ECW legend The Sandman joined WWE Hall of Fame legend Rob Van Dam on the latest episode of his 1 Of A Kind podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, The Sandman spoke about not remembering partying with Metallica on stage, as well as how he hated WWE.
Featured below are some of the highlights where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On not remembering partying with Metallica on stage:
Sandman: ”You’re going to love this story. And the only reason I remember this is because [Tommy] Dreamer remembers it. We’re on stage somewhere with Metallica – me, Dreamer, and a couple of the other boys. And, you know, and I’m three sheets to the wind, of course. And they started playing my song, and I started walking out on stage – I don’t even remember it. Dreamer reminded me of this story a year ago. I’m like, ‘No, Tommy, I don’t think I did that.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I was there.’
RVD: “You’re on autopilot, huh?”
Sandman: “Yeah, you know how it is, dude. Autopilot, dude. Especially when you’re overseas, you’re like total autopilot. Literally like the song just came out or whatever this kid that worked for me I was in the newspaper business and this kid, he’s like 18 years old. He’s like, ‘Yo,’ he’s like ‘Yo, Hak. You gotta you gotta listen to this song.’ So I was dropping him off one night. I’m like, ‘Yeah, let me listen to it, he played it. I’m like, ‘That’s my new song.’ I used to come out the ‘Big Shot’ by Billy Joel [Sings song] but then I heard that ‘[Enter] Sandman’ song and I’m like, ‘Boom.’”
On how he hated WWE:
Sandman: ”I assume this is like right after SummerSlam because right before SummerSlam, Johnny [Laurinaitis] calls me into his office and he goes, ‘You can’t drink the beer anymore,’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ And I’m pissed. I’m like, ‘Johnny, how about you give me my release? He’s like, ‘Hak, wait.’ And I got two raises or at least one raise out of them by asking for my release, but it was up to like $125 to $150,000, but then I find out I gotta stop drinking. Next thing I know, Austin’s in the f***ing main event for SummerSlam. So they’re taking the beer away from me so I can’t do it on my entrance. I was freaking pissed. I was hot. And I hated it there, dude. I had no friends. It was soul sucking. It honestly was soul sucking to me. I hated to get on a plane. I hated to go there. I hated to be in the locker room. I couldn’t wait to get out of the f***ing building. Everybody goes on TV and they want to get as much time as they can. They had to tell me to stop going home early. I was going in there and giving him five minutes to go. And then finally … Kevin Dunn says down to maybe [Mike Chioda] – he goes, ‘Dunn says DO NOT go home early.’ I went home early every single match.”
