12 Wrestlers Who Competed Under The Influence
4. The Sandman
The Sandman's been out of it countless times in a career bolstered by a hard-drinking, hard-living gimmick that didn't remotely stray from the path he walked outside of the industry, but selective sessions have lingered longer in the memory than others. A June 2000 ECW house show represented the nadir for reality bleeding over into the 'Extreme' fantasy world.
Only the full transcript of the transgressions does his deranged night any justice. PWTorch covered it at the time, and the details are no less grisly to read almost two decades later. As collected from a live report, they noted that;
"Sandman exposed himself to the crowd during the show's main event. He took the house mic, held up his cane, and said, "This is my big cane and this is my little cane", pointing to his penis. After mooning the crowd a couple of times, Sandman dropped his pants, exposing his penis to the crowd. While many of the fans cheered Sandman, the wrestlers working with him and nearly everyone backstage were said to be upset. [Paul] Heyman and Sandman ended up talking later in a bathroom. [Jack] Victory walked into the room, expressed his anger with Sandman's caneshots, and exchanged words with him. Heyman stood between the two men, trying to keep peace. Victory reached over Heyman and hit Sandman with a forearm. Sandman retaliated by reaching over Heyman and driving his fingers into Victory's eyes. Victory grabbed Sandman by the ears and gave him four quick headbutts."
On a lighter note (without trivialising that darkness), there's a charming quality to just how blotto he is at the end of ECW One Night Stand 2005, getting in Stone Cold Steve Austin's face with such furore that 'The Rattlesnake' is forced to push him back to just to get on with finishing his show-closing promo.