Weighing in at 274 pounds...
The Sandman!
[narrator] In the 1990s,
Extreme Championship Wrestling was meaner,
more aggressive, and bloodier than anything
audiences had seen before,
as the demands of the company's rabid fanbase led to
a dangerous escalation of in-ring violence.
What is this? These guys are crazy.
It felt so personal.
Daddy, you're drunk.
And I think that's why the fans were so involved with it.
People didn't know if it was scripted or not.
And the more popular it got,
the more they had to top the last show.
An escalation embodied by The Sandman.
The Sandman!
You know, got his jeans on, his t-shirt on,
his kendo stick, smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer.
Fan's like, "I could be this guy."
You might think it is, because all you see is
a beer drinking, cigarette smoking, scumbag.
Sandman's character was as organic as it could get.
God, I love ECW.
There's not a whole lot of difference between
James Fullington and The Sandman.
What can I do that somebody hasn't done?
I can make myself bleed before I get into the ring?
Nobody else has done that.
Though a hardcore icon
countless injuries and a lawless locker room
create no shortage of controversies,
leaving The Sandman with a brutal and
complicated legacy.
Somebody has got to stop The Sandman.
Why fuck with what's going on in the back?
As soon as the coke ends, or the pot ends,
there was, you know, painkillers.
We all did alcohol, drugs, pills that
you could possibly think of.
I don't know if he remembers even half of the stuff
that has ever happened.
I told my family, said, "Tell them the fucking worst.
People need to know this."
[Chanting] ECW! ECW!
He should've been dead a long time ago.
[Bell chiming continues]
Yeah...
Alright, so my music's playing.
Maybe some days it's 30 seconds,
some days it's a minute and a half...
but at the one point, it's like, alright,
everybody should be clapping your hands at this point.
So when I come in, I don't want
everybody to see me at one time.
I want, like, some people to see me and they'll be like,
"Oh, shit, he's over there"!
And then it works its way around the building,
and it might take ten, fifteen seconds 'til
everybody actually figures out you're over here.
[Cheering]
And then at that point I got 'em
and it's time to pop a beer.
Back in the day, dude, I would drink, like,
six beers on the way to the ring.
I'd smash 'em against my head.
I'd be bloody before I even get into the ring.
I mean, that's his personality.
He's drinking beer, spitting it out.
He's pouring beer down your throat.
[Cheering]
You feel like you're part of it, and you are.
If you got a 'Sandman' shirt on,
you're definitely getting a beer poured down your throat.
You know what I'm saying?
It's the best part of the show...
unless you're wrestling. If you're wrestling it sucks
'cause you gotta wait for him to get to the ring.
But if you're watching, it's great.
You know, 'cause you give the fans what they want.
He's one of them, you know?
It's a great entrance.
With those pants, and put the durag on,
it's like the equivalent of like getting up and putting a
hat on and, you know, going and doing your errands.
Except this guy was putting this shit on and going out
and entertaining hundreds of thousands of people.
At this point I'm having as much fun as they're having,
you know what I mean, because...
this is what I want to do.
This is what, what I worked my whole life to be in this
fucking moment right, right now, you know what I mean?
I want that moment to last forever, you know?
I want to live in that moment.
It's a party. You know, his entrance is a party.
And, you know, once that's over, then, you know,
you gotta see him wrestle.
Oh!
Oh my God!
Yo, I'm The Sandman. What the fuck up?
Yeah, dude. My parents call me Hak,
my kids call me Hak,
my granddaughter calls me Poppy Hak.
I've had that name since I was five years old,
my older brother gave it to me.
Ah, dude, it was like Saturday afternoon.
I watched WW...WF at one o'clock on Saturdays.
Down goes Conrad!
Dude, that's all I ever wanted to be
was a professional wrestler.
And the bloodied Sandman thrown through that table.
I was all coked up and I was drunk and...
I burglarize the house, which is basically the only, like,
real like, "crime" crime that I ever did.
And my first day in jail, I punched a guard in the face.
I got in a fight with a guy over the television.
I was watching something, and he went to change it
and then we got in a fight.
Two guards were, had to break it up.
He ducked, I punched a guard in the face.
Broke his glasses.
I was lucky I didn't get charged with assault
on a guard. That could have been a couple of years,
you know what I mean?
But I ended up literally going to the hole
for six months.
I'm glad it happened because, you know,
it's throwing a rock in a pond.
If that ripple's not there, maybe this ripple's not here.
It's just the stupid shit I walk into in my life.
♪
I get out of jail, it's like '84.
And like, this new club opens up.
[Chattering]
And dude, the place holds 2,000 people.
It's like five storeys high.
