Original subtitles

In the 1990s, extreme championship wrestling was meaner,

more aggressive, and bloodier than anything audiences had seen before, as

demands of the company's rabid fan base led to a dangerous escalation of in

-ring violence.

What is this? These guys are crazy.

It felt so personal.

And I think that's why the fans are so involved with it. People don't know if

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.

You know, got his jeans on, his t -shirt on, his kendo stick, smoking a

cigarette, drinking a beer. Fans are 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.

There's not a whole lot of difference between James Fullington and the

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?

There was the cookheads, there was the potheads, there was the painkillers. We

got all the 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, I said, tell them the fucking worst.

People need to know this.

He should have been dead a long time ago.

Let's talk about it for a second.

People who have never experienced it, like, what is the same man's entrance?

So my music's playing.

Maybe some days it's 30 seconds, some days it's a minute and a half. But at

one point, it's like, all right, everybody should be clapping your hands

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 10, 15

until everybody actually figures out you're over here.

And then at that point, I got him. Then it's time to pop a beer.

Back in the day, dude, I would drink like six beers on the way to the ring.

Smash him 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.

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

throat. You know what I'm saying?

That's the best part of the show.

Unless you're wrestling. If you're wrestling, it sucks. You've got to wait

him to get to the ring. But if you're watching, it's great, you know, because

gives the fans what they want.

He's one of them, you know.

It's a great entrance.

With those pants and put the do -rag 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 his 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 I worked my whole life to be in

this fucking moment 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 answer is it's a party.

And, you know, once that's over, then, you know, you got to see him wrestle.

Yo, I'm the Sandman. What the fuck up?

But do people call you Hack? Yeah, dude. My parents call me Hack.

My kids call me Hack. My granddaughter calls me Poppy Hack.

I've had that name since I was five years old. My older brother gave it to

And so what's your introduction to professional wrestling?

Oh, dude, it was like Saturday afternoon.

I watched WWWF at one o 'clock on Saturdays.

Dude, that's all I ever wanted to be was a professional wrestler.

Let's stick with your upbringing here. You started getting in some trouble with

the law a little bit? I was all coked up and I was drunk and I burglarized the

house, which is basically the only real 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

wanted to change it. And then we got in a fight, two guards went 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 car. That

could have been a couple 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. But 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.

Dude, the place holds 2 ,000 people. It's like five stories high.

It's like the greatest thing ever. So Thursday night was $10 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 starts

walking me across the dance floor. I'm like, all right, where am I going to go

have sex with this chick? Because that's exactly what I'm thinking.

We end up going up these stairs. We're in this little freaking office. And I'm

like, well, how am I going to do this in this little office?

She goes, take your shirt off.

I'm thinking, how am I going to 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

collar, and I just entertained the women.

I don't leave the club until 2 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 a .m.

It was just crazy, man.

And that was my job for the next year or so. So I got fired for soliciting.

You got fired for what?

Soliciting. Because they weren't paying a lot of money.

I had like four guys in on it with me.

So it was $100 to do us. There was the Alpine Inn down the street. That was $42

.50. So it would cost you $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

was a couple state troopers. They're like, listen, we can file some charges

you can quit and tell us 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 have saw myself going for, really. He was

I don't know if you want to say flamboyant, but something drew me to

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.

Dude, that's kind of how I've been.

It's like I meet him, and then, like, I'm in. I ended up actually, a few

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 Pete!

My name is Lori Stralecki, a .k .a. Peaches from ECW, and say a man's ex

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

days later, I gave the guy like $3 ,500.

Three months later, I was in the ring.

It's not going to be pretty.

There's going to be blood. There's going to be broken bones, and it's me and

you. When I first saw him, 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 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 going to be Mr. Sandman, and he

looks at my wife, and he goes, you're going to be Peaches.

Peaches!

I 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, or feeling it out.

But he was consistent with it. It was like his life's dream. It's my pleasure

for being here with all you people.

Because if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been so.

The gimmick was bad.

His ability was not.

I mean, he was big.

He was good looking. Very bright.

Very athletic.

My name is Todd Gordon. I'm the creator and the founder of Extreme Championship

Wrestling. Well, thank heaven. Here's our commissioner. Here's Todd.

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

which became Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Here's all 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 things.

Philadelphia's Eastern Championship Wrestling was a struggling indie

until the arrival of Paul Heyman transforms the company.

into extreme championship wrestling.

Paul Heyman was the right guy because he had a great mind for the business.

