10 Incredible Stories Of Wrestlers' Dedication To Their Character

10. Blindness Turns The Sandman Into A Hermit

The beer-guzzling, chain-smoking, Singapore cane-swinging Sandman didn’t exactly come off as a wrestling traditionalist on camera, but he was always dedicated to preserving kayfabe behind the scenes. The most famous example of this came in 1994, when Sandman had a lit cigarette flicked in his eye during an "I Quit" match with Tommy Dreamer, "blinding" his character.

Sandman soon revealed that he would have to retire as a result of the injuries, and spared no effort in selling the injury. As revealed by Paul Heyman in WWE’s Rise And Fall Of ECW documentary, Sandman rendered himself housebound during the angle, going as far as having his wife take care of simple acts like answering the door for him, and on the few occasions he did go out in public, he did so with heavy bandages over his eyes.

The former ECW Champion essentially played a blind man in public just to get an angle over. A smart move, as the company’s events almost exclusively took place in Philadelphia (where Sandman lived) at the time, and eagle-eyed fans wouldn’t have bought into him tearing the bandages off and revealing the ruse had they seen him no-selling in public.