It's like the greatest thing ever.
So, Thursday nights was ten bucks all you could drink.
So I'm out there, I'm on the dance floor.
Some blonde comes up and starts dancing with me,
grabs me by my hand,
and started walking me across dance floor.
I'm like, "Alright.
Where am I gonna go have sex with this chick?
Where is-" 'Cause that's exactly what I'm thinking.
We end up going up these stairs.
We're in this little frickin' office, and I'm like,
"Well, how am I gonna do this in this little office"?
She goes, "Take your shirt off."
I'm thinking how am I gonna screw her?
She goes, "Listen, I'm a producer-director
for the Chippendales.
I want you to be a Chippendales."
I was one of those guys who wore the
black pants, tight pants, the cuffs and the collar,
and I just entertain the women.
Because I don't leave the club until two o'clock
in the morning, you know.
You're snorting coke with the boys who's down
in the locker room, because that's just what you did
back in them days. You know what I mean?
And then I go out to the after-hours club,
and then I go to the club that opened up at 6 AM.
It's just crazy, man.
And that was my job for the next year or so,
until I got fired for soliciting.
Soliciting. And I got...
because they weren't paying a lot of money.
I had like four guys in on it with me.
So, it was 100 bucks to do us,
there was the Alpine Inn down the street, that was 42.50.
So of course, 100 for us, 42.50 for the Alpine Inn
for however long it took.
And that lasted for about six months, until... I don't know,
just one day there's a couple of state troopers,
they're like, "Listen, we could file some charges,
or you could quit and tell us who,
who your boys are." I said,
"Well, I'm not telling you who my boys are.
That's your job to figure that out.
But, I'll quit." So I was done.
He was not the type that I would've saw myself
going for, really. He was very...
I don't know if you want to say flamboyant,
but something drew me to him.
And believe it or not, that night we sat and talked,
and he was just like, "I think I could love you."
-Hey, I work quick. -[Laughing]
Dude, that's kinda how I've been with...
it's like I meet 'em and then, like, I'm in.
I ended up actually, a few months later,
finding out I was pregnant.
And he said he'd like to get married before the child
was born so he wasn't born out of wedlock.
Miss Peaches!
[Cheering]
My name is Lori Stolecki, a.k.a.
'Peaches' from ECW, and Sandman's ex-wife.
He was in construction at the time,
and Joel Goodhart opened up a wrestling school.
I had to go check it out, and then next thing you know,
dude, like, three days later, I gave the guy, like,
3,500 bucks.
Three months later I was in the ring.
It's not gonna be pretty.
There's gonna be blood, there's gonna be
broken bones, and it's me and you.
When I first signed, it was probably 1991.
He was a surfer.
He had white stuff on his nose, he wore a wetsuit,
and he carried a surfboard.
From South Beach, California...
this is The Sandman!
My name's Sabu.
I've been wrestling over 30 years,
and I participated in ECW.
Oh my God!
I, I remember him.
And he came out with Peaches, his wife.
I met up with the promoter, and he goes, "I got your name.
You're gonna be 'Mr. Sandman'."
And he looks at my wife, then he goes,
"You're gonna be 'Peaches'."
Peaches!
He used to wear this god awful wetsuit
that smelled horrible.
I'm Kelly, and The Sandman is my dad.
And he would come out with my mom, Miss Peaches,
and he would come out with his stupid surfboard.
That was his very first gimmick.
You know, it started out doing, like,
little gymnasiums, and, like, car dealerships...
but it was, like, just a fresh new company.
It was, like, everybody was just
getting their bearings, you know?
We're feeling it out.
But, he was consistent with it.
It was like his life's dream.
It's my pleasure being here with all you people,
'cause if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have this belt!
Irish Whip!
The gimmick was bad, his ability was not.
I mean, he's big, he was good looking,
very bright, very athletic.
Oh!
My name is Tod Gordon.
I'm the creator and the founder of
Extreme Championship Wrestling.
Oh, thank heaven. Here's our commissioner, here's Tod.
Sandman and I have been best friends since we first met
30 years ago, when I started my own company,
which was Eastern Championship Wrestling
at the time, which became
Extreme Championship Wrestling.
He was on my first grouping of people to use.
I've had that belt, I've been there before,
and I'll be there again.
Sandman now on top of thing.
Philadelphia's Eastern Championship Wrestling
was a struggling indie promotion,
until the arrival of Paul Heyman,
who transforms the company into
Extreme Championship Wrestling,
Look at him! Fuck him!
Paul Heyman was the right guy because
he is great mind for the business.
How to be a rule breaker 101.
Dude, he is the greatest mind ever in,
in the history of professional wrestling.
