Tommy Dreamer Claims ECW Was Funded By WWE From Day One

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Former WWE star Tommy Dreamer claims ECW was being funded by WWE from day one. ECW kicked off back in 1992 as Eastern Championship Wrestling. It brought something completely different to the professional wrestling world upon its debut.

Fronted by Paul Heyman, the industry ultimately met its demise in April of 2001. WWE subsequently swooped in for the purchase.

ECW original, Tommy Dreamer, spoke to WSVN-TV Entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet at MLW’s War Games recently. He offered his thoughts on ECW and its demise.

From what he has heard, Dreamer believes ECW was being funded by WWE from day one:

“I did not find out that Paul was in bed with them until we did any episode of Byte This together and he said it on the air and if you watch my face you can see it.

“The story changes all the time, Jim Ross who was the head of talent relations at the time says they were in bed together all the time and that Paul Heyman would get checks, but Paul said he didn’t get checks.

“It’s many, many conspiracy theories. Shane McMahon told me Paul was in bed with WWE the entire time. Bruce Prichard said he was in bed with them since day one.”

The 46-year-old, who still competes on the indy circuit regularly today, was then asked about his appearance at All In earlier this month.

Dreamer helped accompany Cody to the ring for his NWA World Title match against Nick Aldis. Dreamer was asked how the opportunity came about:

“Honestly, when I saw NWA’s YouTube show ’10 Pounds of Gold’ and Cody talked about Dusty’s five guys I seriously got all teary eyed. Then when talking with Glacier and DDP they were like we didn’t know that either.

“So now we’re forever connected. A lot of people say in life you can count your friends on one hand or you’re lucky if you can count them on two and for the fact that Dusty Rhodes counted three wrestlers that were part of his five guys, it was an amazing, amazing thing that we all witnessed together.

“Cody is someone I hired into WWE and The Young Bucks I use them all the time on my shows and they were like my main eventers before people thought they were main eventers. They’re my guys.”