Sid Ruled
I first heard of Sid Vicious sometime in 1988, in the pages of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Formerly Lord Humongous in Mid South Wrestling, Sid had moved on to Jerry Lawler’s Memphis promotion and was on the radar of both the WWF and NWA, each looking to sign this 6-foot-8 mountain of a man who’d been dubbed a future megastar in the business. Thanks to the magic of cable TV Lawler’s show was on one of those obscure channels for a couple of months and I got to see him a couple of times on TV and was impressed. I wouldn’t see him again until he signed with the NWA and debuted in 1989, which was a major coup given that the WWF was landing any free agent worth a damn by that time and the NWA was going through a Jim Herd-led talent purge and replacing many of the stalwarts of the Jim Crockett era with washed up guys just out of the WWF or who had been languishing around in the last remnants of the territories. Sid was still green as hell and was teaming with Dan Spivey in a duo called the Skyscrapers managed by Teddy Long.
The Skyscrapers were a sight to behold. Two men tall enough to play power forward in the NBA who were strong as hell and just beat the crap out of their opponents every week. Sid was the king of squash matches, brutalizing jobbers in such a way that even if you know it was a work you were worried for those young men’s safety. Sid was at his best squashing jobbers or getting heat on a babyface by obliterating them before a big match. And if a guy didn’t play ball then Sid and Dan had no problem turning the work into a shoot.
After leaving for the WWF in 1991 Sid would bounce back and forth between the two companies for the rest of his full time career, sometimes staying less than a year before he moved on or was shown the door. Each time he managed to get in a few pay per view matches and get real close to a top spot before circumstances intervened again. Miraculously despite being such a vagabond he managed to make two WrestleMania main events (VIII and XIII) and the WWF World Title twice. His first title win would be the pinnacle of his time in the WWF, with Sid being cheered like a conquering hero despite working heel against Shawn Michaels, and making one of the most memorable entrance walks in Madison Square Garden wrestling history.
Sid on his way to conquer the Garden
Sid Vicious, or Psycho Sid if you knew him that way, had that thing, that aura (I hate how overused that term has become but it applies here) more than all but the very best of his profession. The sight of Sid walking to the ring wasn’t unlike that of Brock Lesnar; you got the same chills at the anticipation that some was about to get put in the dirt in scary and violent fashion. That was often better in theory than in execution, and many times the anticipation ended when the bell rang. While he wasn’t terrible Sid was never a great in ring worker and he did not have any kind of resume of great matches to call back to. But he was a force of nature, and the epitome of what pro wrestling was all about – larger than life men and women taking to the ring to commit acts of violence against one another.
Sid was like former NBA center Daryl Dawkins. Dawkins was a mountain of a man who didn’t have a wide range of skills and was a solid starter but never made an All-Star team and maxed out at 16 points and 8 rebounds a game. Dawkins was great at one thing – violently dunking a basketball in spectacular fashion – and that one thing got him more well remembered than lots of guys who were more skilled players. And it was more fun to watch them work, even if the results fell short of what you hoped. Dawkins tearing down a backboard and shattering the glass made you not care if he struggled to get a dozen points or his team lost the game. Sid was great at violent destruction in a wrestling ring, and that alone made him preferable to a lot of guys who knew how to put on 1,000 different holds. The hope of him having a great match was a better time than watching many others succeed at it.
RIP to Sid Vicious, the man who did indeed rule the world. You made professional wrestling better for all of us. Thanks for the memories.
Stroke of Genius 