Creatively, nobody could touch Paul Heyman and
come anywhere close to that dude.
And I would not be sitting here right now if it wasn't
for Paul Heyman giving me the ball and letting me run.
First night, I go in there,
fucking he sees me with the surfboard.
He goes, "That's getting broken over your head tonight."
And then the next thing you know,
I forgot my wrestling boots.
I'm like, "Paul, sorry dude, I forgot my wrestling boots."
He goes, "I don't give a fuck." And I'm like...
I don't have to wear wrestling shoes no more.
Dude, it was a fucking light bulb going off in my head.
When Paul Heyman says, "I don't give a fuck if
you're wearing wrestling boots." I'm like, boom,
I'm not even gonna change. I'm gonna wear the clothes...
I'm gonna, I'm gonna show up to the arena, and dude,
I'm gonna be me.
I'm just gonna fucking be me out there.
And it got to that- It was at that point I'm like,
you're never gonna be able to
walk through this curtain again.
Like, you, you literally cannot enter the ring
like a normal wrestler ever again,
because this is what's expected of you.
He will be more hardcore than the next Traci Lords video.
And as for me, Paul E. Dangerously,
haven't had a shave in a couple of weeks
and don't look like I really care anymore!
Upon Paul Heyman's arrival,
The Sandman drops his surfer look,
changing with the times to re-invent himself
with a whole new persona.
I was always trying to figure,
what hasn't somebody done?
Well, the good time's over, here comes The Sandman.
I'm the guy that's in the bar, loses a game of pool,
and wants to get into a fight with ya.
That was me in my life, dude.
That was my regular Friday and Saturday night.
You know what I mean? Like, I was a gimmick...
by, by myself, born as a gimmick.
We got to be ourselves in the dressing room and
ourselves in the ring.
The beauty of Paul's intelligence,
is he makes you figure it out.
By trial and error, that's how he became The Sandman.
Hey, daddy.
My name is Bill 'Fonzie' Alfonso,
and I am a 40 year plus veteran of
sports entertainment.
This is a winner! He's a winner!
Fuck you, asshole!
He would put things together in his head that
he thought would work in ECW, and they did.
Life's a bitch...
and then you marry one.
He's a typical Philly guy.
Like, you go to a bar, you get in a brawl,
you know, here's the dude.
He was a relatable character.
People could kind of identify with that South Philly vibe.
He was your buddy who would come off the couch and just
step into the ring, and swing a cane and drink a beer.
My name is Raven, professional wrestling
superstar, but you already know that.
For the first time ever,
Raven goes one on one with The Sandman.
You know, every fan says, "Oh, I would get in the ring."
Sandman with the guillotine leg drop.
But he's the guy that actually goes and does it.
Part of being a good worker is knowing how to get your
character over and how to keep the character over.
And he's done that for, you know, 35 years now.
Well, yeah! And like, coming through the crowd.
I think I came through the crowd because,
me and Missy were coming through the crowd.
[Laughing] Dude. Me and Missy.
[Laughing] We're in fucking Queens,
and there is this strip club.
Me and Missy are over in the strip club and my music's
playing, it's already played once this whole time.
So, I wasn't going, fucking up through the back,
into in there.
I just went through the front fucking door.
Boom! Light bulb.
Nobody's come through the crowd before.
Just drinking his beer, walking through the audience.
Meanwhile, he's drunk off his ass by then, geez.
Then he's drinking five on the way to the ring.
We trusted him because
we knew he was able to do it.
My name is RVD. That stands for...
Rob! Van! Dam!
[Cheering]
You know, he proved himself that he was able to
wrestle when he was drunk.
Watching him, I would get nervous with his
freaking ass, climbing up on the top rope and I'm like,
"Is he really gonna attempt this
aerial maneuver right now"?
Oh!
I know I can trust him drunk.
Anybody drunk? No.
Sandman, yes. Anybody else?
I wouldn't allow it either. But Sandman...
you're not drunk?
I'm not wrestling you. [Laughing]
So, it's a Sunday.
Paul's like, "Let's go outside."
And we're standing next to this fucking tree.
Paul goes, "You know that kid overseas that
got caught spray painting the car"?
I'm like, "Yeah, kid, Michael Fay." He goes,
"Good, you know what I'm talking about."
Singapore had sentenced an 18 year old American
to six strokes with a bamboo cane.
And I said, "Yeah."
Dude, you ever see that fucking cane that they use?
Every shot they hit you with it makes you bleed.
He goes, "You're gonna start carrying a Singapore cane
to the ring." I'm like, "Paul, okay, what am I gonna use"?