How to be a world breaker, 101.

Dude, he's the greatest mind ever in the history of professional wrestling.

Creatively, nobody could touch Paul Heyman and come anywhere close to that

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. He sees me at the surfboard. He goes, that's

broken over your head tonight.

And then the next thing you know, I forgot my wrestling boots.

I'm like, Paul, I'm sorry, dude. I forgot my wrestling boots. He goes, I

give a fuck.

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,

give a fuck if they're wearing wrestling boots.

I'm like, boom, I'm not even going to change. I'm going to wear the clothes.

I'm going to show up to the arena. And, dude, I'm going to be me.

I'm just going to fucking be me out there.

And it got to that, it was at that point, I'm like, you're never going to

able to walk through this curtain again.

Like, you literally cannot enter the ring like a normal wrestler ever again,

because this is what's expected of you.

Upon Paul Heyman's arrival, the Sandman drops his surfer look, changing with the

times to reinvent himself with a whole new persona.

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 once again, I don't

fight with you. 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 myself. I was born as a

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.

The 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.

He's a winner!

He's a winner! Fuck you, Alfonso! He would put things together in his head

he thought would work in ECW, and they did.

Life's a bitch.

And then you marry one.

He's the 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.

You know, every fan says, oh, I would get in the ring.

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 your character over.

And he's done that for, you know, 35 years now.

Is there trial and error when you're coming up with stuff?

Well, yeah, and like coming through the crowd.

I think I came through the crowd because me and Missy were coming through the

crowd.

Dude.

Me and Missy.

We're in fucking Queens.

And there's a 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 and doing that. 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.

And 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.

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 going

attempt this aerial maneuver right now?

I know I can trust him. Drunk. Anybody drunk? No.

Sandman, yes.

Anybody else? I wouldn't allow it either.

Sandman, you're not drunk.

I'm not wrestling you.

So how did the Singapore cane come to be? 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 baiting the car?

I'm like, yeah, the 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

bamboo cane.

And I said, yeah, dude, you ever see that fucking cane that they use? Every

they hit you with, it makes you bleed.

He goes, you're going to start carrying a Singapore cane to the ring.

I'm like, Paul, okay, what am I going to use? He goes, rips a branch off the

fucking tree, rips all the little other branches off, and says, get some tape

wrapping around there, and that's going to be your Singapore caning. 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, Ironman Tommy Cairo.

Did you hear that? And then the angle with Dreamer.

What happened there?

What, the ten lashes?

I can't look.

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?

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. Then you see how they react.

Sandman wasn't a wrestler.

He was a entertainer. That's what ECW was about.

Wrestling is entertainment. You don't have to do a wrist lock, a wrist watch,

moonsault to get over it. It doesn't have to be wrestling.

I am getting ready to take you to a new level of extreme.

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

He was dropping me off at school, and he's got gas marks on his head from,

the beer can.

And my teacher's like, Tyler, are you all right?

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

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 a time when he was home, you know, hurting or

not. He would just roll out of bed, throw his pants on, and like, let's

Literally, he would say, let's roll.

The older and older I got, I felt, I think it's cool and all, but at times

rather just have my dad around.

Sandman's schedule becomes even more punishing as ECW explodes in popularity

constantly pushing their own limits.

Paul's show was aimed at adults.

And so storylines were adult.

Just thought, like, this is, like, the furthest thing

from pro wrestling. But Paul would guide us the way that 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, all right.

And so if something happens outside of the wrestling world, they're

going to go with it. And the fans are going to know about it anyway because

were all what we called the smart fans or the smarts.

I walk into the building and Paul Heyman goes to me, I've been talking to

Macaulay Culkin.

This is what we're going to do. We're going to bring him in as your kid.

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. I have no connection to Macaulay Culkin at all.

That's a lie?

Yeah.

Everybody thinks it's real. 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 part of the show?

I'm like, I guess. What am I going to do? I just remember he takes my wife,

then he takes my kid, and we're off to the races.

The Sandman's wife, Lori, 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 going to take you, Raven, to the extreme.

But bringing his son Tyler into the mix is 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 in my feud, I would say, is one of the greatest feuds in history to

business, but I'm partial because I was in the feud. But I really think that.

Everybody knows somebody who has a marriage that 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

now being inflicted upon your son, Sandman.

And it's the most low -down, dirty, and cruel thing you can do.

So I'm like, oh, this is great.

The big crux of it was that Raven and Sandman had been feuding, and they

to take it to the next level. So Raven, quote -unquote, stole Sandman's wife.

