Nickname(s):
Hardcore Icon, Extreme Icon

Height: 6ft 3inches

Weight: 240lbs

Hometown:  Philadelphia,Pennsylvania

Trained By:
Larry Winters, Joel Goodhart,
Mark Tendler, J.T. Smith

Debut: 1989

Signature Moves:
Heinekenrana (Hurricanrana)
Rolling Rock (Senton Bomb)
Diving Legdrop
Diving Leg Drop Bulldog

Finishing Moves:
Singapore Cane Shot
White Russian Legsweep

Managers & Valets:
Lori Fullington
Woman
Missy Hyatt
Beulah McGillicutty
Chastity
Veronica Caine

Notable Feuds:
Don Muraco
Rockin' Rebel
Tommy Cairo
Tommy Dreamer
Cactus Jack
Shane Douglas
Mikey Whipwreck
The Public Enemy
Raven
Stevie Richards
Brian Lee
Terry Funk
Rob Van Dam
Sabu
Jerry Lawler
The Dudley Boyz
Bam Bam Bigelow (WCW)

BIOGRAPHY

Career

The Sandman got his start in professional wrestling in the Philadelphia-based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance under the ring name Mr. Sandman, being managed by Peaches.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

In April 1992 he arrived in Eastern Championship Wrestling, the precursor to Extreme Championship Wrestling, changing his name to The Sandman. After a brief period where the Sandman gimmick was that of a surfer, Tod Gordon suggested that The Sandman channel his own personality into his character. The Sandman agreed and evolved into the Extreme Icon, Sandman, a harsh, abrasive, anti-social brawler who smoked cigarettes and drank beer on his way to the ring, and sometimes even during a match, often crushing the can on his forehead and thus causing himself to bleed. As The Sandman, The Sandman began carrying a Singapore cane to the ring during his 1994 feud with Tommy Cairo as a reference to the caning of Michael P. Fay in Singapore.

The revised character is often compared to the character that Steve Austin assumed in 1997. Sandman's lengthy ring entrance, where he would typically approach the ring via the audience, often sharing beer with fans, were closely linked to his popular entrance music, Metallica's "Enter Sandman" which live crowds would sing along with.

Like many ECW performers, the Sandman's wrestling style often incorporated weapons, further polishing his image as a bar room brawler. Over the years he was in classic matches noted for their blood, use of steel chairs, ladders, tables, Singapore canes, and barbed wire.

During his initial run with ECW, the Sandman feuded with Tommy Cairo, Tommy Dreamer, Cactus Jack, Shane Douglas, The Public Enemy, Raven, Sabu, and The Dudleys.

He won the ECW Heavyweight Title from Don Muraco on November 16, 1992. He would also go on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Title a record-setting four times. He defeated Shane Douglas for the title on April 15, 1995. His next reign came when he defeated Mikey Whipwreck and Steve Austin in a 3-Way Dance on December 9, 1995. On October 5, 1996, he defeated Stevie Richards, who was defending the title for Raven, for his third ECW World Title. His fourth title win would come on January 7, 2001 when he defeated Steve Corino and Justin Credible at ECW's last Pay Per View, Guilty as Charged in a Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes match. He also teamed up with 2 Cold Scorpio to reign as ECW World Tag Team Champions in late 1995.

His most notable storylines in ECW included his feud with Cactus Jack, which culminated in a series of Barbed-Wire matches. He also spent the time period from December 1995 through May 1997 engaged in a bloody war with Raven. Raven "brainwashed" Sandman's son to join his cult-like following and turned him against his father. Raven got at Sandman by having his son deny his relationship with his father and perform Raven's taunt to slowly eat away at his father. This led to many bloody matches, in which Sandman's son interfered to help his father. After the match, the two embraced, but Raven came from behind with a Kendo Stick, and smacked his enemy. Steven Richards and the Blue Meanie came out with a giant wooden cross, tied Sandman down to it, and then lifted it up and "crucified" him.[1] At the time, Kurt Angle was backstage and the offensive angle caused him to leave and threaten a lawsuit if his name appeared on the same episode as the "crucifixion".[2] Raven came out and gave a questionable apology for his actions. To this day, Raven claims that the angle wasn't an insult to Jesus Christ, but an insult to The Sandman, by using religious iconography to convey an artistic standpoint. The footage of the "crucifixion" was never used by ECW and was not publicly seen until it appeared on the WWE DVD The Rise and Fall of ECW.

He joined forces with Tommy Dreamer, temporarily, in 1996 as the two were battling Raven. This team would become more permanent in 1997 as the duo feuded with the Dudleys and the anti-ECW team of Sabu & Rob Van Dam.

World Championship Wrestling

In 1999, he joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He first appeared in vignettes promoting Raven as a spoiled rich kid and The Sandman as his preppy friend, but the original plan to debut under this gimmick were scrapped due to negative fan reaction. He later debuted under the name Hak. Many believe that this name was derived from his longtime nickname "Hack", although speculation exists that the name was given to him because WCW's higher powers considered hardcore wrestlers to be "wrestling hacks".

In his short time there, Hak was mostly involved in angles featuring fellow ECW alumni Raven, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Raven's (kayfabe) sister Chastity, with whom he developed an on-screen relationship after she turned on Raven.

His presence also helped to bolster WCW's fledging hardcore division. WCW started promoting hardcore wrestling within their product through utilising guys like Hak and Bam Bam Bigelow.