He goes...
rips a branch off the fucking tree,
rips all the little other branches off it, says,
"Get some tape, wrap it around there.
That's gonna be your Singapore cane.
I want you to cut a promo with it."
The first ever Singapore Caning Match.
May 14th Saturday night ECW!
And now it's The Sandman caning Iron Man Tommy Cairo.
-[Smacking] -Did you hear that?
And then the, the angle with Dreamer, just. [Whistling]
It went to ten lashes.
I can't look!
Ah!
It skyrocketed both of our careers.
He got his ass kicked, but he took it like a man.
And Philly loves that.
Thank you, sir. May I have another!
And The Sandman takes an eleventh shot!
It's hardcore because it's real.
And to me you're pulling something out of the inside
of somebody that they're feeling somehow
what you're doing in the ring.
Hardcore isn't violence to do violence.
To me, like, the hardcore is violence for a reason.
And then it just means more people,
and you can see it in their faces.
You can see how they react.
Sandman wasn't a wrestler.
He was a entertainer.
That cigarette hit our cameraman right in the eye.
That's what ECW was about.
Wrestling is entertainment.
You don't have to do a wristlock, a wristwatch,
a moonsault to get over it.
It doesn't have to be wrestling.
I'm getting ready to take you to a new level of extreme!
Ah!
He got better and better and knew how to play The Sandman,
and he was just acting this part out.
Everybody was kind of riding that high.
Everyone was like, "Man, like, they made it."
We're in this very concentrated community and
everybody knew who he was.
He dropped me off at school and he's got gash marks
on his head from like the beer cans.
And my teacher's like, "The fuck...
Tyler, you alright?"
I'm Tyler Fullington, and The Sandman is my father.
Every time he was home, you know,
he made sure to spend time with us because
he knew he would be on the road, you know,
a lot, and be away.
And he wanted to make sure that his kids were
having his time when he was home.
You know, hurting or not.
He would just roll out of bed,
throw pants on and like, let's roll.
Literally, he would say, "Let's roll"!
The older and older I got I felt, this is cool and all,
but times I'd rather just have my dad around.
Sandman's schedule becomes even more punishing
as ECW explodes in popularity
by constantly pushing their own limits.
Paul's show is aimed at adults.
The Sandman exposes his ex-wife!
And so storylines were adult.
The Sandman's got a hold of his wife!
He just, he just pulled up her...
and woman is lashing Peaches!
Just thought like, this is like the
furthest thing from pro wrestling.
But Paul would guide us the way
the ECW energy needed to be.
Well, I had Nancy with me, too, so that helps.
Why thank you, Sandman.
And that's just the beginning.
I've been known to enhance a few careers.
She was so smart. I would be like,
"Yeah, I want to do it this way." She goes,
"No, we're not doing it that way.
We're doing it this way." I'm like, "Alright."
-Woman! -[Cheering]
And so if something happens outside of the
wrestling world, they're gonna go with it,
and the fans are gonna know about it anyway
because they were all, what we called
'the smart fans' or 'the smarks.'
I walk into the building and Paul Heyman goes to me,
"I've been talking to Macaulay Culkin.
This is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna bring him in as your kid." And I'm like,
"Dude, I have a Macaulay Culkin sitting
right out in my van." He goes, "Great!
We'll use Tyler."
That's just one of Paul's lies.
Had no connection to Macaulay Culkin at all.
Yeah.
Of course they do.
He could sell you snowballs in winter, trust me.
Yeah, I was about six years old.
My mom, dad came up to me.
"How would you like to be, like, part of the show, or..."?
I'm like, "Uh, I guess"?
You know, what am I gonna do?
I just remember he takes my wife, and then he,
and then he takes my kid, and then we're off to the races.
The Sandman'swife Lauri has long been an ECW fixture
as part of her husband's storylines.
And now takes center stage in his latest feud with Raven
You took my child.
Tonight, I'm gonna take you, Raven, to the extreme.
However, the idea of bringing his son Tyler into the mix
was something the wrestling world
hasn't seen and wouldn't expect.
Oh dear Lord...
I don't even know how it all began.
Inside this woman's body, began the constant
evolution of the Sandman's successor.
Sandman and my feud, I would say,
is one of the greatest feuds in the history of the
business, but I'm partial 'cause I was in the feud.
But I really think that.
Everybody knows somebody who has a marriage that
got ended in divorce where the child is used as
a prop to gain concessions.
All the abuse, the suffering, the emotional alienation that
I took as a child is now being inflicted
upon your son, Sandman.
And it's the most lowdown, dirty,
and cruel thing you can do.
So I'm like, "Oh, this is great."
