Tommy Dreamer is best known in wrestling circles for being an iconic part of the original Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Dreamer feuded with the likes of Sandman and Raven, and was a unique star in the sense that he never wanted to win championship belts, and only won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in 2000 because several stars had departed.

He stayed with the company until the very end, where it ceased to exist in 2001, and then Dreamer jumped ship to WWE, where he was never prominently used in his first few years.

But the re-emergence of the ECW brand in 2005 saw Dreamer come back to prominence, and whilst his character is a bit niche, he's a very popular wrestler though.

If he had his own way back in 2001 though, he wouldn't have been around for his second wind.

The demise of the original ECW sunk Dreamer into a deep depression, and he blamed Heyman for it all.

Dreamer revealed that he turned down a huge offer from WWE because Heyman begged him to stay - only for Vince McMahon to purchase ECW's assets when the company became insolvent and Heyman then jumped ship.

On the night of WrestleMania 17 on April 1, 2001 in Houston, Texas, Dreamer was in the area performing for an independent promotion when he was made aware that guns could be carried at all times.

"I was across the street from the Astrodome. When I tell you it resonated in my head so, so much. That I’ll tell you what I wanted to do. It’s sick that I think this," said Dreamer on his House of Hardcore podcast, per Yahoo.

"At Wrestlemania, I was gonna hop the rail and I was gonna whack Paul E. [Heyman] in the back of the head right at the announce table, then I was gonna whack myself.

"The ultimate martyr, I was gonna hit my pose crack, boom, pull the trigger. Because I was that insane.

"Don’t know if I would have went through with it, but that’s what I was thinking about everyday. I was like, ‘I will go down in history.’ Pop, boom.

"First they’d think it as an angle until I shot him. I was so severely depressed and so mental with rage, I needed help.”

Thankfully though a helping voice talked Dreamer out of his plans - but not that he'd know it.

"That help came from a phone call from Jim Ross," Dreamer continued.

"Randomly I get a phone call from a number I didn’t know… I didn’t pick up, and I remember having these thoughts, and it was bad. Could you think about the horribleness that I would have done for my legacy?

"I would have ruined WrestleMania, which I love WrestleMania. For everybody. These thoughts were so so crazed in my head.

"I’m glad I didn’t do it. But when that phone call came from Jim Ross. Again, just said leave a message. It said 'Hey Tommy, it’s Jim Ross, just want to let you know, we are still thinking about you, we are gonna get it done, just got to hang tight. Thank you.'

Think of how stupid I would have been, how dumb and how messed up my thoughts would have been if they would have come to fruition. I am so happy I didn’t do it, I am so happy that I did get that phone call, from someone who was a stranger, I barely knew the guy."

It doesn't even bare thinking about what may have happened on that night, but it is really shocking that Dreamer has decided to own up to his thoughts some 18 years later.