The Sandman has opened up about when he began wrestling under the influence.
Speaking on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, The Sandman admitted that his substance use escalated by 1996 after initially avoiding it early in his wrestling career. He recalled drinking heavily before shows and spending hours partying backstage before eventually heading to the ring for ECW main events.
“I didn’t start drinking until, let’s say, 200 matches in. By ’96. I’m rocking and rolling. I’m snorting in the 80s, drinking a 30-pack of beer before the show. Not the whole 30, but you’re drinking 15, because you’re there early too. And a lot of times, if you’re working the main and it’s an ECW show, freaking, you’re there at five o’clock in the afternoon, you might not go on until 11:30, so you got a lot of time to drink and party,” he said.
The Sandman explains his gimmick origins
The Sandman also reflected on the origins of his popular gimmick, noting his wrestling name came together completely by accident. According to the ECW legend, promoter Joel Goodhart came up with the name after spotting a mattress advertisement billboard while driving on Interstate 95.
“All right, let me tell you the reason I got my Sandman name was because Joel Goodheart, the guy that I gave the $3,000 to, is driving down 95 and he sees a billboard, ‘Mr. Sandman box, bring a mattress.’ Me and my wife, she’s holding Tyler in her arms while I’m at the wrestling school. He comes in, he goes, ‘You’re going to be Mr. Sandman, and you’re going to be Miss Peaches.’ So that’s how I got the name that night off of a billboard.”
He went on to explain that WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler encouraged him to develop a stronger gimmick, which led to the surfer persona and the now-famous surfboard. Sandman credited the late Pitbull Gary Wolfe for helping him obtain the surfboard after the wrestler reportedly had one taken directly off the wall of a nightclub before Sandman drove it to Memphis for his act.
“So this is maybe September. So I started my first match in June. So by September, early October, I’m in Memphis, working with Jerry Lawler in main events. So Lawler wanted somebody with more of a gimmick. I had the name, and what do you go with a name? A surfboard. So I went to the Pit Bull. I said that Lawler wants me to have more of a gimmick, a surfboard. He goes, ‘You guys come down to my house.’
“I pick him up. We go to this club called Rock Lobster on Delaware Avenue. He walks in because the Pit Bulls, the bouncers and all the clubs, the Pit Bulls were like the bosses of all those days, so that anything they want, any drug you wanted, freaking anything in the world you wanted, Gary could get it for you, like that. He walked right in and told a bouncer, ‘Get that surfboard off the wall.’ That bouncer got the surfboard off the wall. He gives it to me. I put it in my van. I drove to Memphis with a surfboard.”
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