We went into ECW’s standard-bearer and ace, now let’s look at the company’s icon: “The Hardcore Icon” The Sandman! When I first discovered ECW via wrestling magazines in the mid-90s, he didn’t come off as the most interesting of wrestlers in the company. I always wondered “Why is this guy in these kinds of matches? Who the hell is he?”
Intro to The Sandman
See, outside of WWE and WCW, most magazines assumed you’ve been following along the whole time. You’d get results from ECW shows and maybe a highlight on the future stars. By the time WOW Magazine came out, the internet was there as well and I learned more about the company. The Sandman began to intrigue me but the company wasn’t on TV yet.
That means plenty of scrambled PPVs and listening to wrestling PPVs like old-time radio. My favorite PPVs to catch were WCW and ECW and I popped for The Sandman, RVD, and Tajiri as if they showed up clearly. Hardcore TV and the PPVs are the best sources for any ECW star. ECW on TNN was a nice sample and they did show some of the matches but this wasn’t primo ECW.
Fast-forward to the tape trade and I got as much Extreme Championship Wrestling as I could afford and watched it all—especially The Sandman’s matches. Was he sloppy in-ring? Sure. Yeah. Was he Rob Van Dam or Jerry Lynn? No. Far from them. Were his matches chaotic and exciting? Yes. That’s what sold me on The Sandman, New Jack, and Balls Mahoney.
Their bouts were ridiculously chaotic and Joey Styles’ commentary added to what I was watching. The Sandman was delivering chaos at the highest level of the card.
He Used To Surf But Now He’s A Pimp?
Hak started out with a surfer-type gimmick. Well, he was supposed to be a surfer but Ray Odyssey did it better. That gimmick wasn’t going to work with the direction ECW was going. Just like Tommy Dreamer’s gimmick didn’t entirely work until he became the heart of ECW and Taz’s wildman gimmick was going to be out of place in this very 90s promotion.
When The Sandman became a pimp in 1994 the ball was rolling for him creatively. All it took was Tod Gordon saying “Just be yourself.” He was backstage before and after matches smoking and he enjoyed a brew or two…or three. That just needed to be put into a definable gimmick. With his story involving then-wife Peaches and Tommy Cairo, he had just what he needed to run with it.
It gets better! He wasn’t a colorful, 70s pimp like 2 Cold Scorpio and The Godfather. He wasn’t supposed to be Don “Magic” Juan or Rosebudd—”with two Ds for a double dose of this pimpin’”. Hak was like a super low rung pimp based out of a nasty hotel—no, a motel. He was kind of guy who puts his wife and her friend out on the stroll for half the month’s rent and some Pall Malls. The Sandman wasn’t the kind of pimp who got glamorized in films.
He gets a better valet in Woman and now he’s this heel who was cheated on and didn’t care. Everything is working for him in this environment where everything is extreme but not over the top.
The Sandman’s gimmick and his role in ECW would evolve further just a year later in 1994.
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