House of Hardcore

House of Hardcore founder Tommy Dreamer, 2014

On June 21, 2012, professional wrestler Tommy Dreamer began promoting House of Hardcore on his Twitter account. In the weeks afterward, HOH would be revealed to be a wrestling school run by Dreamer, Hale Collins and Vik Dalishus based out of the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York that would also run an event on October 6, 2012. Dreamer wanted a promotion with the spirit of ECW, a former promotion where Dreamer worked and House of Hardcore being the name of the ECW training school.[1][2] With the success of the first show, the promotion has continued to run events, though the wrestling school would cease in 2016 after building issues.

In its history, HOH has worked with Family Wrestling Entertainment, Combat Zone Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, Outback Championship Wrestling, Reality of Wrestling, International Wrestling Cartel, MCW Pro Wrestling, Aussie All Pro, National Wrestling Alliance, Ring of Honor, Overdrive Wrestling and Chinlock Wrestling. At the first event, the FWE Heavyweight Championship, held by Dreamer, was defended against Carlito Colon and Mike Knox. On November 9, 2013, the TNA wrestler Bully Ray made his debut in the company to attack Dreamer and to promote the TNA PPV One Night Only: Old School.[3] Also, for the first time, during House of Hardcore III, two Italian wrestlers competed on the show: King Danza and D3. The only roster members to appear on all HOH shows are Dreamer and announcer Vic Travagliante until January 2017 when Travagliante joined WWE.[4]

Following the events of House of Hardcore IV where Bully Ray was pulled from the show by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Dreamer representing HOH would join with Bully Ray and Devon in their feud with Dixie Carter, Ethan Carter III and associates.[5] The feud ended on the August 7, 2014 episode of Impact Wrestling when Bully Ray put Dixie through a table.[6] After this feud Dreamer would continue to represent HOH in TNA in matches with Bobby Lashley, Team 3D, Magnus, Bram and Eric Young.

On August 7, 2014, the promotion appeared on the TruTV series Impractical Jokers episode "The Lost Boy." Q's punishment for losing was under the speculation he was joining a musical, dressing as Peter Pan and fighting Dreamer in front of a crowd that hated him for insulting them.[5] The appearance was taped on June 6, 2014 at House of Hardcore IV.

On April 13, 2015, HOH announced it would run its first international show to be held in Toronto, Ontario on July 18. Three days later, House of Hardcore announced a global television deal with Fight Network. Starting on May 12, HOH will televise ten one-hour shows featuring highlights from all the House of Hardcore events to date. House of Hardcore on Fight Network will air on Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Grande Communications, Shentel Cable and Armstrong Cable in the U.S., nationwide in Canada, Roku devices across North America, and globally in over 30 countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.[7]

The November 30, 2015 episode of WWE Raw would feature the surprise of Dreamer, in HOH attire, returning to WWE to help The Dudley Boyz and Rhyno against The Wyatt Family.[8] Dreamer's brief time with WWE ended in January 2016 since a longer commitment would have forced HOH to close.[9]

June 2016 would feature Dreamer partnering with Outback Championship Wrestling to bring HOH to Australia.[10] With the success of that event, HOH would return to Australia for multiple events in June 2017 and July 2018 with Aussie All Pro.[11][12]

On November 20, 2016, HOH announced a deal with FloSlam for live streaming of events (starting in December 2016) and On Demand access to some archived events.[13] In March 2017, HOH and FloSlam extended their deal to cover events to May 2017.[14]

On June 5, 2017, House of Hardcore and ProWrestlingTees.com announced that they were teaming up for a promotion called "Summer of Hardcore". With this promotion fans would be able to purchase from 12 former HOH T-shirt designs. The "Summer of Hardcore" runs until September 1.[15] In response to Hurricane Harvey, HOH announced a Labor Day promotion where they would match every order on ProWrestlingTees.com and send shirts to storm victims.[16] The HOH store continues to be open.

