Sid Eudy
| Sid Eudy | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 16, 1960 West Memphis, Arkansas |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Lord Humongous The Vicious Warrior Sid Vicious Sid Justice Sycho Sid Sid |
| Billed height | 6 ft 9 in (206 cm) |
| Billed weight | 313 (142 kg) |
| Billed from | West Memphis, "Wherever he Darn Well Pleases" |
| Trained by | Tojo Yamamoto |
| Debut | 1987 |
Sidney Ray Eudy (born December 16, 1960) is an American professional wrestler, most commonly known as Sid Vicious, but is also well-known as Sid Justice and Sycho Sid.
A former two-time WWF and WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Sid Eudy is remembered more for his colorful backstage reputation and for a violent confrontation with fellow wrestler Arn Anderson. An avid softball player, Eudy was accused of feigning injury during important storylines to compete with his softball team.
Career
Sid Eudy entered the wrestling industry after an encounter with Randy Savage and his brother Lanny Poffo at a gym. Eudy was trained by Tojo Yamamoto. In his debut match, Eudy teamed with Austin Idol and wrestled Nick Bockwinkel and Jerry Lawler (Lawler has been a natural rival since then, as Eudy made his rise in the ranks through the Memphis promotion). Most of his early career was spent as the masked wrestler Lord Humongous. He competed mainly on the Memphis, Tennessee, and Georgia wrestling circuits where he captured several regional titles. He also competed in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he challenged Tatsumi Fujinami for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship under the name Vicious Warrior, but failed. (The name was arbitrarily chosen by NJPW and had no connection to the Road Warriors, who were billed in Japan as Animal Warrior and Hawk Warrior, respectively. Coincidentally, his "Lord Humongous" personality used previously was taken from the same movie as their gimmick, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.) A very brief stint in WCCW saw him wrestle as Sid Vicious, where he immediately overwhelmed Kerry Von Erich and was never seen again.
World Championship Wrestling (First Run) 1989-1991
In 1989, Eudy signed with WCW and wrestled as Sid Vicious. Originally slated as a singles wrestler, Eudy was paired with Danny Spivey to form The Skyscrapers. Managed by Teddy Long, The Skyscrapers feuded with The Steiner Brothers and The Road Warriors. The team was short-lived, Eudy was replaced by Mean Mark Callous (now known as The Undertaker) after suffering a broken rib and a punctured lung. Following his recovery, Eudy returned as a member of Ric Flair's Four Horsemen, and was humorously billed by the ring announcers as being from "wherever he darn well pleases". During this time, he incorporated the Powerbomb as his finishing move, popularizing it to audiences in North America. As one of the Horsemen, Eudy feuded with Paul Orndorff and The Junkyard Dog and unsuccessfully battled WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting for the title with his biggest chance coming at Halloween Havoc in 1990, where a fake Sting (Barry Windham) in collusion with Sid, tried to win the title via "switcheroo" trick. They were thwarted when the real Sting came out and beat Sid. Despite being offered a multi-year, guaranteed contract and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Eudy left the company for the World Wrestling Federation.
World Wrestling Federation (First Run) 1991-1992
Under the Sid Justice moniker, Eudy had a brief run with the company. Originally a babyface, Eudy was the WWF's special enforcer as a way to have him on screen as he worked through a biceps injury and would sometimes participate in short squash matches. His first big feud was with top heel Jake "The Snake" Roberts. However, he turned heel and feuded with Hulk Hogan. Details of Eudy's departure are unclear. In an interview, Eudy stated he was negotiating with WCW to return because of his unhappiness with the environment of the WWF. However, Vince McMahon made it financially worth it to remain with the company.[1] WWF claims that prior to Wrestlemania VIII, Eudy was discovered to be cheating on a drug test and left the company in order to avoid suspension. [2]
World Championship Wrestling (Second Run) 1992-1993
After spending less than a year with the WWF, Eudy returned to WCW and teamed with Vader to form the Masters of the Powerbomb. The two feuded with Sting and The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith. Once again Eudy was slated to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade '93, but it never came to fruition.
Two weeks away from winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship during a tour in the United Kingdom, Eudy, reportedly drunk, had an argument in a hotel bar with Arn Anderson after Anderson overheard Eudy insulting his friend Ric Flair. Eudy later went up to Anderson's hotel room to settle the argument and (allegedly) hit Anderson over the head with a hotel chair when he answered the door. Eudy then brawled with Anderson inside the room and ended up stabbing Anderson over 20 times with a pair of safety scissors. Anderson was rushed to the hospital and survived the incident, while Eudy lost his World Title shot (which was then awarded to Ric Flair). WCW President Eric Bischoff fired Eudy after several wrestlers threatened to walk out if he was not terminated. Eudy has since apologized to Anderson for the incident and the pair are on speaking terms today.
