10 Wrestlers Whose Entrances Were Better Than Their Matches

4. The Sandman

The Sandman is known in wrestling circles as not exactly being Kurt Angle or Chris Benoit in the ring bell to bell. But while he isn’t a phenomenal or good or even decent wrestler (he has a limited number of moves and gets blown-up quick), he could still draw huge reactions with his hardcore persona. His blood and guts rivalries in ECW with Raven and Tommy Dreamer are renowned but not for the matches; rather the moments they produced. Fans at the end of the day just really want to see Sandman drink beer, smoke and ruthlessly hit his opponents with a kendo stick. They could take it or leave it whether he wrestles or not.

His ‘Enter Sandman’ theme by Metallica might be the best usage of a song for a performer that has ever been. He was able to use the song in ECW as it was the ‘90s, music licensing hadn’t yet acquired the stringent rules and regulations it has today, so ECW owner Paul Heyman could get away without paying for the rights to the song. If you wish to understand how much a theme can affect a performer look no further than the WWE Network where they awfully overdub Enter Sandman with generic Jim Johnston music on old ECW Sandman matches. Or look to when Sandman debuted for WWE in 2006 with the same generic music; the magic wasn’t there.

Sandman’s One Night Stand 2005 entrance at the Hammerstein Ballroom in front of 2500 rabid nostalgic ECW fans might go down as the best singular entrance of all time.