The Sandman Reflects On His Famous Entrance, Coming Out To ‘Enter Sandman’

The Sandman always had a memorable entrance, something he reflected on in a recent interview. The ECW legend became known for his coming out to the ring drinking beer and smashing the can against his head to the sounds of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” The entrance became a major part of establishing himself as a character in ECW.

Sandman spoke about where he got the idea for using the song and more in his interview on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He noted that the key to his entrance was “get[ting] drunker and drunker before shows.” You can see the highlights below:

On Coming Out To “Enter Sandman”:

“So I had a job working for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I had had a thing we called the Sandman van. It was a custom van. There’s like four captains chairs, a bed in the back, TV and everything. I would pile 10-12 kids in there and drop them off in a neighborhood. They would knock on doors, and they would get people to sign up for The Philadelphia Inquirer. So one of those kids that work for me, he keeps telling me about the song, but I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he got a tape. It was like an eight-track. I hear it, and I’m like, boom. I think I was coming out to ‘Big Shot’ to Billy Joel, and then I switched over to that. Look how great that was.”

On The Rest Of His Entrance:

“Just get drunker and drunker before shows. I’m like, All right, that’s it. So, all right, here we go. So this is how I stopped coming out of the freaking locker room and I started coming in from the front door, side door, whatever. Me and Missy Hyatt were at Queens, I think it was the strip club the Elks Lodge. So we’re in the Elks Lodge, and they’re playing my music, so they had to loop it again. Somebody comes running out. He goes to find me. I ended up going through the front door, and I’m like, All right, this is pretty cool. I think I’m gonna start doing that. Another happenstance thing.”