The Sandman is one among the lads synonymous with the glory days of ECW, but even the “Hardcore Icon” had his limits when it got here all the way down to the one thing ECW couldn’t control, its funds. Sandman would go away ECW in September 1998 and make the jump to WCW, where he would sit out the primary six months of his deal as a consequence of the corporate not having anything for him. Nonetheless, during a recent appearance on the “Insight” podcast, Sandman revealed the rationale he left ECW was all the way down to his handshake agreement with Paul Heyman not being honored.
“Paul [Heyman] paid Sabu a pair thousand greater than me,” Sandman said. “My take care of Paul was–I ended up with a written contract with Paulie just like the last six months because that guy Steve Carol made all of us sign contracts or something, but I had an agreement with him that I used to be just his highest paid player. So the one pay-per-view I feel he paid Sabu like 15 [thousand] and he paid me like 13 or something like that. So I quit that night on the best way home. I drove, I talked to Tod Gordon, and I said ‘Tod that is what happened and I will quit.’ He goes ‘You really need to quit?’ I said ‘Yeah, I could call DDP and get a job probably tomorrow.'”
Knowing what schedule WCW wrestlers were on on the time, Sandman ended up running into DDP and Rick Rude on the airport where he asked for a job. Two days later he was flown to “WCW Monday Nitro” where he was signed to a $150,000 a 12 months contract on the spot.
Nonetheless, his time in WCW didn’t exactly work out too well as he had battles with drug addiction that caused his push up the cardboard to be scrapped, and he ended up getting hurt in what turned out to be his final match for the corporate. Fortunately for The Sandman, he maintained a superb relationship with ECW President Tod Gordon, and as soon as he was released from his WCW contract, he was re-hired by ECW almost immediately.
Please credit “Insight” when using quotes from this text, and provides a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.