Posted on 5/08/126 by Colin Vassallo
The Sandman sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Las Vegas to
discuss his retirement match against The Invisible Man in
Las Vegas, how the Singapore cane became his signature
weapon, making his entrance to “Enter Sandman” by Metallica,
his legendary entrance at ECW One Night Stand, the
controversial crucifixion angle with Raven, and more!
How did you get Metallica’s Enter Sandman?
“So I had a job working for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I 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, the Big Shot
to Billy Joel, and then I switched over to that. Look how
great that worked out.”
The entrance you did at ECW One Night Stand is legendary. Do
you remember before your music hit that night?
“You know what I always regret? I should have surfed that
crowd. I could have surfed that goddamn crowd all over the
place. I wish I would have done that. I never even thought.
I just saw it because it’s been years since I saw it. I
guess I saw it in the last couple of years. I’m like, damn
it, should have surfed the ground. That would have been
nasty. To me, that would have been epic.”
When ECW goes under. Was there talk of you going right to
WWE at that time?
“No.”
Why not?
“I don’t think I was interested in them right then, and I
don’t think they were interested in me. I had a reputation
at that point, though, too. They were trying to do
everything away. At that point, are they testing guys? I
don’t know where their health freaking policies were at that
point. They’re probably like, No, we ain’t touching that.”
Do you remember Raven telling you about this idea of him
wanting to crucify you?
“No, I can’t remember, but I made it. I made it out of wood.
If you guys go back and you watch Tommy Dreamer against
Brian Lee in the scaffold match, I built that scaffold. It’s
hanging down by chains from the ceiling, made out of the
same four-by-fours that this thing’s made out of. So I made
that thing too. So this thing was easy. I thought this was
great.”
Did you think that doing that crucifixion angle crossed the
line?
“Well, yes, that’s why I did it, but I didn’t care. I don’t
know. I’ve never been a God-fearing person. I think there’s
something, but I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in
like, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost kind of part of
it. So to me, it wasn’t really blasphemous, for one, and for
two, it’s professional wrestling, you know what I mean, and
for three, f*ck anybody that didn’t like it.”
Do you think Raven shouldn’t have gone out and apologized?
“Oh, no, I told him not to. I told everybody. It’s Paul
[Heyman], Todd Gordon, Shane [Douglas], Kurt Angle me and
Raven. I told all of them, ‘You’re all f*cking assholes.
This is bullsh*t.’ He should not be going out there, and
walked away.”
Wasn’t this a big reason Kurt Angle was like, I cannot be
seen on this:
“I can’t blame Kurt. First of all, I can’t blame anybody for
the father and son the Holy Spirit sh*t. It’s his first
delve into professional wrestling, and I could see how he’s
a little bit aghast at it. He’s trying to dip his foot into
the waters. ‘I’m not sure I want to be involved with this.’
So I can understand his perspective. I can’t understand
Paul’s perspective of even considering letting Raven go and
doing that. That’s f*cking bullsh*t.”