Various: Tommy Dreamer Reveals He Contracted COVID-19, Friday’s NJPW Strong Card, Indies

Tommy Dreamer Reveals He Recently Contracted COVID-19

During a recent episode of the House of Hardcore podcast, host Tommy Dreamer revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 last month. Dreamer stated that he contracted the virus following him working at an event for Wrestle Pro in Alaska.

“This is day 24 since I’ve been exposed to COVID. I’ve never been sicker in my life. I went to Alaska and was exposed on that Friday. The company I went for, Wrestle Pro, everyone tested negative. They were there about a week before I came in and someone tested positive. How that happened, it was a wrestler, and that wrestler had to fly home and he tested positive. Saturday, mid-afternoon, we all found out. The company did everything and told the wrestlers and fans. Nobody asked for refunds or anything.

As soon as I got in the ring and looked at the crowd and there were so many people not wearing masks. I said, ‘I made the wrong decision.’ I did it for selfish reasons and wanted to check Alaska off my bucket list to say I wrestled in every state and financial reasons. There was a good financial deal for me. It’s going to have long-term effects on my health. The wrestler who tested positive, I drove in the car back from the show with the person he wrestled. Both of us felt fine. The next morning, I woke up with a headache. The person who drove me back to the hotel, he and his daughter weren’t feeling well. He tested positive, his daughter tested negative. I know 12 people on the tour who tested positive, myself would be 13. It’s no fault of the promotion.”

Dreamer also gave details on the symptoms he was feeling while battling COVID.

“It felt like I had a massive concussion and I had a non-stop throbbing pain in my head for 17 days. Then came the fever. It was going up to 102, 102.4, and I had that for about seven days. The chills, at one point I had four winter blankets on me and I still felt like I was outside naked in the snow. That was about four days. Sweats, I would be freezing for two to three hours and then came the sweats and having to change the sheets daily. That lasted about 16 to 17 days. Weakness and fatigue were next level. I’m on day 24 and I’ve had three good days. It feels like you overcome and then it hits you all over again. I tested positive on Thursday and had already exposed my family. Thursday night, I was in so much physical pain that I literally said, ‘I’m going to pee myself because I can’t get up to walk to the bathroom.’ One night, I woke up crying and in pain. My elbows and hips felt like they were on fire, and I’ve been on fire. It was a raging pain, burning in both my elbows and hips. No matter which way I turned, I lost use of both my arms. They were just hanging. I couldn’t lay in bed. I had to stand for two hours against the wall.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

---

Full Card for Friday’s Episode of NJPW Strong

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for tonight’s Collision 2021 themed episode of NJPW Strong, which airs on New Japan World starting at 10PM EST.

• The DKC & Kevin Knight vs. Adrian Quest & Barrett Brown
• Jordan Clearwater & Misterioso vs. Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
• Ren Narita & Yuji Nagata vs. Chris Dickinson & Jon Moxley

---

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Ring of Honor recently announced that Rok-C is their first official entrant for their upcoming Women’s World Championship tournament this summer.

Legendary deathmatch wrestler Atsushi Onita recently announced (English translation via F4WOnline.com) that he will be launching a new exploding deathmatch promotion called Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Explosion and its official debut event to take place on July 4th.

NJPW announced that they have postponed their Wrestle Grand Slam events on May 15th at the Yokohama Stadium and May 29th at the Tokyo Dome due to the recent extension of the state of emergency by the Japanese government for the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Major League Wrestling’s debut episode on VICE TV this past Saturday reportedly did not rank in the Top 150 television shows for that night according to Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that MLW’s Fusion episode on VICE TV likely did less than 0.03 for the key demographic rating due to that being the lowest charted rating for that night.