Back to Memphis 1993-1995
Eudy spent 1994 at his hometown promotion, the United States Wrestling Association in Memphis, feuding with old rival Lawler. In mid-1994 he won the USWA Championship by forfeit when Lawler, who had been attacked and injured by Eudy earlier in the card, could not appear for the scheduled match. In the feud that followed, Lawler was able to defeat Eudy in non-title matches, but Eudy was able to save his belt in the title bouts through screwjobs (mainly from outside interference by his ally at the time, Spellbinder. In January 1995, Lawler was able to win the USWA championship back when Spellbinder's interference backfired.
World Wrestling Federation (Second Run) 1995-1997
Sid returned to the WWF prior to WrestleMania XI as Shawn Michaels' bodyguard. On the RAW after Wrestlemania, Shawn Michaels gave Sid "the night off" after accusing Sid of costing him the WWF title against Diesel at Wrestlemania. In turn, Sid powerbombed Michaels several times, only for Michaels to be saved by Diesel, thus turning Shawn face. This incident was notorious as the fans in the RAW audience were legitimately cheering Sid's attack on Michaels (something that would repeat itself a year and a half later when the two feuded over the WWF Championship). As a result, all replays of Sid's powerbombs on Michaels were edited so that the cheers were drowned out with boos (or canned heat). Sid's powerbombs put Michaels out of action (in reality, giving Michaels time to recuperate from back injuries suffered prior to the powerbombs). He then continued to feud with Diesel over the course of many months.
Sid later aligned himself with Ted DiBiase and his Million Dollar Corporation. Sid teamed with members of this stable and continued to feud with Shawn & Diesel (and Bam Bam Bigelow, who recently was fired from the Million Dollar Corporation) throughout 1995.
Sid disappeared from the WWF after failing to capture the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Smokin' Gunns in early 1996 along with the 1-2-3 Kid. He was later brought back as a face in July of that year to team with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson against Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog in various tag or 6-man matches.
Sid went on to win the WWF Championship from Shawn Michaels at the 1996 Survivor Series at Madison Square Garden. In a bizarre replay of an incident that occurred just a year earlier, the MSG crowd audibly cheered for the heel Sid, while loudly booing the face Michaels. Sid lost the title back to Shawn at the 1997 Royal Rumble. Sid regained the gold on RAW in February 1997 by defeating Bret Hart after interference from Steve Austin.
Sid went on to lose the title to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 13. This was Sid's last appearance in the WWF until June of that year when he returned to setup a King of the Ring tag match. After this, Sid's WWF career was done as the WWF apparently had nothing left for him.
After accomplishing a feat of beating both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart in back to back months in their prime in addition to most of the top stars on the WWF roster at the time in 1996, Sid as well as many wrestling critics viewed himself to be one of the most dominant world champions to come in perhaps many years. It then triggered Sid to claim that his name was an acronym that stood for "Suddenly I've Dominated."
Extreme Championship Wrestling 1999
Sid appeared in ECW from January to May of 1999 and feuded with the Dudley Boyz, John Kronus, Skull Von Krush and Justin Credible.
World Championship Wrestling (Third and Final Run) 1999-2001
After spending some time in ECW, Eudy returned to WCW in 1999 where he feuded with Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Scott Steiner. WCW began nicknaming Sid "The Millennium Man", shortly after Chris Jericho's "Millennium Man" gimmick debuted in the WWF. WCW even released a home video highlighting Sid's return to WCW called Sid Vicious: Millennium Man, but on the original print the word "millennium" was misspelled. Upon returning to the WCW, Sid Vicious was dubbed as undefeated, having a winning streak much like Goldberg had previously. Goldberg was the one to ultimately end his streak. Strangely enough, he was dubbed undefeated even though he has lost many times, during his stay with WCW in previous years.
After the "Millennium Man" gimmick ran dry, Sid became a face and started to contend for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and reached the finals of a tournament held to crown a new champion at WCW Souled Out in January 2000. He would go on to lose the match and the title to Chris Benoit, but Benoit was on his way to WWF at the time and the title was vacated.
The next week (January 24, 2000), Sid was presented with a challenge by Nash, who had become commissioner of WCW (kayfabe). If he could beat Don & Ron Harris in a match on Nitro that night, he would face Nash for the championship that night. Sid completed his first task, and defeated Nash in the main event to win his first WCW world championship.
Two nights later on Thunder, Nash stripped Sid of the championship due to him not beating the legal Harris brother in the match on Nitro. A rematch between Sid and Nash was set up, and just like he had on Nitro, Sid defeated Nash and became champion again.