Return to ECW

After leaving WCW in late 1999 The Sandman returned to ECW remaining with the company until it's demise in March 2001. On January 7th 2001 at ECW's last pay-per-view Guilty as Charged at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, The Sandman won his 5th ECW World Heavyweight Championship in a three way dance with then champion Steve Corino and Justin Credible. However after The Sandman won the title the then ECW World Television Champion Rhino came out to the ring and challenged The Sandman to a title match right there and then. The Sandman accepted the challenge of Rhino and after a 60+ second match Rhino defeated The Sandman to become ECW World Heavyweight Champion, at just 25 years old, unifying ECW's two singles titles.

Xtreme Pro Wrestling

After the close of ECW The Sandman wrestled for Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) for a time. While he was there he won the XPW World Heavyweight Championship once, by defeating Johnny Webb, as well as the XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship. On a number of occasions Sandman was accompanied to the ring by former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) valet Tylene Buck.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

In late 2002 and early 2003, The Sandman had a tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), joining former-ECW wrestlers Justin Credible and Raven along with New Jack and Perry Saturn in a stable known as Team Extreme and later "Extreme Revolution". He also competed in the Hard 10 Tournament, where he partly feuded with Sonny Siaki before winning the overall event.

World Wrestling Entertainment

It can be argued that The Sandman made his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut at the 1996 In Your House: Mind Games Pay-Per-View event in Philadelphia where he and a number of other ECW stars caused a (kayfabe) disturbance at ringside. This event marked the start of the on-air working relationship between Vince McMahon's WWF and Paul Heyman's ECW and eventually led to ECW, appearing on the February 24, 1997 WWF program 'RAW'.

In 2005, Sandman participated in the ECW reunion show Hardcore Homecoming against longtime rival Raven. Two nights later he appeared at the WWE produced ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view event, another ECW reunion show, teaming with Tommy Dreamer to face The Dudley Boyz. The match would see Sandman and Dreamer lose to the Dudleys after Dreamer was powerbombed through a flaming table. The end of the match was highlighted with Sandman screaming "He needs help. I need beer".

ECW

In 2006, prior to the June 11 One Night Stand, The Sandman made a number of promotional appearances on WWE programming, first appearing, along with a number of other ECW stars, on RAW attacking John Cena then, two nights later, on the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head special taking part in a battle royal, in which it can be argued that he was the last ECW original eliminated. At One Night Stand, when Eugene made his way to the ring to read a poem expressing his love of ECW, The Sandman came out with his Singapore Cane and caned Eugene to the back. Sandman received a great reaction from the fans at One Night Stand but his actions were vilified by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler the next night on RAW, thus making him a heel on RAW but a face on ECW.

On June 13, 2006 WWE officially relaunched ECW as a brand equal to RAW or SmackDown! with its own show on the Sci Fi Channel. In the new ECW, The Sandman was used for the first few weeks as a character who would emerge from the crowd when a non-ECW style character was annoying the audience. Once the character had a few minutes to talk Sandman appeared and destroyed the character with his cane, often ending the "match" with his signature White Russian Legsweep.

This gimmick escalated when Sandman confronted regular ECW fixture Mike Knox while he was attempting to stop his exhibitionist girlfriend, Kelly Kelly, in the middle of her weekly "exposê" strip show. The Sandman began a feud with Knox over this and eventually began teaming up with fellow ECW original Tommy Dreamer to take on Knox and Test in a feud that many felt symbolized the original vision of ECW (Sandman and Dreamer) vs. the "new" vision of ECW (Knox and Test). At the same time Sandman was feuding with Test and Knox, a debuting Matt Striker began to rub him the wrong way and he started a second feud with him.

Since then, the Sandman has made several short appearances, mostly coming out through the crowd and caning someone whenever some injustice was done. After being briefly included in a feud with Elijah Burke, he became part of the ECW Originals stable and joined their feud with the New Breed. On April 1, 2007 at WrestleMania 23 he teamed with RVD, Sabu, and Dreamer to defeat Marcus Cor Von, Burke, Striker, and Kevin Thorn. On May 16, Sabu was released by the WWE and soon after Rob Van Dam retired, leaving Sandman and Tommy Dreamer alone to feud with the New Breed. However, Sandman and Dreamer would team up with CM Punk on multiple occasions, who was also feuding with the New Breed. On the June 4 edition of ECW, Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Balls Mahoney faced Bobby Lashley in a 3 on 1 Hardcore Handicap Match, in which they were defeated.

RAW

On June 17, 2007, Sandman was drafted to the RAW brand via the WWE Supplemental Draft, making him the first ever original ECW wrestler since the rebirth of ECW to be drafted away from the brand. On the June 18, 2007 edition of RAW, Sandman debuted, going after Carlito with his singapore cane after Carlito ran his mouth too long for Sandman to bear, but Carlito ran away quickly. On the July 2, 2007 edition of Raw, Sandman had his first match on Raw, facing Carlito. Carlito won the match due to a disqualification when Sandman struck him with his cane after Carlito tried to use it on him. This started a feud between the two. Sandman did a similar thing next week when he lost to William Regal by disqualification, after hitting Regal and Carlito with his cane. The next week, Sandman faced Carlito again, this time winning when Regal attacked him. The Sandman was saved when "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (who had a confrontation with Regal earlier that night) came down to the ring. At The Great American Bash he lost to Carlito in a Singapore Cane on a Pole Match. The Sandman lost in a battle royal to determine the new General Manager of RAW where he was the last one eliminated by William Regal who had faked an injury and was not in the match until Sandman was the only superstar in the ring; Regal then won after he sneaked up on The Sandman and hit him in the back of the head with his boot. His last match was on a September 10 edition of Raw against Santino Marella which he won by DQ. Sandman appeared to injure his ankle during a missed spot in this match. The next day - September 11, 2007 - he was released by WWE

Official Website of the Sandman - Copyright 2007 © - Made by: Thief By Design
Information colaberated from Wikipedia & Online World of Wrestling website