BTA Exclusive: Sandman Quits Smoking

Since the rebirth of ECW the extremist simply know as 'The Sandman' has given up his smoking habit. His trait for years was a cigarette in one hand and a lager in the other but for the last couple of months he has kept away from the cigs.

Behind The Angle spoke to the rebel last week regarding the issue: "I quit. I quit to give the new ECW a more wholesome image. I'd been doing the whole smoking and drinking routine for years but the smoking was taking its toll on me. I was getting blown up in my matches and I figured kicking the cigs would soon banish that. Plus we've been working some big arenas compared to the old days and making my entrance is getting longer and longer each week, my healthy lungs allow me to get all the way to the ring without feeling even a little breathless."

The Sandman couldn't be more right as his matches since the return of ECW have been hailed as classics. Like all quitters the ECW star has found himself on the end of a few 'extreme' mood swings. Such incidents involving a priest, a school teacher and a zombie have seen Sandman use his singapore cain to deal with the cravings; "Every so often I snap. The cravings get too much and somebody in the ring annoys me and I see red."

Life is going great for the ECW mainstay since he has kicked the dreaded weed and an episode of Monday Night Raw confirmed this; "I was flicking and came across this show called 'Raw'. There was this really cool guy running around doing crazy stuff called Triple H. A dastardly man planted some Cubans in his locker room and the police found out. The funny thing is the cool guy [Triple H] doesn't even smoke! If a guy who is too cool for school like him doesn't smoke then why do I need to?"