10 Times Vince McMahon Allowed Smoking On WWE TV

2. The Sandman

The Sandman making his way to the ring at ECW One Night Stand 2005 is one of the best entrances of all time. The uncensored Metallica one is anyway - not the dire and dull generic rock music one on the Network that’s there for licensing issues).

Sandman’s a hardcore icon who bled violence and swilled and slammed beers throughout the glory days of ECW who came across as indestructible. Just ask Tommy Dreamer – he’s told the tale of Sandman once injecting enough Nubain that he overdosed and died in a car on route to a ECW event only to later be revived in hospital and compete that same night.

ONS 2005 was the one show Vince McMahon stayed out the way and allowed Paul Heyman to exclusively book and run after the staggering success of The Rise And Fall Of ECW DVD WWE released the year prior. And because Vince wasn’t (obsessively) hands on with this pay-per-view Paul and his hardcore misfits could get away with more.

ECW fans were their own breed. They were as punk rock as could be. They certainly didn’t give a toss about being PG. And they were electric this night. The opening rift of ‘Enter Sandman’ blared through the speakers and Sandman appeared in the crowd/balcony, coming out with a beer in one hand, a cane in the other and a lit cigarette in his mouth.

He then made his way to the ring, slamming/crushing beer cans on his head that poured down his beer gut and cut him open. He was bleeding before the bell even rang. It was glorious.

Sandman certainly wasn’t smoking the following year, after Vince got his hands back on the product, when he made his way to ringside when debuting on the new weekly ECW show on the Sci Fi network before caning the s**t out of a zombie.