The main crux of it was that Raven and Sandman had been
feuding and they wanted to take it the next level.
So Raven, quote unquote, stole Sandman's wife.
I've already pimped her out to
the whole locker room before.
But then he stole Sandman's son Tyler,
which was really controversial because
we had a kid who's like five years old in the ring.
Next thing you know, here we are.
He's got a little flannel shirt on and...
and they just coached him in the back a little bit
just what to say. And, you know...
Don't you dare fucking smile out there.
Nothing.
I don't want any reaction from you on anything.
This is where your face is.
What do you think about that, kid?
That's your face and that's the way you stay.
Look at him, there's the face right there.
There's the face, that, that's the face
that I always told him to have on.
The money shot.
I can close my eyes and see him dressed like Raven.
It was crazy.
I was young and naive.
You know, me and my mom are coming down the aisle.
Raven's a bloody mess, got barbed wire
in his hair or something like that.
We just get in the front, Raven says,
"Tyler, tell him."
-Tyler, tell him! -Daddy, you're drunk!
Now I worship Raven.
I hit the line and you could hear, like,
a somberness, like almost over the crowd.
Like, "Ooh." Like, like that hurt.
It wasn't like a cheer. It wasn't like a boo.
Like it was like...
oh, shit. Like, damn.
"I worship Raven." And the whole place was like...
[Gasping]
Quiet.
And you don't hear that in the arena.
These people ate it up.
They were just like, "Holy shit,
you just hurt The Sandman."
Like, Raven became the, the heel's heel.
You know, now you came in and you stole his family.
That shit put asses in seats.
[Crying]
Don't do this to me!
Tyler is an amazing actor.
Hey, you little bastard, why don't you shut up?
The Sandman's not even your real dad.
[Gasping]
He never missed a cue. He never missed a spot.
-This sucks. -Shut up, kid.
We'd be gone doing promos after the show,
and I'd be drunk, and I'd screw up a promo,
or I'd forget to give him the line,
and he would still hit the line anyway
exactly in the right spot.
I mean, he was amazing.
Hey, kid.
You know the divorce was your daddy's fault, don't ya?
I know.
I think I know now, more,
like looking back on it, like...
man, yeah, those guys were
pretty fucking crazy, you know? Like...
but at the time, I was just being a kid.
I don't even know if I was prepared for it, and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, this is really happening." And I'm thinking,
"This is gonna turn my life upside down." You know?
'Cause everything had to be separate.
Travel separate, show up separate,
leave separate. It was crazy.
We'd be leaving the arena, separate cars,
and you have a meeting spot.
You pulled up to the gas station and kinda look like,
anybody with an ECW shirt on?
Like, alright, get out, switch cars,
like get back in the car, you know, stuff like that.
You know, the marks, they're always out,
always looking for ya.
They know exactly who you are, where you go.
And it's hard trying to keep that whole storyline
separate for as long as we did.
Me, my dad, my mom, Tyler...
we did this all together.
They might've been in the spotlight,
but we did this all together.
We're traveling to shows constantly every week.
You know, that was life.
Shit, there were times we'd be driving around New York
and they would find this, like, playground.
It's like two o'clock in the morning.
We were in like, bum fuck New York,
and it was pouring rain, and Raven saying,
"This is like the best weather to like,
we gotta shoot this promo."
I am their salvation.
And at the very end they cut to me, and I just said-
Quote the Raven, nevermore.
"Quote the Raven, nevermore."
[Laughing]
I had one line, cut it,
and I guess I got to go back to sleep.
[Laughing] You see, I control the children.
I just think they got away with doing so much
that other companies didn't.
And they just really pushed the line.
They pushed every limit that they could.
This is just heartbreaking.
I couldn't do it mentally anymore and I didn't
want my kids to be a part of it anymore.
It was too much.
The Sandman and Raven's storyline proves to be
a massive success for the company.
But their attempt to take it to the next level
could end up bringing ECW down.
The best way to describe Raven is he's a martyr for
society's dysfunction, and he wants everyone
to feel his pain.
So I came up with the idea of putting Sandman up
on a cross so he could feel my pain. So I'm like,
"I can't build a cross." He goes,
"I'll build it, idiot face."
Dude, people don't realize that,
that I used to build shit, dude.
That's what I was. I was, fuckin'...
I was a roofer, I was a concrete dude,
I was a carpenter.
So... [chuckles]
he built his own cross and we had a thorny crown,
we had a barbed wire crown to be the thorny crown.
Oh yeah, we made sure we got all the little touches on it.
So we throw Sandman out to the floor, me,
Stevie and the Meanie and Nova,
and we start tying him to the cross.
