RIP Sid Vicious

[Egg Shen]

Sid's short ECW run was amazing, it was so random but seeing Sid destroy random ECW folk using tables (fairly recklessly) reminds me vividly of the time in my life when I enjoyed wrestling the most, I tie to it to some great memories.

Sid was the man.

[SuperBacon]

They played his Psycho Sid theme at the Arsenal game yesterday at half time.

The person who does the music is a massive wrestling fan, and often plays music, but imagine hearing that blare out while you're waiting for a piss having no context.

Great theme, great 96/97 run. His entrance at SS96 is one of my all time favourite moments. When he's shouting "Who's the man?" at Vlad, and he replies "You the man, you the man baby" I bloody love it. 

"I DON'T KNOW SHIT CRYBABY!" 

[wandshogun09]

Mean Gene being Mean Gene.

Sid: NOOOOO, SHUT UP YOU FAT, BALD HEADED LITTLE OAF!

Absolutely loved Sid. First and foremost obviously his look was ridiculous. The physique was insane, of course, and he had the height. But that face! People have criticised his bell to bell work a bunch over the years and I’ve heard the likes of Cornette going “well if he’d learned to work/wrestle better”. No. He was a 6’9” monster with a superhero’s build and psychopath’s face. That was the hand he was dealt physically and being a big giant noodle haired nutcase was his job. He shouldn’t have been doing many actual wrestling moves surely? A lot of his stuff wasn’t pretty and he didn’t have a long list of great matches but, for the role he had and the job he had to do, what he did in the ring was pretty much spot on. Nobody needed or wanted to see him doing a fireman’s carry, fancy suplexes or any kind of chain wrestling. He was a big arse kicker. Clubbing strikes, big boot, clothesline, chokeslam, powerbomb was about all you needed. He was ace. 

What set him apart from the vast majority of big men was his charisma. Somewhere along the line I think a lot of wrestling fans decided that ‘charisma’ meant ‘cocky smirking heel’ like a Mr Perfect or early Randy Orton type thing. Sid was never that but, when it came to charisma and whatever that special ‘it factor’ is, he was always dripping in it. Even when you go back and watch his early stuff as a Skyscraper or whatever. He had it. He was always ridiculously cool seemingly without really trying or maybe even realising it. Always been a fan but seeing all the clips of him on Twitter this past week, man, he was so fucking cool. Even more than I remembered. I don’t think there’s many wrestlers who’d have got away with hopping between major promotions as much as Sid did in the 90s, with promoters and with all the stops and starts and switching between heel and babyface. It never seemed to affect Sid much though. He was too big a deal and too over of a name for promoters to pass up or stay mad at for too long and he’d always just waltz back into a promotion as a legit main eventer and the fans would always readily accept him. 

As sad as it is to say, a lot of these wrestling deaths don’t really come as a surprise anymore but I think this one caught everyone off guard. I don’t think anyone in wrestling knew he had cancer. If there were any who knew, they’d kept it quiet and that was obviously the way Sid wanted it. Whenever you’d see a picture of Sid in recent years, he still looked in pretty good health and shape and always just looked so happy and content with his life. I love that for the entirety of his career he was seen as this unhinged lunatic yet pretty much all you’ve heard since he passed has been about how great a guy he was. Just one of many I’ve seen was Rob Van Dam telling a story of when he was starting out, was working as enhancement and got squashed by Sid during the WWF run in 91/92. Back when Sid would crush two jobbers in a handicap match on TV. RVD says Sid came up to him and his partner after the match and gave them both some money and it stuck with him all these years because he was the only guy who ever did that for him. Also hearing a lot about how great a family man he was. The fact that probably the last photo we all saw of him was that one of him smiling with his grandkids on his lap is very fitting. 

6 hours ago, Chili said:

Finally that 1996 return to WWF promo is superb, kicking off his finest run, with Jim Cornette selling it marvellously and some classic Sid. 

'I can hear you screaming out for help... Help. But there's no-one there... THERE'S NO-ONE THERE!'

 

 

I love this one. Sid’s reveal and his delivery on that line in particular, with the maniacal laugh, is one of my all time favourites from him. I have really strong vivid memories of watching that episode of Raw. I think it was shown on Friday afternoons here at the time? I just remember it was July, I’d not long got home from school, my birthday was coming up, the 6 week summer holiday was coming up, we’d just got a puppy, the sun was blasting through the living room window and I’d just gone from being disappointed to learn the Ultimate Warrior was gone again to buzzing that Sid was back. I can remember watching that particular episode of Raw crystal clear that day. Life was good.

So much more I could waffle on about. For a guy who didn’t have a whole bunch of amazing matches, there were so many great and memorable moments and as I’ve got older I’ve realised that was as big a part of it as the in ring action for me. Just a few of my favourites off the top of my head…

• The entrance at MSG at Survivor Series 96. 

• That mad Barbershop segment where he sent Beefcake scurrying for his life and stood screaming into the camera with shaving foam all over his gob.

• Casually strolling down the aisle saying “I DON’T KNOW SHIT, CRYBABY” to Bret in 97.

• The stuff with Goldberg and the crushed car (“WHY ME? WHY ME? WHY MEEEEEEE?”).

• Twatting an OAP with a camera, giving him a heart attack and getting cheered for it.

