Sid Vicious: Greatest Hits of Sycho Sid's Wrestling Career

After 15 years of not being on Raw—Sid is still as psycho and vicious as ever.

As part of the build to the 1,000th Raw, Sid returned on the historic Monday night program for the first time since July of 1997. While he may never come up in debate as one of the best ever, Sid certainly has left his mark on the industry.

Sid knows his character and has a standout look, and that is what has always made me excited to see him whenever he's made one of his several returns to WWE and WCW.

What made Sid a top draw is his classic look. To me, he is a prototype of the perfect wrestling heel. He will stand out when he walks down the street. He has a distinct way of talking and mannerisms.  His name connects with his character and is easy to remember.

All of these intimidating traits, along with physicality being used on the charming good guy, makes you want to pay to see the conflict resolved.

Having said this, it always surprised me in 1991 when WWE brought him in the company from WCW as a face. The good-guy booking only lasted about six months, some of which was detoured by injury, before he would turn heel and be in the final match at WrestleMania 8 against the ultimate good guy in Hulk Hogan.

This promo as Sid Justice that aired minutes prior to his match with Hogan was one of the best in his career:

Sid also had a very simple but affective entrance. He had unique facial expressions, he would fist-pound anybody who put their fist out and he was one of the first to have regular pyrotechnics in his entrance for WWE.

You can't talk about things Sid is remembered for in a ring without bringing up the match against Scott Steiner in WCW. At WCW Sin, Sid broke his leg performing an unfamiliar boot off the second rope. I do warn anybody who has never seen this, it's graphic and painful to watch:

Sid has also garnered a reputation of not showing up for bookings. It's a documented fact he's been booked and hasn't appeared on more than occasion.

Promoters have publicly aired their issues with Sid. One of the worst things you can do is not appear. Fans are paying based on who is advertised, and Sid not appearing harms the promoters' reputations as well as his own.

I don't have any extra inside knowledge on any of Sid's incidents of not appearing, so I can't defend his actions, nor would I want to try.

While I'm sure Sid has made some bad moral decisions in the way of not appearing, I do know that wrestling promoters have their own baggage when it comes to reputation and trust.

I know and have seen first hand some shady business or false booking done on the part of the promoter. Not every promoter fits this description, it's just like anything else in life—there are good people and bad people.

So again, I'm not taking the side of either Sid or any promoter. I think the personalities, stories and conflicts can be simply summed up in two words—professional wrestling.

Where does Sid go down in wrestling history? I think he he can fit the bill being a solid worker for a big man.

He also was able to keep his same gimmick and name for over a decade of being in mainstream nationally televised wrestling. This fact gets overlooked, but it says something about how successful the persona was and how well Sid played the master and ruler of the world.

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