Sid Eudy

Sid Eudy was one of wrestling’s great “monster” heavyweights, a towering big man with wild eyes, snarling promos, and a powerbomb that felt like it could end a match at any moment. Under names like Sid Vicious, Sid Justice, and Sycho Sid, he spent the late 1980s and 1990s jumping between major companies, winning world titles in both WWF and WCW, and headlining stadium shows at the center of some of wrestling’s most chaotic eras.

He was born Sidney Raymond Eudy in December 1960 and grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas. After high school, he worked various jobs and lifted weights, and a chance meeting with Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo helped steer him toward wrestling.

Trained by Tojo Yamamoto, he broke in on Southern territories as the masked Lord Humongous, then moved through CWA and NWA affiliates before WCW signed him in 1989 and paired him with Dan Spivey as The Skyscrapers under manager Teddy Long. These two threw smaller opponents around with powerbombs and feuded with other teams like the Road Warriors and the Steiner Brothers.

A rib injury and punctured lung cut that first push short, but Sid stayed on WCW TV into the early 1990s, eventually joining a version of the Four Horsemen and working near the main event picture.

In 1991 he jumped to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as Sid Justice, immediately presented as a special referee and enforcer in big angles involving Hulk Hogan and the top babyfaces.

He was the guest referee at SummerSlam 1991, then entered the 1992 Royal Rumble for the vacant WWF title, making it to the final two with Ric Flair before a controversial elimination involving Hogan. That led to a WrestleMania VIII main event with Hogan, but backstage issues and the wider steroid scandal clouded his first WWF run, and he left the company later that year.

In 1993, Sid’s return to WCW was supposed to be his big coronation. He came back as Sid Vicious with Col. Robert Parker as his manager, was paired with Vader and Harlem Heat in WarGames, and was then turned babyface so he could be positioned as the next top challenger to Big Van Vader’s WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade.

Internal plans at the time called for Sid to beat Vader for the title, and WCW even taped weeks of syndicated TV at Disney with Sid already presented as world champion, ready to air after the pay-per-view. However, everything collapsed on a European tour in October 1993.

After a show in England, Sid and Arn Anderson got into a heated argument in a hotel bar, reportedly after Sid made cutting remarks about Ric Flair, who was close to Arn. The two were separated and sent back to their rooms, but the situation flared up again when Sid came to Arn’s door with part of a broken chair.

The fight that followed spilled into the hallway and turned into a bloody stabbing incident with a pair of scissors, leaving Sid with several stab wounds and Arn with many more and a major loss of blood.

Both men eventually recovered, and no charges were filed, but WCW had to act. Management chose to fire Sid and keep Anderson, which instantly wiped out months of planning. The Vader vs Sid Starrcade main event was scrapped, the Disney footage of Sid as champion became unusable, and WCW instead shifted the focus back to Ric Flair, booking Vader vs Flair at Starrcade 1993 with Flair’s career on the line.

That one night in a hotel not only cut short Sid’s second WCW run, it also took away what was supposed to be his first WCW World title win and changed the entire direction of the company heading into 1994.

He surfaced briefly on the independent scene and overseas before coming back to WWF in 1995, now as Sycho Sid, the intense bodyguard for Shawn Michaels. When he turned on Michaels after WrestleMania XI, he moved into a run as a top heel against Michaels and Diesel, powerbombing people and cutting unhinged promos that matched his on-screen nickname.

Sid’s biggest WWF moments came in 1996 and 1997. After a start-and-stop year, he challenged Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship at Survivor Series 1996 in Madison Square Garden. The New York crowd roared for Sid, and he beat Michaels with a powerbomb to win his first WWF world title in one of the most memorable reactions of the era.

He dropped the belt back to Michaels at the 1997 Royal Rumble in San Antonio, then beat Bret Hart on Raw in February to become a two-time champion, headlining WrestleMania 13 against The Undertaker before leaving the WWF later that year due to injuries and fatigue.

After a short stretch on the independent circuit and some time in ECW, Sid returned to WCW in 1999 once again as Sid Vicious. He was quickly moved near the top of the card, feuding with Kevin Nash and later Goldberg, picking up the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and then the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice in 2000. His second reign included a Starrcade 2000 main event run, and for a time he was presented as one of the last “giant” stars of the post–nWo WCW.

That chapter ended in brutal fashion at WCW’s Sin pay-per-view in January 2001. Ordered to add a top-rope move to his arsenal, Sid leapt from the second turnbuckle to throw a big boot and came down awkwardly, suffering a gruesome compound fracture of his left leg that snapped both the tibia and fibula. The injury was so graphic that many stations refused to replay it, and it effectively ended his time as a full-time top star.

Doctors told him he might never walk normally again, but after extensive rehab, he returned to the ring in 2004 for scattered independent dates, World Wrestling All-Stars tours, and occasional appearances in groups like TNA.

In 2012, he made a surprise nostalgia appearance on Raw as Sycho Sid as part of the build to Raw 1000, powerbombing Heath Slater and getting a huge reaction. His final recorded match took place on August 5, 2017 for Great North Wrestling (GNW) in Ottawa, where he defeated Paul Rosenberg.

In the ring, Sid was never known for complex sequences or long technical stretches. His appeal came from his size, presence, and intensity. At 6-foot-9, with wild hair and a wide-eyed stare, he filled the screen, relied on big boots, clotheslines, chokeslams, and legdrops, then finished opponents with his sit-out powerbomb, usually punctuated with his “Who’s the man?” shout.

Sid Eudy passed away on August 26, 2024, remembered as a four-time world champion, a two-time WrestleMania main eventer, and a larger-than-life presence forever linked to the powerbomb and the line, “I am the master and ruler of the world.”