliver," Dreamer said during a phone interview with philly.com. "I'm coming home and I always want to outdo the last show and I kind of feel I have. As long as people keep on supporting me I'm going to keep on coming back."

The Philadelphia fans saw a lot of themselves in Dreamer. He was never the biggest or the most athletic, but he was the most passionate and worked the hardest. He still has that work ethic today.

If it were up to him, he would wrestle for WWE Monday and Tuesday, for NXT Wednesday, for TNA Wrestling Thursday and still wrestle for his own promotion Friday and Saturday.

It's that work ethic and passion that Philadelphia fans want to see out of all of the athletes that call the city home.

"They embraced me," Dreamer said. "I always say that Tommy Laughlin was born in New York, but Tommy Dreamer was born in Philadelphia."

"I hate the fact that Philly fans get a bad rap for being the hardest fans," he added. "They're the fans that if you deliver for them, they're a blue-collar town, and if you deliver for them they never forget it."

Because of that loyalty Dreamer really does make sure to go all out when he promotes events within the city.

Not only is he promoting his House of Hardcore event, he also pulled some strings to land some big names for the Icons of Wrestling and Comic Book Collectorfest convention that takes place before the matches.

Among those big names are WWE Hall of Famers Sting, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, Tully Blanchard, Tony Atlas, Booker T (along with his brother Stevie Ray) and Terry Funk.

Like Dreamer, Funk also has a special connection with the city due to his memorable run with the original ECW, which included him headlining the promotion's first-ever pay-per-view, Barely Legal.

The event was held in Philadelphia and ended with Funk, then in his 50s, celebrating an ECW World championship victory.

Now in his early 70s, Funk still has that same passion he had during his younger days, which is why he was more retirements than he has world titles.

"When I tell you I think we all have an insane grandfather, that's what Terry Funk is," Dreamer said. "Talk about heart and passion, he just always wants to come back. You think what he did in his 50s, where he's going to try his first moonsault and he didn't do in the ring, he did it to the floor and he did that for ECW and the fans of Philadelphia."

"He was always upping his game," he added. "He recently went back there to do something with Dean Ambrose and WWE and the reception that he got — again, Philly fans never forget. For WWE even to acknowledge that even though he's from the Double Cross Ranch in Texas, but to kind of pull him out of retirement like I always do for the shows proves what kind of worth and value he has and that connection to the fans."

Funk will be in Dreamer's corner Saturday night when he takes on Broken Matt Hardy, who will have Senor Benjamin in his corner.

Being in Dreamer's corner is nothing new for Funk, as Dreamer said he has done so many times throughout his career behind the scenes.

"Terry Funk has probably helped me out more than any individual other than Paul Heyman," he said. "He really told me when I was first struggling to try to find my way, he would say, 'Just be yourself,' and 'Don't try to be somebody else.'"

"He also told me to grow a goatee because it would make me look tougher and then he said, 'When you're my age, then it'll hide a double chin,' which he is spot on about that."

Like Funk did for him 20 years ago, Dreamer is looking to pass down his knowledge to the young wrestlers of today.

And with events like House of Hardcore this Saturday, provide them opportunities to earn the same never-ending respect and admiration he still has from the fans.

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Dreamer also talked about other people that will be on the card Saturday night, including his opponent, Broken Matt Hardy.

On Hardy's transformation, he said, "Matt has totally re-invented himself and kudos to him for not resting on his laurels. He is so creative. He always kind of took a backseat to Jeff Hardy and Matt and Jeff are two great wrestlers and now everyone is talking about Matt Hardy."

Also on the card is Tony Nese, who was a participant in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic.

On Nese, Dreamer said, "Tony is a phenomenal athlete. I've known him for a lot of years. I've pretty much used him on every one of my shows. I was so happy for him to finally catch a break."

"If you think about the old ECW, we opened the door for a lot of guys who were smaller in height, but not smaller in talent and its harkened to a throwback of a lot of these guys are getting opportunity based on their in-ring ability and not their appearance."

"He's one of those guys that every time I put him out there, he goes out there and has this amazing match. The Cruiserweight Classic just put him on a higher spotlight for something that I've seen him for a long time."

Speaking of great athletes, Ricochet is also on the card and was the subject of debate a few months back because of his match against Will Ospreay in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

On Ricochet, Dreamer said, "I was blessed every single weekend to see Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio when people were telling them, 'Hey, you guys need to slow down. The business changes. You look at football. The game of football has changed. The game of baseball has changed."

"Wrestling is changing and you have to stay with the times," he added. "[Ricochet] is an amazing athlete. I have wanted to use him on so many shows, but he is booked between wrestling for Lucha Underground as well as New Japan. It happened to work out so I was fortunate to have him."

"I love that match between him and Will Ospreay had. I thought it was awesome. I never will forget when I first saw Rey Mysterio versus Psychosis in the ECW Arena and I was like, 'How are they doing that?'

And finally, Dreamer had a lot to say when asked about his good friend and current WWE Smackdown Tag Team champion Rhyno, who is also running for public office in Michigan.

On Rhyno, he said, "I've known him forever. He is one of the nicer guys in the world and I will tell you if there was ever somebody who truly cares about his community, it's Rhyno."

"I hate politics," he added. "My company's policy is 'No politics. No B.S. Just wrestling,' and I told him that if he was going to win I was going to have to fire him. It's good that WWE is picking him up because I'd have to get rid of him."

"We used to travel all of the time and we still do, and he would be, especially where he lives in Michigan, and he'd be, 'Hey, look at these potholes. Look at these conditions. Where's all of that taxpayers money?' He truly cares and is getting into it for trying to make Michigan a better place. I think that's great. I'm also a Michigan homeowner. It's on the other side of the state, but he cares. I don't think he's going to do the regular politician B.S., but he does care. I hope he wins it.

I hope he wins it and I hope he changes some of his wardrobe because I've seen some of his outfits and they're horrible. He's copying Vince McMahon from the early 80s in those horrible announcer outfits. He definitely needs a stylist."