A couple reports I'm reading say that Tommy Dreamer may have requested his release from the company and that they may have granted it to him, waiting for his contract to fully expire before he departs.
First, I have to wonder...why now? This time last year, Dreamer was the ECW champion and was booked pretty well considering his age, limited abilities, and lack of true potential star power for the company. Essentially, he was given a rather decent pat on the back for his service - something a lot of people never get. Is Dreamer leaving because he's frustrated that they didn't keep this up and have him as some top guy in the company? If so, that's pretty foolish of him, seeing as how he's basically on Finlay-level when it comes to the talent hierarchy. He's there to make the younger guys look good, get a steady and decent paycheck in the process, and pass on his knowledge to the next generation.
Now, if Dreamer wants to leave for other reasons, like his body just can't take it anymore, or he wants to spend more time with his family, then that's more reasonable as he's already had his little run at the top of ECW and now he's stagnant, so it'd be a good time to call it quits. There's also the question that everyone asks when someone leaves the company: are they TNA bound? TNA recently has been adding people left and right and they've seemed pretty happy with Stevie Richards (and now Raven, two ECW originals), so maybe there's something to that theory.
Nonetheless, Tommy Dreamer isn't the first guy that I was thinking would be released come the new year, as I thought his quote-unquote "legend status" would keep him protected for a little bit longer. But, if he requested his release, it throws all that out the window. With these reports out there, I wouldn't be too surprised to see him gone asap, and right around the time they start relieving themselves of Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J, Tyler Reks, and Eric Escobar. And really...losing Tommy Dreamer isn't that big of a hit, considering how they may be changing the ECW brand very soon to something different, which eliminates all of his "ECW home-grown" material.
0 comments: