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The Man Who Ruled the World. Sid Vicious. Sid Justice. Sycho Sid. the Master of the Powerbomb. Lord Humongous. The Skyscraper.
Sid Eudy was all of these things and many more.
There was a period of time when Sid was going to be the biggest professional wrestling star on the planet and for a period of time, he was the centerpiece of the WWF and was going to be the centerpiece of WCW.
It was preordained from the first time he appeared in front of the fans, that he was going to be one of the biggest stars in the world. Sometimes he was. Sometimes he disappeared. Sometimes the story surrounding him became stranger than fiction, even for the world of professional wrestling, but there's no doubt that if you saw Sid Vicious perform he left an indelible mark. Whatever that intangible "it" is that makes stars sparkle in the night sky, Sid had it in spades and could get a great reaction out of any audience on charisma alone.
Sid Vicious first popped up in the world of professional wrestling in the late 1980s allegedly after an encounter with Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo that led to him getting into the business. Having been trained by the legendary Memphis star Tojo Yamamoto, Sid made several appearances in Memphis before heading to Continental Wrestling where he wrestled under a mask as Lord humongous. He was presented as this Mysterious Giant behemoth with the story unfolding that he was actually an old childhood friend of Shane Douglas, who had disappeared, leading to Douglas teaming with him, the pair holding the Southeastern Tag Team Championship belts.
After an appearance in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Sid landed in World Class, where he first adopted the Sid Vicious moniker, obviously a play on the late punk rock singer. He was quickly signed by World Championship Wrestling in 1989 and anyone who saw Sid walk out in his leather vest knew this was a star heading to the ring. He was a huge muscular charismatic performer who made you believe that he was every bit as dominant and vicious as his surname. In the time period where bigger was better, Sid was absolutely going to be one of the names that was going to be presented as the star of the future.
Sid initially appeared in WCW as one half of the Skyscrapers tag team with Dangerous Danny Spivey destroying everyone in their path with power bombs. Managed by former referee turned manager Teddy Long, they were immediately pushed as a monster tag team, destroying the Dynamic Dudes and feuding with the likes of the Road Warriors and the Steiners before Sid suffered a broken rib and punctured lung while taking a Frankensteiner from Scott Steiner and disappeared off television.
When he recovered, The Skyscrapers were long gone and instead Sid was named the newest member of the reformed Four Horsemen in May 1990, alongside Ric Flair, Barry Windham and Arn Anderson with Ole Anderson as an advisor. The Horsemen feuded with the likes of Sting, Lex Luger, the Junkyard Dog and others in 1990, building up to Sting’s first WCW World Championship win.
In the year that followed, Sid challenged Sting for the title in the main event of Halloween Havoc 1990, ran across Robocop at Capital Combat, legitimately KO’d Brian Pillman in a Wargames match with powerbombs and feuded with El Gigante, among others. Behind the scenes, he allegedly got into it one night with Mike Graham and/or Brian Pillman in a bar and returned brandishing a squeegee as a weapon, so now "Squeegee Sid" was a nickname used to describe him.
While limited in the ring, Sid didn't need to be the most versatile performer. He needed to look like a dominant monster who beat down people and destroyed them with power bombs en route to scoring massive victories. When he was presented as such, he always looked amazing in front of the fans and always got an incredible reaction to the point that it was almost ridiculous to not think that he was not going to be pushed as the top star in the company at some point. Cosmetically, he was the perfect choice to be one of the top stars, but whether there could be staying power to him once placed on top was an answer that couldn’t be revealed until and unless WCW pulled the trigger.
As it turned out, WCW would not get the chance to find out. They decided to make a big offer to Sid to stay and build the company around him, but Sid instead decided to make the jump to the industry leader in what was then known as the WWF.
Rechristened Sid Justice, he debuted in May 1991 beating up heels including Ted DiBiase and the Mountie on television tapings. A number of vignettes were created to build him up and in his WWF PPV debut, he became the special guest referee for SummerSlam 1991 when Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior defeated Sergeant Slaughter the Iron Sheik and General Adnan in a handicap match. With Warrior fired after the show, Sid was positioned as one of the top baby faces in the company immediately. With his Charisma and look it was a no-brainer that WWE would want to put him in that position. He was exactly the type of talent Vince McMahon would look to as the potential “next” Hulk Hogan.
The company solidified Sid’s position as a babyface after Summerslam as they filmed an angle where he rescued Randy Savage and Elizabeth from an attack by Jake Roberts and The Undertaker. The story was that after getting married on the PPV, their post-event wedding reception was ruined by a cobra placed in a gift box for the happy couple. Hey, it was the ‘90s. Sid’s run was curtailed by an injury and he returned at the 1992 Royal Rumble.
In a match that looking back has an incredible array of talent, the 30 man Royal Rumble that year was to determine who the new WWF Champion would be after the belt was vacated. While Ric Flair won the championship and proved himself to be the 60 Minute Man by going the complete hour after entering at number three, it was Sid who proved that he was going to be the heir apparent to Hulk Hogan - at least in the eyes of the fans.
With the match billed as every man for himself, Sid tossed Hogan over the top. Hogan grabbed Sid’s arm, allowing for Flair to eliminate Sid and win the title. During this sequence, the Albany, New York audience immediately turned on Hogan and booed him for screwing over another babyface, one who had eliminated Hogan cleanly. However this was not the story WWF wanted to tell, so when the footage was aired on their programming the following weeks, Sid was booed and Hogan was cheered thanks to post-production magic.
WWF announced the main events for Wrestlemania 8 in Indianapolis and when Hulk Hogan was announced as Flair’s challenger, Sid was pissed, setting up a heel turn. When Hogan and Sid teamed up on a FOX broadcast of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Sid walked out, leaving Hogan to fend himself against Flair and The Undertaker. Sid destroyed the set of The Barber Shop, hosted by Hogan’s real-life best friend Brutus Beefcake, coming off like an absolute maniac peppered with shaving cream as he bellowed and challenged Hogan.
WWF “changed” Mania main events (which was the storyline plan all along), setting up Hogan vs. Sid Justice. With Harvey Whippleman (an old friend and confidante from Memphis Wrestling, whp Sid tormented according to Whippleman's memoir in their earliest days but kept his promise of taking Harvey to the WWF with him) now his manager, Sid lost to Hogan by DQ when Papa Shango interfered. The Ultimate Warrior returned to make the save, with the idea being that Sid would work with Warrior while Hogan disappeared from sight due to the steroid scandals that were starting to rear their ugly head.
Within a few months, though, Sid was gone, upset over how things were going and allegedly claiming he was going to go and play softball instead. The Softball Sid moniker would be one used to describe him for many years among fans. Sid disappeared one week and the next, Warrior was feuding with Papa Shango.
Sid returned to WCW with a big push. Back as Sid Vicious, he destroyed Van Hammer as Robert Parker’s mystery man at Slamboree ‘93. He and Vader formed a team and feuded with Sting and Davey Boy Smith. He led a team against Sting’s team at the 1993 Fall Brawl PPV inside the Wargames.
Sid was turned babyface against Vader and was slated to win the WCW World Championship at Starrcade ‘93 with TV angles filmed and ready to air, until what can only be described as a truly horrific series of events took place during a WCW European tour. After getting into it with each other in a bar at their hotel and being sent back to their respective rooms, Arn Anderson and Sid Vicious had an incident where Sid came to Anderson’s room and knocked on the door. In the ensuing fight, Anderson and Sid were each been stabbed numerous times with scissors. Despite the noise and the chaos, only 2 Cold Scorpio initially entered the fray to stop the incident, likely saving Arn's life.
Somehow, neither were charged and they returned to the United States. By the time the dust settled, Sid was fired and his first World title reign had been canceled. Instead, Ric Flair defeated Vader at Starrcade and Sid, who had now been planned as THE GUY for WCW twice, was again gone from the company.
With no national prospects for him at the time, for all the obvious reasons, Sid went back to Memphis, where he was an immediate main eventer for what was now the USWA, winning the territory’s top belt several times, feuding with perennial hero Jerry Lawler and others. He also appeared on the final Herb Abrams’ UWF event, wrestling Dr. Death Steve Williams in the main event of a “Blackjack Brawl” show before dozens of fans in the MGM Grand Arena and a small viewing audience live on Sportschannel America.
Amazingly given what had happened in WCW and how he had previously walked out of the WWF, Eudy was given yet another chance by the WWF. He returned as the bodyguard for then-WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, now billed as SYCHO SID, obviously playing off the Arn incident, which was never actually mentioned.
Sid’s return led into the Wrestlemania 11 PPV with Michaels facing his former bodyguard and best friend Diesel (Kevin Nash). With a ton of mainstream interest in the show thanks to Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event, Michaels was a bumping machine, attempting to steal the thunder. Diesel won the belt, but the next night on Raw, Sid was told he wouldn’t be allowed at ringside for the rematch as Michaels wasn’t happy with his performance at Mania.
Bellowing, “You Don’t Give Me The Night Off!” Sid attacked Michaels, who was then rescued by Diesel. Sid was then hired by Ted DiBiase to be the newest member of his Million Dollar Corporation. With Michaels injured, Sid vs. Diesel was the main event of the In Your House PPV that followed Mania with Diesel winning by DQ. Sid worked with Diesel and then with Michaels, then Razor Ramon, helping to facilitate the 1-2-3 Kid’s heel turn and membership into DiBiase’s stable.
After taking time off for a neck issue, Sid returned to the company to replace The Ultimate Warrior in the summer of 1996 when Warrior and the company again had issues. Returning as a babyface, but still billed as Sycho Sid, he teamed with Michaels and Ahmed Johnson against Jim Cornette’s unit of Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Vader. He worked against The Undertaker, Smith, Vader and more, including defeating Vader to earn the top contendership for Michaels’ WWF title.
Michaels battled Sid at the 1996 Survivor Series in NYC with the Madison Square Garden crowd completely turning on Michaels for the tougher-presented Sid. Just like a few years before with Hulk Hogan, WWF’s planned babyface was being booed with NYC coronating Sid well before he even won the belt that night. Sid nailed Michaels with a cameraman’s video camera and powerbombed him, finally winning a top title and entering WWF’s pantheon forever as the WWF Champion.
The run lasted just a few months with Michaels regaining the belt at the 1997 Royal Rumble in San Antonio, his hometown. Michaels vacated the belt, citing injuries and throwing the original Mania 13 plans into chaos. By the time the dust settled, it was Undertaker as Champion defeating Sid in Chicago in the main event while Bret worked against Steve Austin underneath in the match that would change WWF’s trajectory forever.
Once again dealing with neck issues, Sid was on and off the WWF storyline train before leaving in the summer of 1997. He worked a bunch of independents and made a surprise appearance in 1999 for Extreme Championship Wrestling, showing up as the replacement for Shane Douglas, who had left the promotion just before a PPV. Managed by Judge Jeff Jones, Sid, despite all the talk of ECW fans being the “smarter” fans, got massive reactions every time he showed up and destroyed opponents but was quickly gone, allegedly over pay.
Amazingly given how his WCW run ended in 1993, Sid was given yet another chance by WCW. He returned in 1999 and even shook hands in the ring with Arn Anderson, who was equal parts disgusting and sad given their previous incident with each other, on live TV. Sid was initially aligned with Randy Savage and battled then-WCW Champion Kevin Nash, the former Diesel. Sid was built up as having his own winning streak with the idea of facing off with Bill Goldberg, who’s streak had legitimately captivated the audience. They finally battled, with Goldberg scoring the win and then winning an I Quit bout at WCW Mayhem, ending the Sid streak.
Sid also battled Chris Benoit for the WCW title in 2000, losing the belt to Benoit but then having the decision reversed as his foot was under the rope. In real life, Benoit and others had bolted for the WWF, so WCW had to change storylines and put the belt back on Sid. Sid feuded with Nash and battled Scott Hall and Jeff Jarrett, among others. WCW was running out of steam and by the time Sid finally, really got the title, there was no way he or anyone else could truly have been effective in the role.
Sid turned heel and attacked Hulk Hogan during a tag match, “upset” that fans were more behind Hogan. The idea was to set up Hogan vs. Sid but when WCW rebooted for the Millionaire’s Club vs. The New Blood, the story was dropped and Sid wasn’t seen for some time.
By the time Sid returned, Scott Steiner was the World Champion and Sid returned as a challenger. At the January 2001 WCW Sin PPV, Sid went to the ropes and dove off the middle turnbuckle with a big boot. Later stating he was instructed to do the move despite not being comfortable with performing it, Sid crashed and fractured his tibia and fibula in a truly gruesome injury moment live on TV.
With WCW soon purchased by the WWF, that was the end of Sid’s run on national television for years as he endured several surgeries and a lot of physical therapy in order to try and return to some semblance of normal. He returned to the ring in 2004, working in Memphis and some other independents in the United States and overseas.
Sid would not return to what is now known as WWE until 2012, where he was one of a number of surprise talents returning to wrestle and humiliate Heath Slater as part of the build to Raw’s 1000th episode.
Sid appeared in several independent films over the last decade and made what was his last public appearance signing at TMart’s The Gathering in Charlotte, NC several weeks ago, reuniting with Skyscrapers partner Dan Spivey. The story making the rounds was that Eudy had been privately battling cancer and while undergoing treatment, caught COVID, leading to the passing of one of the most dynamic personalities of the '80s and '90s.
PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to Sid Eudy’s family, friends and fans.
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