Jim Fullington

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Jim Fullington


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Mr. Sandman The Sandman Hardcore Hak
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Billed weight	244 lb (111 kg)
Born	June 16, 1963 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Billed from	Sandy, Utah Philadelphia
Trained by	Larry Winters Tri-State Wrestling Academy Mark Tendler J.T. Smith
Debut	1990

James ("Jim") Fullington (born June 16, 1963), better known as The Sandman, is an American professional wrestler, best known for his career with Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he was dubbed "The Hardcore Icon." He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand.

1 Career
2 Personal life
3 In wrestling
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Career

Known for smashing full cans of beer on his head...... Jim Fullington got his start in professional wrestling in the Philadelphia-based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance under the ring name Mr. Sandman, being managed by Peaches.

[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling

In April of 1992 he arrived in Eastern Championship Wrestling, the precursor to Extreme Championship Wrestling, changing his name to The Sandman. After a brief period where the Sandman character was that of a surfer,Tod Gordon suggested that Fullington channel his own personality into his character. Fullington agreed and evolved into the Extreme Icon, Sandman, a harsh, abrasive, anti-social brawler who smoked cigarettes and drank beer on his way to the ring, and sometimes even during a match, often crushing the can on his forehead and thus causing himself to bleed. As The Sandman, Fullington began carrying a Singapore cane to the ring during his 1994 feud with Tommy Cairo as a reference to the caning of Michael P. Fay in Singapore.

The revised character is often compared to the character that Steve Austin assumed in 1997. Sandman's lengthy ring entrance, where he would typically approach the ring via the audience, often sharing beer with fans, were closely linked to his popular entrance music, Metallica's "Enter Sandman" which live crowds would sing along with.

Like many ECW performers, the Sandman's wrestling style often incorporated weapons, further polishing his image as a bar room brawler. Over the years he was in classic matches noted for their blood, use of steel chairs, ladders, tables, Singapore canes and barbed wire.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

In 1999, he joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He first appeared in vignettes promoting Raven as a spoiled rich kid and Fullington as his preppy friend, but the original plan to debut under this gimmick were scrapped due to negative fan reaction. He later debuted under the name Hak (a name derived from his longtime nickname "Hack", although it was rumored that the name was also a pun, as WCW thought of hardcore wrestlers as "no-talent hacks".). In his short time there, he was mostly involved in storylines featuring fellow ECW alumni Raven, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Raven's (kayfabe) sister Chastity, with whom he developed an on-screen relationship after she turned on Raven.

[edit] Return to ECW

After leaving WCW in late 1999 The Sandman returned to ECW remaining with the company until it's demise in March 2001. On January 7th 2001 at ECW's last pay-per-view Guilty as Charged at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, The Sandman won his 5th ECW World Heavyweight Championship in a three way dance with then champion Steve Corino and Justin Credible. However after The Sandman won the title the then ECW World Television Champion Rhino came out to the ring and challenged The Sandman to a title match right there and then. The Sandman accepted the challenge of Rhino and after a 60 second match Rhino defeated The Sandman to become ECW World Heavyweight Champion, at just 25 years old, unifying ECW's two singles titles.

[edit] Xtreme Pro Wrestling

After the close of ECW The Sandman wrestled for Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) for a time. While he was there he won the XPW World Heavyweight Championship once, by defeating Johnny Webb, as well as the XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship.

[edit] Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

In late 2002 and early 2003, The Sandman had a tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), joining former-ECW wrestlers Justin Credible and Raven along with New Jack and Perry Saturn in a stable known as the Extreme Revolution.

In late 2002 after an appearance for XPW, The Sandman was briefly barred from wrestling in Pennsylvania by the Athletic Commission, who objected to him supposedly inebriating fans.

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment

It can be argued that The Sandman made his World Wrestling Federation debut at the 1996 In Your House: Mind Games Pay-Per-View event in Philadelphia where he and a number of other ECW stars caused a (kayfabe) disturbance at ringside. This event marked the start of the on-air working relationship between Vince McMahon's WWF and Paul Heyman's ECW and eventually led to ECW, appearing on the February 24, 1997 WWF program Monday Night RAW.

In 2005, Sandman participated in the ECW reunion show Hardcore Homecoming against longtime rival Raven. Two nights later he appeared at the WWE produced One Night Stand pay-per-view event, another ECW reunion show, teaming with Tommy Dreamer to face The Dudley Boyz.

In 2006, prior to the June 11th One Night Stand, The Sandman made a number of promotional appearances on WWE programming, first appearing, along with a number of other ECW stars, on RAW attacking John Cena then, two nights later, on the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head special taking part in a battle royal, in which it can be argued that he was the last ECW original eliminated. At One Night Stand, when Eugene made his way to the ring to read a poem expressing his love of ECW, The Sandman came out with his Singapore Cane and caned Eugene to the back. Sandman received a great reaction from the fans at One Night Stand but his actions were vilified by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler the next night on RAW, thus making him a heel on RAW but a face on ECW.

On June 13, 2006 World Wrestling Entertainment officially relaunched ECW as a brand equal to RAW or SmackDown with its own show on the Sci Fi Channel. In the new ECW, The Sandman was used for the first few weeks as a character who would emerge from the crowd when a non-ECW style character was annoying the audience. Once the character had a few minutes to talk Sandman appeared and destroyed the character with his cane, often ending the "match" with his signature White Russian Legsweep.

This gimmick escalated when Sandman confronted regular ECW fixture Mike Knox while he was attempting to stop his exhibitionist girlfriend, Kelly Kelly, in the middle of her weekly "exposê" strip show. The Sandman began a feud with Knox over this and eventually began teaming up with fellow ECW original Tommy Dreamer to take on Knox and Test in a feud that many felt symbolized the original vision of ECW (Sandman and Dreamer) vs. the "new" vision of ECW (Knox and Test). At the same time Sandman was feuding with Test and Knox a debuting Matt Striker began to rub him the wrong way and he started a second feud with him.

Since then, the Sandman has made several short appearances, mostly coming out through the crowd and caning someone whenever some injustice was done. After being briefly included in a feud with Elijah Burke, he became part of the ECW Originals stable that is trying to fight the McMahon influence and reformation (kayfabe) of ECW.

[edit] Personal life

Fullington owns a bar in New Jersey with his wife, and former-manager, Lori with whom he has a son, Tyler. He also has two other children, an older step-daughter, Kelly, and a younger son, Oliver. Lori and Tyler were both brought into an ECW storyline where they "worshiped" Raven.^{[citation needed]}

He is left handed.^{[citation needed]}

Has two tattoos, a strand of barbed wire and a portrait of his own face on his arm.