The Wrestling world was left in sadness when it was reported on August 26 that Sid Eudy better known to fans as either Sycho Sid, Sid Justice or Sid Vicious had passed away from cancer at the age of 63.

One of the most popular wrestlers of the 90’s, Sid was able to achieve a level of success at one of the hottest points in professional wrestling and winning numerous world titles along the way.

While certain sections of the wrestling community love to bring up his so bad it’s good promos, altercation with fellow wrestlers and other unsavory things that may or may not be true, this list wouldn’t be focusing on that as today will be going over (in no particular order) some of the greatest moments in the career of the pro wrestling’s self proclaimed ‘Master and Ruler of the World’.

Sid’s 2012 Return to RAW

After suffering one of the worst injuries in all of professional wrestling (which is saying something), Sid would take many years away from the ring to heal himself before reappearing in various indie and international promotions where he often took part in tag team matches, battle royals and on occasion played the enforcer role in a match.

On June 25th 2012 edition of Monday Night Raw former tag team champion and WWE’s resident jobber, Heath Slater continued his running theme of losing or getting beaten up by the legends and this night was no different.

After telegraphing for several minutes about who is next opponent will be, out came Sycho Sid to compete in a WWE for the first time since 1997 and predictably defeated the “One Man Southern Rock Band” in the middle of the ring.

This moment ranks low due to the zero reaction Sid gets from the crowd in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but this match and his involvement on the 1000th episode of Raw is a nice final memory involving one of wrestling’s greatest big men.

Beating Up Mike Blackwell

During the early stages of his career, Sid would partner with Dan Spivey to form towering twosome known as ‘The Skyscrappers’ in the NWA. Although the pair’s time together would be short lived due to Sid suffering from injuries, they did have one match that’s memorable just not for all the right reasons.

On August 5th 1989, the Skyscrappers were set to wrestle and beat a pair of jobbers named Avalanche and Mike Blackwell; As the match gets underway, Blackwell begins taking the offense of Sid and Spivey…only to immediately get up as if nothing had happened before hitting Mike with a powerbomb and pressing him down for the three count.

From here you probably guess what happened next as both members of the Skyscrappers began taking the un-cooperative jobber to task with sniff punches and kicks after the match with the beatdown getting even worse once the cameras stopped rolling.

Allegedly Blackwell wanted to deliver some action, but instead got the crap beaten out of him at the hands of the future Waylon Mercy and Sycho Sid…An example of why you shouldn’t attempt to get yourself over at the expense of the more established stars.

Sid is the Mystery Partner

Following the events of the 1996 King of the Ring pay-per-view, a planned match was to see Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and the Ultimate Warrior take on Jim Cornette’s team of Yokozuna, the British Bulldog and Owen Hart at In Your House 9: International Incident.

However the Warrior had another falling out with Vince McMahon and was gone from the company not long after making his return; This resulted in a new partner being revealed on July 8th 1996 edition of Raw during a simulcast interview.

HBK and Johnson revealed their mystery partner to be Sycho Sid (who returned to the company after a previous stint in WCW); Cutting arguably one of the best and most terrifying promos of his career, Sid’s presence and involvement in the match made things all the more interesting.

Despite the fact the good guys lost that six man tag at In Your House, the moment of Sid’s return is a genuine highlight, also bonus points to Cornette’s over the top facial reactions and freak out which only made things better.

Becoming WCW Champion in 2000

To say the final calendar year for World Championship Wrestling was problematic was an understatement as anything that could go wrong with the promotion actually did, case in point: The status of the WCW Championship in 2000.

From injuries to title vancancies and a failed attempt to keep Chris Benoit from leaving the company, the title situation for WCW’s once prestigious prize was in trouble then on January 24th episode of Nitro, Sid would beat Ron and Don Harris of the Harris Twins to get a shot at the WCW Championship where he would beat Kevin Nash for the title later on in the night.

However because this was WCW in final years of it’s existence, convoluted storytelling wasn’t too far away as Nash (who was the company’s booker and onscreen commissioner) stripped the title away from Sid because he apparently pinned the wrong Harris Twin to get the title shot and Nash soon put the belt on himself making him the new champion…Can imagine why fans were turning away from the product with booking like this.

Anyway, Sid would soon regain the belt after beating Nash and Ron Harris in a triple threat cage match to become a two time champion; Sid’s time as champion lasted only 76 days but if you can believe it was the most stable title reign in all of 2000…and yes, the irony of a man who’s wrestled under names like Sycho and Vicious have the most sensible reign with the title isn’t lost on me.

After defending the belt on PPV against names like Jeff Jarrett and Scott Hall, Sid would soon be stripped of the title as part of the Great Reset the company was trying to do with all of the titles, meaning Sid’s two title reigns ended with him never being pinned or submitted.