• The return to WCW at Slamboree 93 and the reaction he got before steamrolling Van Hammer.

• Coming back to Raw for that one-off to bulldoze Heath Slater whatever year that was. That was at a time when I wasn’t watching anything wrestling related and I remember seeing that and just grinning from ear to ear. 

• And of course, all those beautiful, beautiful squash matches.

There’s a load more but I’ve gone on long enough. 

RIP big man. There’ll never be another.

Edited September 1, 2024 by wandshogun09

[Merzbow]

No one oozed cool in American wrestling like Sid, there's a lot I look back on and I kinda chuckle at my kid self for thinking they were cool but '96 Sid in particular is a stone cold classic that's just better with every rewatch.

I'd only just watched this '04 return to the ring at an Indy show where he's murdering a bunch of kids and looking like he could easily rule the world once again.

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

 That mad Barbershop segment where he sent Beefcake scurrying for his life and stood screaming into the camera with shaving foam all over his gob.

 

That was genuinely the first time I ever saw Sid. I can still remember him smiling and calmly grabbing Beefcake by the back of the neck before going 'Im gonna do you a favour.....I'm gonna rearrange your face' and then destroying the set with a chair. Sid, manically going 'Cmon, Hogan!!! You coward!!', with shaving foam on his face, brandishing a chair with bits of glass on it is etched in my memory. He was an absolute madman and the shaving foam actually added to it.

It was then followed by a montage of Sid destroying jobbers, running them into the ringpost while they were on stretchers and breaking Virgil's nose. I'd not even seen him in a match and I wanted to see more.

Sod 5 star matches - THAT is wrestling. Larger than life characters that you cannot find anywhere else doing crazy shit that you would not see anywhere else. In that regard, Sid was one of the absolute best.

I'm smiling like a kid remembering that Barber Shop segment and montage. Great memories of a much simpler time in my fandom. 

[NavigatorFan]

Every post I read in this topic has me grinning from ear to ear!!

Crazy how much I missed UKFF!! 

[Devon Malcolm]

I want this as a ringtone.

 

[JakeRobertsParoleOfficer]

I'd forgotten that Cornette promo.

He legit looks like a genuine lunatic and there's madness in those eyes.

I used to love the way he'd go from screaming blue murder to gentle whispers, punctuated by psychotic pissing himself laughing....never once looked contrived either!!!

The fact that if you didn't know the nature of pro wrestling you'd totally by him as a deranged lunatic is just pure credibility in itself.

 

[Chili]

2 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

That was genuinely the first time I ever saw Sid. I can still remember him smiling and calmly grabbing Beefcake by the back of the neck before going 'Im gonna do you a favour.....I'm gonna rearrange your face' and then destroying the set with a chair. Sid, manically going 'Cmon, Hogan!!! You coward!!', with shaving foam on his face, brandishing a chair with bits of glass on it is etched in my memory. He was an absolute madman and the shaving foam actually added to it.

It was then followed by a montage of Sid destroying jobbers, running them into the ringpost while they were on stretchers and breaking Virgil's nose. I'd not even seen him in a match and I wanted to see more.

Sod 5 star matches - THAT is wrestling. Larger than life characters that you cannot find anywhere else doing crazy shit that you would not see anywhere else. In that regard, Sid was one of the absolute best.

I'm smiling like a kid remembering that Barber Shop segment and montage. Great memories of a much simpler time in my fandom. 

Our Ian posted the exact montage you are thinking of, complete with that kick arse theme blasting out. 'I LOVE ITTTTT.'

 

Edited September 1, 2024 by Chili

[Merzbow]

I forgot to also add that I've been watching a few of these brilliant little compilations, not sure Sid ever needed Downtown Bruno but it wasn't like the little guy was taking promo duties or anything.

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

Our Ian posted the exact montage you are thinking of, complete with that kick arse theme blasting out. 'I LOVE ITTTTT.'

 

Yeah this is the one!
Imagine you are just getting into wrestling and you have never seen this guy before. Blew my mind!
I'd forgotten the 'I LOVE ITTT!!!' part. Brilliant.

[davertfnewman]

Something that came later that always reminds me of him threatening to rearrange Brutus' face is the bit from The Dark Knight Rises where Bane has Daggett scared stiff next to him and puts his hand on the side of the face and it cuts away after he puts his other hand right across his face and you hear ungodly pain being produced. You hope it's a quick snap break of his neck. You know really that he's probably just crushed his face and head in his hands and it was more prolonged and painful. That's how scary Sid came across. He could be Superman, but he could be Bane.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Isn't it bad enough that he's dead and now you're trying to put him in a superhero film.

[Chili]

Something else about Sid I loved was that he was a proper 'one for the Dads', when your non-fan old man who thinks it's all guff and not as good as Big Daddy. People like Vader, Ahmed and especially Sid would pop my Dad when he'd be about the WWF. Proper 'It's a load of fake shit, but he's not.' Always fond of wrestlers that can drag the sullen parent in.

Anyway more Sid. His ECW debut absolutely smashing poor John Kronus into another dimension. The chokeslam in particular is completely nuts.

 

 

[JakeRobertsParoleOfficer]

IanAndrewDiceClay was mentioned in the 83 weeks tribute to Sid by the host as one of his favourite posters