On October 8, 2017, Dreamer announced at New York Comic Con a multi-year exclusive partnership with Twitch and HOH. The official live airing of content will be House of Hardcore 35 with content being added weekly. This will now see HOH focusing on storylines and the future creation of House of Hardcore championships. In addition, HOH will be running more shows including during Wrestlemania weekend.[17][18]

The first episode of House of Hardcore TV aired on Twitch November 8, 2017. The show, which has no set length, and were produced by Monique Dupree, on air valet of the Double Duprees and the company's social media manager, aired on Wednesdays at 9 PM EST. Episodes typically feature hype for future events, recaps of past events and a showcased match from the HOH archive. One of the goals of the show is "telling wrestler's real stories" in part by having them create their own promo segments. [19] Starting with the July 18th 2018 episode, the HOH TV show format would change to Dreamer hosting a live Q&A with some guests and discussing HOH and other topics. In addition, instead of airing live events, HOH shows will be shown monthly after having some time for post-production. HOH would cease airing events on Twitch in March 2019.

Beginning in January 2018, Dreamer in addition to operating HOH began to work backstage for Impact Wrestling. As a part of this, Dreamer and HOH helped to produce the April 6th, 2018 Twitch Impact Wrestling vs. Lucha Underground special and starting with House of Hardcore 40 would feature promos and matches from HOH events being featured on episodes of Impact!.[20] Dreamer would also become involved in the Eddie Edwards/Sami Callihan feud on Impact! and in a House of Hardcore match (No Disqualification match) at Impact Wrestling Redemption.[21] Eventually Dreamer's involvement in the feud would lead to issues with Edwards where he would turn on Dreamer at House of Hardcore 43[22][23] They would resolve their issues in a House of Hardcore match at Slammiversary XVI[24]

After holding tournament matches at House of Hardcore 37 and House of Hardcore 39, HOH would crown its first champion at House of Hardcore 40 when Willie Mack won the HOH Twitch Television Championship. The title has been defended in America, Canada and Australia. On September 6, 2018, the title would be defended in Dragon Gate at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan when Mack defeated Shun Skywalker.[25] On December 31, 2018, Mack would successfully defend the title against Tommy Dreamer in Baldwin Park, California for Bar Wrestling.[26]

On January 1, 2019, Dreamer partnered with GaS Digital Network to produce the House of Hardcore Podcast. The podcast features Dreamer interviewing wrestling personalities, telling stories from his career and talking about House of Hardcore and recent events. It also includes segments where Dreamer answers listener questions and taste tests different coffees and Oreos.[27]

On March 25, 2019, RetroSoft Studios announced that House of Hardcore, Tommy Dreamer and the HOH Twitch Television Championship will be included in their upcoming game RetroMania Wrestling. The game, which is a spiritual successor to WWF WrestleFest, has already announced Zack Sabre Jr., The Road Warriors and Austin Idol as being a part of the roster. The game, which is currently scheduled to release on February 26, 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam, will also feature a HOH arena for matches.[28]

On May 8, 2019, HOH announced that it was partnering with Impact Wrestling to live stream two events. The June 8th event in Philadelphia, titled "A Night You Can't Mist", was broadcast on Impact Plus and Fite.[29] The June 9th event in St. James, NY, titled "Digital Destruction", was broadcast on Impact Wrestling's Twitch channel.[30]

The April 11, 2020 HOH 58 event at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was postponed on March 14 due to the Coronavirus.[31] Like many sporting and entertainment events, the next House of Hardcore event is dependent on the Coronavirus pandemic ending.

House of Hardcore has produced 57 chronological events in additional to 2 charity events. The first event took place on October 6, 2012 in Poughkeepsie, New York at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center. The 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has held the most events with fifteen. The US and Canadian HOH events since HOH 2 in June of 2013 have also been produced by Monique Dupree.

• Official website
• House of Hardcore on Twitch