He started out as a smiling gladhand surfer, but changed into becoming a surly drunken pimp with Nancy "Woman/Future Mrs Chris Benoit" Sullivan as a hooker under his employee and that he would use his cane to brutalize men after his matches just because he could.
Sandman brutalized a bunch of people until Tommy Dreamer (who started out as a goody-goody smiling gladhand babyface too) stood up to Sandman and lost a match against Sandman. The match had a stipulation where if Tommy lost, Sandman got to cane him and while doing so, Dreamer switched from wholesome goody-goody to hardcore sadomasochist who freaked Sandman out while begging him to keep hitting him with the cane because he loved how it felt.
This freaked Sandman out but caused him to develop affection for Tommy since it proved Tommy wasn't a pussy. But in doing so, Sandman got drawn into Raven's orbit, causing Raven to seduce Sandman's ex-wife so he could brainwash Sandman's estranged son into hating his dad and ECW history was made.