We start hoisting it up...
and all of a sudden the place goes, "Oh, shit."
Putting my dad on a cross.
That's the, it's a holy figure- [laughing]
with barbed wire wrapped around his head as if he is,
you know, this embodiment of Jesus Christ.
I wasn't raised very religious, clearly,
but somebody's seeing that. I, I mean,
I was like, "What the fuck is gonna happen now"?
As the Sandman and Raven steal the ECW spotlight,
both are looking to shock the audience
But neither man is prepared for the backstage fallout.
I'm on the cross and Stevie's like,
"This is fucked up." I'm like, "Shut the fuck up,
this is great, Stevie." And then we get to the fucking,
fucking back, I'm like, "Damn,
that was fucking great, guys"!
And Paul E.'s like, "There's so much heat on this."
I'm like, "Why?"
And then everything was great except fucking Kurt Angle
happened to be in the fucking building that night.
You know, he's this Olympian, it's his first time being
around pro wrestling and shit like that.
Paul wants to get this Olympic fucking champion to
come work for fucking ECW, you know what I mean?
So Paul's kissing his ass.
So, they get fucking Raven to go out and apol-
I said, "That's fucking bullshit.
I disagree. Fuck all you dudes."
And I just walked away.
And so, for the people who I deeply offended,
I apologize.
Despite the controversy surrounding
the crucifixtion angle.
the scandal doesn't slow The Sandman's momentum.
Dude, are you kidding me?
Me and my man Scorp, we have the Tag Team titles.
I have the Heavyweight title and he's got the TV title.
When you and your boy got all the titles in the company,
then you know you're doing something right.
Despite the accolades and championships
life on the road and ECW's hard hitting style
are taking a toll on The Sandman's body.
Oh my God!
What, are you kidding me? I've broken like 27 bones.
Yeah. Broken my neck, this clavicle three times,
I need a new hip, I need two shoulder surgeries.
Dude, Superplex off the top rope is
a 30 mile an hour car crash.
Imagine doing ten of them every day of your life.
Forget it. I got operated on,
this leg is operated on, that morning.
They shaved my meniscus and flew back to Philly.
I came into the ring where, I had crutches.
You know what I'm saying?
You love what you're doing so much
that you just don't care.
I actually was home one night,
and I got a call from Tod, and he said,
"Hak's got a concussion and he can't remember."
And I was like, "Oh, that's a good one.
You guys just go have fun and stop trying to goat me."
And he's like, "I'm not kidding.
He got hit in the head and he doesn't remember anything."
He's like, "I'm dead serious." So I had gone down,
and sure enough, here he was.
"Who won the match? What did it look like?"
I said, "I don't know. I wasn't there."
"Who won the match?" It was relentless.
And then that was early on,
and there is countless times after that.
I was like, "You can't keep doing this.
You're not gonna be able to do things with the kids."
You know...
they just wanna keep on going, that's all they know.
You get hurt, you get hurt.
So be it. Suck it the fuck up.
He would never take a pill.
And then it just got to a point where
you get in this pain and...
well, okay, couple.
Leads to a couple more, and your body gets used to it,
and a couple more... and then you're drinking.
And then you gotta go to bed so you're taking Xanax,
and then you gotta be up so you're doing cocaine.
It's a vicious cycle.
And once you get on it, it's very hard to get off.
You know, I, I knew what was going on.
I knew what he kept in his fanny pack.
What am I gonna say? I'm a kid.
I don't know. I'm 12, 13 years old.
Like, I don't know what a Xanax is, or, you know,
a perk or... whatever.
At the time, like, pain medicine.
That's all I know, and if, you know,
I gotta trust him. "Yes, to help my back,
help my neck, help." You know?
Alright. You gotta do what you gotta do.
You work 300 nights a year getting body slammed and
you tell me what you would do.
You know, as time went on, of course,
they have the barbed wire, the chairs,
the light bulbs, the tacks.
So, a couple Perks, some Somas...
and it just progressed.
I used to joke back then, if you pass a piss test,
you can't work for us.
We all got high, we all partied, it's what we did.
I remember my first bag of pills I found.
I knew exactly what it was.
I remember my first bag of coke that I found.
First line of coke I found.
The older and older I got, he was taking drugs,
you know, just going down the wrong path.
We used to go, on one month every Friday,
we'd have three doctors that we would
go see in Philadelphia.
All three doctors would give us 90 OxyContin eighties.
So, you're getting 270 OxyContin eighties,
you're getting 300 Percocets,
you're getting 300 Somas.
And everybody would come out, we would call it,
oh, we would get our booty.
There was a lot of drugs that
went around the dressing room.