On March 19, 2000, Sid faced Jeff Jarrett in a defense of his title. He won thanks in part to help from a returning Hulk Hogan, which set up a match for the following night's Nitro pitting Sid and Hogan vs. Jarrett and Scott Steiner. During the course of the match, Sid turned heel and attacked Hogan, due to his being incensed that the fans were chanting Hogan's name. He chokeslammed Hogan and forced the referee to count Hogan pinned (the official result was a no contest). This apparently might have been to set up a match for the upcoming Spring Stampede pay-per-view in April. However, shortly after this WCW began its New Blood angle, and Sid (along with all the other WCW titleholders at the time) was stripped of his championship. He would not play much of a role in the angle that would follow, and vanished for several months.
He returned late in the year as the challenger to Scott Steiner's WCW Championship. Though failing to capture the championship at Starrcade, he managed to earn himself another shot at the title for the following year.
Leg break in the ring
Eudy would be scheduled to face Steiner once again at the main event of the 2001 WCW PPV Sin. Prior to the match, members of WCW management felt that Eudy needed to broaden his arsenal of wrestling moves and suggested that he try an aerial maneuver despite his unwillingness. During the match, Eudy consequently suffered a leg fracture when it snapped following his leap from the middle turnbuckle in an attempted Big Boot.
The fracture, caught on video, was deemed too graphic by many TV stations.[3] Eudy broke his left leg in half, snapping both the tibia and fibula in his leg with at least one of the bones breaking through the skin.[4]
The footage quickly became a popular viral video. The footage exploded across the internet and is popular among wrestling fans and misanthropic gore fans. After the injury, Sid pondered retiring from wrestling for good. "I had about a year left on my contract, and I was thinking back then prior to hurting my leg and pooping my pants, what was I going to do as far as wrapping up my career. The only thing I really wanted to do was ideally go out in a big pay per view, like a Wrestlemania or something like that main event, leave like that, and not come back again. It would really be the retirement match."[5]
The injury forced a plot change in the 2001 SuperBrawl Revenge event, causing the Nitro lineup to change. The main event was supposed to be Nash, Dallas Page and Sid against Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett and Road Warrior Animal but was rewritten to Kevin Nash vs. Scott Steiner.
Sid later sued WCW claiming that he was made to jump off the top rope against his objections.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Trivia
- Among wrestling fans and fellow wrestlers, Eudy developed a colorful reputation, both for his lackluster ring skills, as well as his numerous botched promos. His backstage actions also spawned several urban legends and amusing anecdotes. Besides his confrontation with Arn Anderson, Eudy allegedly was involved in a bar fight with wrestler Brian Pillman. It is said that Eudy fled the bar only to return, brandishing a squeegee as a weapon. The attempted threat would result in mere laughter among the bar's inhabitants.
- In addition to the scissors incident with Arn Anderson, Sid also experienced additional embarrassment in WCW, quite possibly thanks again to Anderson. During his time in WCW, Sid had a squirrel he took with him everywhere. Two wrestlers (one of them may have been Anderson) bet him he couldn't keep the squirrel down his pants for a whole minute. Sid accepted the challenge and stuck it down his pants. After about 30 seconds of the squirrel biting him, Sid was bitten in the groin, which caused Sid to fall down in pain and crush the squirrel. Sid needed a rabies shot and stitches on his genitalia after the incident, and also earned Sid the nickname of 'King of the Squirrels' by internet fans. Incidentally, Sid also took this occasion to inadvertently defecate in his pants once again. [6]
Wrestling facts
Finishing and signature moves
- Powerbomb
- Vicious Crossface (Crossface hold)
- Chokeslam
- Human Frisbee (Airplane spin slam)
Managers
- Ole Anderson
- Ted DiBiase
- Sylvia Fuller
- Gary Hart
- Judge Jeff Jones
- Theodore Long
- Colonel Rob Parker
- Harvey Wippleman
Quotes
- "Who opened the gates of hell and let this man out?!!!" (referring to himself upon his return and brief alliance with Shawn Michaels)
- "You know, as we stand here, I think you actually believe these things you are saying! <pause> Let me tell you something, you stupid little puke. You don't give me the night off! You give me nothing but respect!" (to Shawn Michaels, which marked the beginning of the end of their alliance)
- "Shut up...you fat, bald-headed little oaf!" To "Mean" Gene Okerlund during a Wrestlemania VIII backstage interview.
- "I am the man... I am the master... and I am the ruler of the world!"
- "You know that you are half the man that I am and I have half the brain that you do!" (From a promo in his feud with Kevin Nash)[7]
- "Jack Tunney, what you did...was BOGUS!"
- "SHAT UP!!!!!" (From Wrestlemania XI when fans got him irritated)
- "I think I smell...(sniffs)...Yeah. I smell a powerbomb." (From Royal Rumble 1997)
Championships and accomplishments
- CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- CWA Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- NWA Southeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Southeast Continental Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shane Douglas
- NWA Northeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- 1993 Most Overrated Wrestler