I've already pimped her out of the whole locker room before!

But then he stole Sandman's son, Tyler, which was really controversial because

we had a kid who was like five years old in the ring.

Back singing now.

Here we are. He's got a little flannel shirt on in.

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.

That's the face that I always told him to have on.

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 were coming down the aisle. Raven's a bloody mess. He's

got barbed wire in his hair or something like that. We just get in front.

Raven says, Tyler, tell them. Tyler, tell them. Daddy, you're drunk.

Now I want your cravings.

I hit the line and you could hear like a somberness like almost over the crowd.

Like, ooh, 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, oh, my.

Quiet. And you don't hear that in the arena.

If people ate it up, they were just like, holy shit, you just hurt the

Like, Raven became the heel's heel.

You know, now you came in and you stole his family.

That shit put ass in his feet.

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

dad!

He never missed a cue. He never missed a spot.

Shut up. Shut up, kid.

We'd be going and 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

anyway, exactly in the right spot. I mean, he was amazing.

Hey, kid, you know the divorce was your daddy's fault, don't you?

I know.

I think I know now more, like, looking back on it, like, hey, those guys were

pretty fucking crazy, you know? 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 going to turn my life upside down, you know, because

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 pull up to the gas station and kind of look like anybody with an ECW shirt

on, like, all right, get out, switch cars, get back in the car, you know,

like that.

You know, the marks, they're always out, always looking for you. 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 have 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, 2 o 'clock in the morning.

We were in, like, bumfuck New York, and it was pouring rain, and Raven was

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 to Raven, never

more.

Quote to Raven, never more.

I had one line, cut it, and I guess I got to go back to sleep.

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.

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. Too much.

The Sandman and Raven 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

pain. So I'm like, I can't build a cross. He goes, I'll build it, idiot

Dude, people don't realize that I used to build shit, dude. That's what I was.

I was a roofer.

I was a concrete dude. I was a carpenter.

So he built his own cross, and we had a thorny crown. We had a barbed wire crown

to meet a thorny crown.

Oh, we made sure we got all the little touches on it.

So we throw Sam right out to the floor, me, Stevie, Naminie, 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 a holy figure with barbed wire

wrapped around his head as if he's, you know, this embodiment of Jesus Christ.

I wasn't raised very religious, clearly, but somebody seeing that, I mean, I was

like, what the fuck is going to 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

up. This is great, Stevie.

And then we get to the fucking back, and I'm like, damn, that was fucking great,

guys. And Paulie'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 just Olympian. This is his first

time being around pro wrestling and shit like that. You have to understand, I'm

a Christian kid from Pittsburgh.

When I saw it, I was like, oh, my God, it's a crucifixion. I was really upset,

and I went to Paul Heyman, and I said, hey, you can't air this show with me on

it. If you do, you're going to hear it from my attorney.

And Paul said, well, I didn't even know what was going to happen. He's the

promoter. It's the main event.

He's full of shit.

That was my last straw.

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 in the park. 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 crucifixion 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!

A lot of injuries from that hard -hitting style?

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

shoulder surgeries. Dude, superplex off the top rope is a 30 -mile -an -hour car

crash. Imagine doing 10 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 with, 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 Todd and he said, Huck's got

a concussion and he can't remember.

And I was like, ah, that's a good one. You guys just go have fun and stop

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, there 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 are countless times after that.

I was like, you can't keep doing this. You're not going to be able to do things

with the kids.

You know, they just want to keep on going. That's all they know.

You get hurt, you get hurt so bad.

Fuck it the fuck up.

He would never take a pill. And then it just got to the point where you get in a

pain and, well, okay, couple.

It leads to a couple more, and your body gets used to it, and a couple more.

And then you're drinking, and then you've got to go to bed, so you're

Xanax. And then you've got to 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 knew what was going on. I knew what he kept in his fanny pack.

am I going to say? I'm a kid.

I don't know. I'm 12, 13 years old. I don't know.

Xanaxes or, you know, a perk or whatever.

At the time, like, pain meds. That's all I know. And, you know, I've got to

trust them. Yeah, to help my back, help my neck, you know.

All right, you got to do what you got to 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,

light bulbs, the tacks.

So a couple perks,

some somas.

And it took progress.

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. That'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 and, 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 will give us 90 OxyContin 80s. So you're getting

270 OxyContin 80s. You're getting 300 Percocets. You're

getting 300 Somans.