I remember one time I had a friend that had
brought me some mushrooms, and I was
looking forward to trying them after my match.
I came for them later and my bag was empty,
and I was like, "Man, who ate my mushrooms"?
And Sandman was like, "Oh, were those yours"?
[Laughing] He ate the whole bag.
He should be dead. Sandman should be dead.
Raven, Sandman and I was driving in a car
we were going 200 miles.
Raven had got hurt like the week before.
He had a ruptured disc taken out,
so they gave him this highly addictive narcotic.
So we have to stop at a gas station so I can go to
the bathroom and so I can shoot up,
'cause I gotta get my dose in.
I had never shot anything before,
but I've seen TV shows and shit like that.
I'm like, "Dude, what are you doing"?
He's like, "I'm shooting an 80." He goes,
"It's really good." I'm like,
"Well, damn, I want to try. I'm in"!
You know, 'cause I'm a druggie.
So, I go to shoot a whole 80, he goes,
"Dude, do not shoot a whole 80.
You do not want." I'm like, "I snort five of
these things a day, I can shoot an 80."
So he shoots up the same amount too,
and we get back in the SUV and we start driving.
Sandman starts going like- [Snorting]
He can't breathe right.
I said, "Raven, Sandman is having trouble breathing."
He said, "Oh, he'll be alright."
About 5 minutes later I said,
"Hey, daddy, his lips are turning blue."
And we're like, "What"?
He's like, "His lips are turning blue."
We're like, "Holy shit, he's OD'ing."
Now we got a problem. He's dying.
The Sandman's reckless nature and persistent drug use
have landed him on the brink of death.
Thank God they stopped, they called the ambulance,
the ambulance came, the adrenaline shot, needle.
♪
They take me to the hospital.
I wake up at like four in the morning.
I ripped the shit out of my arms,
grabbed my shit out of the hospital,
fucking went into the hotel, fell asleep, got up,
and went to the show the next day and shot
an OxyContin 80 and loved it.
I liked it so much I'm like, "Dude,
I can't do this again. I'll end up fucking really,
actually being dead." Never did it again.
I found bills in my mail that show that he was
resuscitated from shooting up and flatlining,
and he never told me.
I wasn't telling her.
Oh yeah, hon, I OD'd fucking on the road last week.
Almost died.
Yeah, I'm not coming home with that story
fucking Sunday afternoon.
As The Sandman struggles with his personal issues
ECW experiences a decline as their top stars
leave for bigger, more mainstream promotions.
Towards the end of ECW,
WCW and WWF was picking our talent.
They would leave us and go to WWF so,
Sandman got one of those offers to go to WCW and
make five times the money he was making in ECW,
so why wouldn't he?
And all the guys up there were huge.
Big monster guys.
And Sandman was a big, tall kid,
but not big muscle bound.
But he wanted to get big.
But he, remember, he didn't work out,
he didn't go to the gym at all.
So, he ordered all kind of steroids.
We called it the gas.
So that's the six months that I was doing the juice,
the steroids and the growth hormone.
And the only reason why I did it was because
I was going to WCW,
and that was the land of the freaking giants.
What was funny about when Sandman went to WCW was
he got jacked, like for the first time ever.
[Cheering]
Course we had access to the best gas on the planet
from Germany or whatever,
the latest shit that makes you big.
So he was on it, and it affects your thought,
it makes you mean sometimes.
It has a, an effect on your personality.
It turned my dad into
an abusive, harmful individual.
And my mom turned into this almost subservient,
meek woman for a little while.
Breaking point for me was the abuse.
Mm-hm, yeah.
My hair pulled.
I had a pillow put over my face.
Not just physically abused, but mental abuse.
"You're stupid," you know, a bunch of that.
And sometimes the mental stuff was
harder than the physical.
We were at his house, and we're at the table
and he's being a dick to his wife,
and he poured a beer on her head.
He wouldn't have done it unless he was off
and gassed up and drunk.
So, Sandman just got a shipment,
$10,000 shipment of steroids and
Peaches went in the refrigerator,
and she fucking dumped it all out in the front lawn,
and he says, "Do you realize you just
dumped $10,000 worth the shit?"
And she said, "I don't give a fuck, Sandman.
You're acting like a dick on this shit."
I don't care.
You know, 'cause it made him angry.
Like he was just angry.
It hurt. As much as I loved him
I hated his guts, you know?
Because it was difficult.
It was extremely difficult to see my mom
go through what she had to go through and like,
you love us so much how could you treat somebody
you love like that?
He's your parent, and you know it's not right,
but you don't know how to help.
You know, you don't know what to do.
