The Sandman has no interest in taking part in WWE's deal.
There’s no doubt that the Sandman is a legend in the wrestling business. The former ECW World Heavyweight Champion is certainly a pioneer that helped build the reputation of ECW and carried the brand’s hardcore spirit from beginning to end.
So he absolutely deserves to be taken care of under a WWE’s Legend’s deal. But in the case of Sandman, he simply has no interest in signing such a deal. The ECW legend revealed on the Major Wrestling Figure podcast that he’s been offered a legend’s deal, but has no interest in signing because no has said a good thing about it.
“No, I don’t. No, they asked. I was like, no legends deal. Well, because nobody ever said a good thing about a legends deal. I never heard one person say a good thing about them signing a legends deal.”
The Sandman has never been a fan of the WWE in general. In fact back in March, he stated that working for the company in the early 2000’s was absolutely “soul crushing” during his appearance on RVD’s 1 of a kind podcast.
“I love the business… until I had to go deal with WWE,” Sandman admitted. “A week there, I’m like, I’m ready to kill myself, dude. If I didn’t have a couple of my boys with me…”
One of the sources of his frustrations was that WWE took away his signature beer drinking gimmick.
“Johnny [Laurinaitis] calls me into his office and goes, ‘You can’t drink the beer anymore.’ And I’m like, ‘What?!’” He later realized WWE wanted to protect Steve Austin’s beer-drinking gimmick. “I was hot, and I hated it there. I had no friends… It was soul-sucking.”
Sandman had a lengthy stint in the company’s ECW revamp in 2006/2007. However, WWE was never the right fit for Sandman and he was released after numerous conflicts with management. Once he left, The Sandman never returned. The 62-year-old still wrestles until this very day. He’s semi-retired, but as Sandman stated, he loves the sport of professional wrestling.
His last match was back in March at ACW’s Nothing But a Good Time show where he competed in a Battle Royal. The ECW legend won that match. Sandman has notably worked for Game Changer Wrestling, Major League Wrestling, and even a Ring of Honor show. But he typically does less than four matches per year these days.