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

I had a friend that had brought me some mushrooms, and I was looking forward to

trying them after my match.

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?

And he ate the whole bag.

He should be dead.

Sandman should be dead.

Raven, Sandman, and I was driving in a car. We're going 200 miles.

Raven had got hurt like the week before.

He had a ruptured disc sticking 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

I can shoot up because I got to get my dose in. I had never shot anything

before, but I'd 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, because 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 to. I'm like, I still have five of these things a day. I could

shoot an 80.

So he shoots up the same amount, too.

And we get back in the SUV, and we start driving.

That man starts going like, he can't breathe right. I said, Raven, that man's

having trouble breathing.

He said, oh, he'll be all right.

About five minutes later, I said, Hey, Daddy, his lips are turning blue.

We're like, what?

He's like, his lips are turning blue.

We're like, holy shit, he's ODing.

Now we got a problem.

He's dying.

The Sandman's reckless nature and persistent drug use have landed him on

brink of death.

Thank God they stopped. They called the ambulance. The ambulance came.

Adrenaline, child needle.

They take me to the hospital. I wake up at like 4 in the morning.

I rip the shit out of my arms, grab 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, hello, dude, fucking on the road last week. My

mother died.

Yeah, I'm not coming home with that story fucking Sunday afternoon.

As the Sandman struggles with his personal issues, ECW experiences a

its 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 remember, he didn't work out. He didn't go to the

gym at all. So he ordered all kind of...

steroids, call it the gas.

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 Sam and I went to WCW was he got jacked, like for the

first time ever.

Of course, we had access to the best gas on the planet.

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 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

Breaking point for me was the abuse.

So your dad was actually, like, getting physically abusive?

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 were at the table, and he's being a dick to his

wife. And he poured a beer on her head.

And he wouldn't have done it unless he was...

I don't care, you know, because 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 had my shit together, then maybe me and her would

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.

Well, it was all my fault.

And I know it. 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 doors, and two years later, its assets are sold to

McMahon's WWE, giving the Sandman one last shot in the spotlight as the brand

relaunched. 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 that?

Society had changed.

And so he wasn't used as well as he could have been. That's not the ECW that

know. That's not the ECW that the fans know. A lot of the original ECW fans

to forget about that time.

Sandman's time in the WWE is brief and unremarkable.

And though his wrestling career is largely over, his troubles with

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 freaking 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?

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

30 Long Island ACTs, that's what happened.

All right, everybody here is thinking, you know what, this guy's drunk.

You're right.

Got in a fight with the owner or something. He threw a bottle at me, hit

the head. I chased him into the kitchen, broke a bunch of shit in the kitchen,

and then the SWAT team came in, took me away.

Basically had to go through the court system. They finally set his bail.

I remember calling this back, and I'm like, listen, I need you to authorize a

$10 ,000 from ATM.

And just, like, well, there's only going to be, like, a $2 ,000 limit for each

ATM. And that's just the ATM itself. Like, they're only allowed to take so

Here I am bouncing around until I got to 10 grand.

So I would be on the phone with them at an ATM.

Because, you know, you see these kids getting money out of an ATM.

They're going to rob you.

Finally, we were able to give them bail about, like, 3, 4, something in the

morning. I remember walking into this, like, huge prison and, like, giving them

this. money and like outcomes my dad and i was like get the fuck in the fucking

car we're fucking going home i can't believe i'm like of course of course

this is my life no kid should have to do that it was your life you lived it

but 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 going to be kind of cleansing for

all of us and hopefully himself to let

it go.

I don't know. I'm an idiot. Dude, I've been so self -sabotaging in my life.

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 the stupid shit that you've done. That kind of changes

everything. You know what I mean? So there's a different perspective in my

now. I want them 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 it perfect by any stretch of the imagination?

No. He's made a lot of mistakes and nobody wanted to tell you. But he's self

-made and 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

what you can do, and you've done it. A lot of people can't say that they've

that. He can still be the Sandman. He still is the Sandman. There never will

another Sandman. 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 Sandman.

I am the hardcore icon.

I mean, who else is going to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, swing a cane, wear

sweatpants to the ring, T -shirt, and get over?

What about Sandman?

What's his legacy?

First person to do a lot of shit.

You know, the first person to bleed before he got in the ring. The first

to come out of the crowd, you know what I mean? Smoke a cigarette.

I am the king of extreme!

Smoking, drinking, yeah.

Cool.

Wonder why I'm fucking fucked up in that.