This would be Sid’s last appearance in WCW for several months as company had no plans for him…also he got ridiculed by Eric Bischoff with a reference to a fight Sid had with Arn Anderson years ago, so that something I guess.

Turning on HBK

Before he partnered with Sid to take on Camp Cornette in 1996, Shawn Michaels brought in Sid as his new bodyguard in the lead up to his match former best friend, Diesel for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 11.

HBK would come up short in that match with ‘Big Daddy Cool’ which leads us to this next entry; On the April 3rd 1995 edition of Monday Night Raw, Vince McMahon conducted an interview with Shawn Michaels and Sid in the ring with the Heart Break Kid informing the big man that he didn’t need bodyguard and told Sid to take the night off.

This went about as well as you’d expect with Sid raging over what appeared to be a dismissal from HBK and demanded some respect to which Michaels refused to do. Sid then attacked Shawn and delivered three powerbombs which laid out HBK…Further proof of Sid’s dominance inside the ring.

His Brief Run in ECW

The 90’s saw Sid yo-yo from WCW to WWE and vice versea with the big man leveling his mark in some form or fashion, but what many don’t remember is that in between his stints with the two major companies, Sid found time to work in Extreme Championship Wrestling aka ECW.

Debuting on the Guilty as Charged 1999 pay-per-view as the excutioner for Judge Jeff Jones, Sid came out to major fanfare and easily dismantled John Kronus to score the win; From here Sid would tangle with other stars like Big Vito, the Dudley Boyz, Steve Corino, Spike Dudley and Justin Credible before powerbombing Judge Jones and leaving the company soon afterwards over money related reasons.

For as blink and you miss it his run in ECW was, it only helped in showing that Sid was main attraction regardless of which promotion he was in.

Destroying the Barber Shop

WWE has seen more than it’s fair share of talk shows but one that is memorable despite it’s short length is ‘The Barber Shop’. Hosted by wrestler Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake, the show is best remembered for Shawn Michaels turning on his long time tag team partner, Marty Janetty before embarking on one of the best singles run in all of wrestling.

The second most notably moment from the Barber Shop just so happened to it’s last. On the Feburary 29th 1992 edition of the Wrestling Challenge, Brutus had Sid (known as Sid Justice at the time) as his guest and basically berated the big man for his actions towards Hulk Hogan.

Disinterested with Beefcake’s comments, Sid then grabs a steel chair and destroys the set all while Brutus flees in terror; From him calling out Hogan to stop him to the unintentionally funny spot of shaving cream spraying in his face, Sid’s time on the barber shop was certainly one to be remembered.

Turning on the Hulkster

Of his many accomplishments he had as a wrestler, Sid holds the great honor of being the only wrestler to have all of his Wrestlemania appearances.matches be in the main event.

His Wrestlemania 13 world title match with the Undetaker is remembered for Sid become yet another victim of the Deadman’s then undefeated streak, but it’s his first appearance that will be mentioning here.

At the 1992 Royal Rumble, Sid Justice eliminated Hulk Hogan which led to the Hulkster grabbing Sid’s arm from the outside thus allowing Ric Flair to win not only the rumble but become the new WWE Champion in the process.

Despite justifiably eliminating Hogan from the rumble and Hogan being in the wrong, Sid was somehow booked as the heel in this whole situation which was made clearer during an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event with Hogan and Sid taking on Ric Flair and the Undertaker.

Towards the end, Hogan attempted to tag Sid into the match only for the big man to walk out on the red and yellow superstar leading to the main event of Wrestlemania 8 being Sid Justice versus Hulk Hogan in what was build as Hogan’s final wrestling match…Which was laughable even in 1992.

The itself wasn’t great with only three notable things about it:

1. Sid became the first person to kick out of Hogan’s leg drop

2. The match ended in disqualification, thanks to a spot by Papa Shango getting botched

3. The return of the Ultimate Warrior

Regardless of the match being underwelming and the fact that Sid would leave soon after failing drug testing rather face suspension, his decision to turn on Hogan made sense and only shows how petty the Hulkster was throughout the whole thing.

Winning his First WWE Championship

Despite their on and off relationship onscreen, Shawn Michaels and Sycho Sid were able to produce some iconic moments and matches throughout their time together and Sid’s case his biggest had to be at Surivivor Series 1996.

After a planned feud between HBK and Vader blew up following their match at that year’s Summerslam, Sid was then swapped in leading to their main event encounter at Surivivor Series for the WWE Championship.

From the god like cheers he gets from the male portion of the crowd upon making his entrance to the action itself and the moment where Sid wallops HBK’s manager, Jose Lothario with a camera at ringside…Everything about this night was truly special as it culminated in Sid winning his very first WWE World Championship much the sadness of the female fans in attendance.

While Michaels would get the belt back at the 1997 Royal Rumble, Sid’s win and the crowd reaction after that win has to go down as one of the great moments in the career of the man known as Sid…Rest in Peace big man.

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