The Sandman Recounts Story Of How He Started Using Singapore Cane, Talks Stiff Cane Shots

The Sandman is heavily associated with the Singapore cane in wrestling, an associated he recounted the story of in a recent interview. The hard-living wrestler was known for using the weapon to brutalize opponents and he retold the story of how he was inspired to start using the cane on Insight With Chris Van Vliet.

Sandman told the story of his being inspired by the famous story of Michael Fay getting caned in Singapore over vandalism in 1993, which caused an uproar in the US. He talked about how Paul Heyman gave him the weapon after the story became international news. You can see the highlights below:

On Who Got Really Stiff Singapore Cane Shots:

“I don’t know if it was in the ring with Taz. Yeah, he would have got one. You got to understand, back in the day, we were setting a different standard where stuff was a lot more real than things were in the rest of the wrestling world, on the planet. So we were laying stuff in, mostly all the time. Chairs, it didn’t matter what it was, you were getting a chair shot. Punches are different. I mean, if you get stiffed with a punch, then the guy screwed up. Really, you really shouldn’t be stiff with some guy with a punch. But a Balls Mahoney chair shot is a Balls Mahoney chair shot. It’s gonna be stiff, and that’s just the way it is.”

On How It Became His Weapon Of Choice:

“So there’s this kid, Michael Fay. He was in Thailand. He’s an American, and he got hooked up with some big kids over there, and they spray-painted some cars. So it was big news that this kid’s going to get these eight lashes with whatever the hell they call it. We’ll call it a Singapore cane. It’s like an oak tree or something like that, and it’s wrapped with vines and thorns and stuff like that. One shot and it’ll bring blood on you. So Todd Gordon calls me and goes, ‘Listen Paul wants you at the studio.’ I just happened to live like 15 minutes from the studio. So I’m like oh darn, Paul’s got something for me. So I show up there, Paul takes me outside. We’re standing in the parking lot and he goes, ‘Listen. You know about the kid? Michael Fay?’ Yeah. He goes, ‘Well, you’re gonna bring a Singapore cane to the ring.’ I’m like, Well, what am I going to use for a Singapore cane? He looks up. We were standing under a tree. He pulled the branch off of the tree, pulled the twigs off of it. He goes, ‘Here, cut a promo with this.’ I had seen Tojo Yamamoto use one of these in the 70s, in an old video somewhere. I’m like wow, I’m not going to the ring with a regular stick. So that’s what I came with, this thing. It took me a little while to find one.”