The Sandman is one of the men synonymous with the glory days of ECW, but even the “Hardcore Icon” had his limits when it came down to the one thing ECW couldn’t control, its finances. Sandman would leave ECW in September 1998 and make the jump to WCW, where he would sit out the first six months of his deal due to the company not having anything for him. However, during a recent appearance on the “Insight” podcast, Sandman revealed the reason he left ECW was down to his handshake agreement with Paul Heyman not being honored.

“Paul [Heyman] paid Sabu a couple thousand more than me,” Sandman said. “My deal with Paul was–I ended up with a written contract with Paulie like the last six months because that guy Steve Carol made all of us sign contracts or something, but I had an agreement with him that I was just his highest paid player. So the one pay-per-view I think he paid Sabu like 15 [thousand] and he paid me like 13 or something like that. So I quit that night on the way home. I drove, I talked to Tod Gordon, and I said ‘Tod this is what happened and I’m going to quit.’ He goes ‘You really want to quit?’ I said ‘Yeah, I could call DDP and get a job probably tomorrow.'”

Knowing what schedule WCW wrestlers were on at the time, Sandman ended up running into DDP and Rick Rude at the airport where he asked for a job. Two days later he was flown to “WCW Monday Nitro” where he was signed to a $150,000 a year contract on the spot. 

However, his time in WCW didn’t exactly work out too well as he had battles with drug addiction that caused his push up the card to be scrapped, and he ended up getting hurt in what turned out to be his final match for the company. Fortunately for The Sandman, he maintained a good relationship with ECW President Tod Gordon, and as soon as he was released from his WCW contract, he was re-hired by ECW almost immediately.

Please credit “Insight” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.