The Sandman chats Dark Side of the Ring.
Vice TV’s Dark Side of the Ring is nearing the end of its fifth season. As of this writing, the most recent episode was centered around five-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Sandman.
Following the episode airing, Sandman joined Eyes Up Here with Francine to discuss it. He said there was enough material to do two more episodes on him and there were many topics left uncovered.
Honestly, they left enough clips on the floor of the studio there that they could have another two full episodes of me.
The biggest example was one of my best friends that I started going to the Philadelphia Spectrum with, they interviewed him for a couple of hours. They never even showed him. He was the one that was with me when I got thrown out of the Philadelphia Spectrum for carrying around a piece of the steel cage into the ring and Gorilla Monsoon threw me out… So they didn’t touch on so many things and Tod (Gordon), they interviewed Tod the same way, Fonzie the same way and you see a couple little snippets but they have so much other stuff. They only really covered one angle of mine in the episode.
He further commented on the story involving Paul Heyman and actor Macaulay Culkin. Sandman said his comments in the episode were shown out of order and at times, out of context.
The one story about me and Paul (Heyman) when he said he knows Macaulay Culkin, they edited — I never start that story out the way I heard it (on Dark Side of the Ring) so they take words of mine and plug them in to start that story which I never start that story with whatsoever.
But I picked it up. I would pick it up easy. I’m like, ‘I never started that story like that ever in my life. I never started that story like that ever in my life.’ I would talk for like 30, 45, 60 seconds and then they would start the story from there and their editing is so good I guess right now that you don’t even pick it up where they’re taking me saying that is out of some other context and putting it in exactly where they want it. I guess everybody does it now.
He went on to speak about the transition away from the surfer character he did. In the episode, Sandman credited Paul Heyman for the transition.
He received a call from ECW founder Tod Gordon, who reminded Sandman that it was him who suggested that he needed to change up his presentation.
You know what the funny thing is? Tod Gordon buzzed me, he’s like, ‘Hack, I was the one that was telling Paul that surfer gimmick needs to go,’ and he’s pissed that I didn’t give him credit on the show. I gave Paul (Heyman) the credit but it really goes to Tod, because Tod had so much more to do with the transformation into me just being me and he saw that before I even saw that.
The Sandman is doing conventions and signings present day. At the 2024 Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow in Philadelphia, he made an on-screen appearance.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Eyes Up Here with Francine with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
