YMMV / Tommy Dreamer

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: A non-lethal example. After losing his famous Singapore Cane match to the Sandman, Tommy stood up ready to be beaten. Naturally when he first got hit and fell down the fans were cheering and chanting for his blood. Then he got up, and beaten down again, and again, and again. By the end, he could barely stand and was still coming back for more, and the fans who had been cheering his pain were begging him to give up and stay down.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The "guy who eats gross things" gimmick he had in WWE.
• Badass Decay: His run in TNA. Thanks to Tommy's persistence, they managed to swing an ECW reunion show on Spike. For whatever reason, this required Tommy having to proverbially kiss Dixie Carter's feet on television. Then he became an avid fanboy of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair ("IF ANYONE'S HARDCORE IT'S YOU RIC!") all of a sudden. Tommy eventually did get his PPV after burying ECW, along with his principles, but it was costly to his image, and he started a Twitter war with Dixie to recover some of his cred.
  Wrestle! Wrestle!: And this is where he starts to cry again. Tommy Dreamer — the "hardcore" icon — cries more often than the fucking guy who says "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE".
• Growing the Beard: His "Thank you sir, may I have another?!" reaction to being caned by the Sandman is what turned him from a despised and mocked suspenders-wearing "pretty boy" to the "Innovator of Violence" and "the heart and soul of ECW".
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: From a despised and mocked suspenders-wearing "pretty boy" to the "Innovator of Violence" and an ECW legend. He was probably the best example of this until Rocky Maivia became the Rock.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: During his stint in WWECW, his theme song was a Jimmy Hart Version of "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains, the theme song he had in the original ECW.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: All due respect to Terry Funk, but, Dreamer defeating Raven at ECW's first PPV Barely Legal would have accomplished so much. He would have scored his first official pin on Raven and won the ECW World Heavyweight Title at the same time. He would have won it on the biggest stage ECW ever had. He would not have lost the title immediately after to Justin Credible.^note The only justification for this is that Dreamer apparently wanted to go his entire ECW career without winning any title, and him ultimately winning the ECW world title was a drastic measure taken after then-champion Mike Awesome infamously jumped ship to WCW while still champion, plus Dreamer being beaten by Credible was most likely a plot to get Credible (who at the time was not considered, well, credible world champion material) nuclear heat (not that it worked, at least not the right kind of heat). Still, this doesn't deny that Dreamer winning the title in hindsight would've been so much fitting.
• The Woobie:
  • It took him some 2 YEARS to get an officially recorded pin on Raven, and he went through all kinds of pain and abuse getting there. Then Jerry Lawler showed up to make things worse. Then it was Justin Credible. Then The Dudley Boys hit Beulah with 3-D, injuring her neck and sending her into retirement. He definitely qualifies.
  • Also applies to Real Life as well. After ECW folded in 2001, Tommy spiraled into a depression, especially since plans for him had changed and he wasn't going to be brought to the WWF at the time he expected. It got so bad that, after he discovered that Paul Heyman got a job in the WWF around the same time Dreamer and other ECW wrestlers were struggling to maintain the company afloat, he contemplated killing Heyman and then himself at WrestleMania X-Seven in front of the audience. Jesus Christ, that man needs a hug.