It got harder and harder to, you know, trust him and,
you know, want to be around him.
I put fucking Lori through hell.
Now I understand, like her perspective,
you know what I mean? And it was all me.
If I could have my shit together,
then maybe me and her would still be together.
Who knows.
All I can say is I stayed in too long,
and there's always help to...
guide you to where you need to be.
My mom... took her a while, but...
she made a decision.
And she decided that this is not how she wants to
live her life anymore, she's got three kids.
It was all my fault, and I know it.
Dude, she was like an angel.
I was like the devil reincarnated
for a little while. Maybe for a long while.
In 2001, ECW closes its doos and two years later
its assets are sold to Vince McMahon's WWE.
Giving The Sandman one last shot in the spotlight
as the brand is re-launched.
What's that smell?
Sandman's character was kind of watered down,
you know, no cigarette smoking, no beer.
Drinking on the job?
What the hell is this?
Society had changed, and so he wasn't
used as well as he could've been.
The zombie!
That's not the ECW that I know,
that's not the ECW that the fans know.
A lot of the original ECW fans
want to forget about that time.
Sandman's time in the WWE is brief,
and un-remarkable.
And though his wrestling career is largely over,
his trouble with addiction continue.
I got a phone call.
"Dad just got arrested, he's going to jail."
Like I was at work. I'm like, "For what?"
So, me and my brother packed our shit,
drove up to New York.
How am I going to find a freakin lawyer?
I don't even know what he did.
Like, I'm in Yonkers, New York.
I'd watched him wrestle for how many years?
He walked into this courtroom looking like
he just got put through a washing machine.
He, like, physically looked hurt.
And I was just like, "What happened?"
30 Long Island iced teas, that's what happened.
[Slurring] Alright, everybody here's thinking,
"You know what? This guy's drunk."
You're right!
Got in a fight with the owner.
So, he threw a bottle at me, hit me in the head.
I chased him into the kitchen,
broke a bunch of shit in the kitchen,
then the SWAT team came and took me away.
Basically had to go through the court system.
They finally set his bail.
So I remember calling this bank and I'm like, "Listen,
I need you to authorize a $10,000 from ATMs."
And she's like, "Well, there's only gonna be
like a $2000 limit per each ATM and
that's just the ATM itself."
Like you're only allowed to take so much.
So here I am bouncing around 'til I got to ten grand.
So I would be on the phone with them at an ATM 'cause,
you know, you see these kids getting money
out of an ATM, they're gonna rob ya.
And finally we're able to give them bail
about like, three, four...
something in the morning.
I remember walking into this, like, huge...
prison and like, giving them this money
and like, out comes my dad.
And I was like, "Get the fuck in the fucking car
we're fucking going home. I can't fucking believe."
And like, of course, of course.
Like, this is my life.
No kid should have to do that.
It was your life. You lived it.
You just, you don't know how horrible it is until later.
Or how horrible you might have made it for
other people that you, that you love.
♪
Deep down, he realizes he's done a lot of bad,
and that maybe this is his redemption?
I would like for him to accept what was,
accept what he has, and move on from here.
But I think it's gonna be kind of cleansing for
all of us, and hopefully himself,
to just... let it go.
I don't know. I'm an idiot, I, dude, I...
I've been so self -sabotaging in my life.
It's like, there's been a lot of just, personal destruction.
And now it hits me a little bit different because
I'm older and you think about that stupid shit that
you've done that kind of changes everything,
you know what I mean?
So, there's a different perspective in my head now.
I want him to realize, no matter how bad
things were at times,
including family life, that where he came from and
what he did was a lot of hard work and,
you know, accomplishment.
Was a perfect by any stretch of the imagination?
No. He's made a lot of mistakes,
and he'll be the one to tell you.
But, he's self-made and it's okay to-
[Chuckling] it's okay to say that.
He lived his life's dream.
There always has to be an end for everyone.
There always has to be an end to what you can do.
And you've done it.
A lot of people can't say that they've done that.
He can still be The Sandman, he still is The Sandman.
There will never be another Sandman.
I, I really just wish that he would understand that
what happened happened,
and he can move forward.
Sandman is an icon.
Poster boy for hardcore.
People loved The Sandman.
I am the hardcore icon.
I mean, who else is gonna drink beer, smoke cigarettes,
swing a cane, wear sweatpants to the ring,
t-shirt, and get over?
The first person to do a lot of shit.
You know, the first person to bleed before he got into
the ring, the first person to come out of the crowd.
You know what I mean? Smoke a cigarette.
I am the king of extreme!
[Cheering]
Smoking, drinking, yeah!
Cool.
No wonder why I'm fucking fucked up in the head.