The Sandman was involved in some controversy over the weekend when Jordynne Grace and Tessa Blanchard went public with their concerns over comments he made backstage at a show.

“Hey remember that time The Sandman came up to four women about to main event to tell us that women main eventing is “wrong” and “any male wrestler with any sort of experience would agree”? Was this in 1998? No, it was tonight. December 2019,” Grace Tweeted.

Sandman then appeared on Busted Open Radio on Tuesday to give his side of the story.

“The bottom line is all I said was ‘I don’t think that most fans are ready for girls to be in main events, that’s it,” Sandman said. “There are so many girls that totally deserve to be main eventers in all different kinds of organizations from WWE to AEW. They’re so good right now, it’s absolutely incredible but no, I absolutely don’t think like that and that’s just the way it is.”

He continued to say he never spoke to Jordynne Grace backstage.

“I know that I never talked to that girl,” Sandman said.

“I was not talking to 4 women ever, I do not even know who that girl is,” he continued.

Sandman does remember possibly talking to Taya Valkyrie at one point and expressing these opinions.

“You know what is entertaining to me is guy versus girl,” Sandman continued, expressing that he enjoys inter-gender wrestling.

Sandman admitted he hasn’t been following pro-wrestling and that his kids have sent him clips about modern women’s wrestling since the controversy this weekend.

Thank you @davidlagreca1 and @bullyray5150 for allowing @JordynneGrace a chance to tell OUR side of what happened. It’s infuriating to me that we’re all talking about such a disrespectful turn of events instead of the amazing match we put on or how far women’s wrestling has come. I don’t like bringing more attention to someone so disrespectful which is why I haven’t said anything until now. But what he said on your show is NOT what happened. I won’t lose sleep over this but I will continue to have great matches and main event. Welcome to 2020

— Wera Loca (@TheTayaValkyrie) December 4, 2019


Jordynne Grace joined the show near the end of the podcast version. She said she heard the interview with Sandman and decided to call in.

“He did not just say it to Taya and that is not the only thing he said. I didn’t go into the whole conversation on social media because it was about a 10-minute back and forth thing that went off,” she said on the show. “It was me, Taya and Tessa all standing around talking. The Sandman comes up to Taya asks her what match she was in, she says she’s the last match, he says ‘the main event?’ and she said ‘yeah, the main event’ and he said ‘excuse me?’ and we all just kind of stared at him, no clue if he was joking or not, and he said ‘you know that’s wrong, right?’ Looked at every one of us, then he started talking about the WrestleMania main event and how bad it was.”

At this point, Tessa then confronted the Sandman as Grace said she was in shock.

According to Grace, Sandman then said he polled the locker room and they said women in the main event were wrong. Tessa and him then continued their confrontation at this point. Tessa would later cut a promo on Sandman that night.

Bully Ray then asked Jordynne why she went on social media about the situation.

“I said ‘just watch the main event’ so I feel that was a little more respectful way to say that. He didn’t watch the main event and so that’s why I decided to post what I did on social media,” she answered.

“I’ve never been that disrespected to my face before,” she added.