The SmarK Rant for WWE Vault presents The Best of Sid

The SmarK Rant for WWE Vault presents The Best of Sid

Originally written 03.25.26

They originally posted this 6 months ago, but this seems like a good time to take a look at it, given his Hall of Fame announcement.

https://youtu.be/FW0Uer4l9Rk?si=Std9JZyStlO_VB6S

The Skyscrapers v. The Road Warriors

From Halloween Havoc 89. This was BIGTIME and the crowd is going nuts before the bell even rings. Sadly, it couldn’t live up to the hype and neither could the Skyscrapers. Hawk works the arm on Spivey and they trade shoulderblocks until Spivey is finally the first one to sell. Sid comes in and tries a clothesline, but Hawk hits his own as I ponder how Sid could botch a clothesline. That’s our Sid! LOD double-teams Sid and he immediately no-sells it, and then Animal is unable to knock him off his feet either. Finally a flying shoulderblock puts him on the floor. Hawk wants the test of strength with Sid and uses the power of MONKEY HORMONES to win that one, but Sid still won’t go down. Animal tries working the arm, but he gets caught in the heel corner and worked over a bit. Back to Hawk and Sid puts him down with a clothesline to take over and follows with the helicopter slam. Spivey with a side slam for two. Sid drops Hawk on the railing and Spivey follows with a suplex for two. Skyscrapers with a double-team clothesline in the corner and poor Sid is just the least-coordinated guy you’ll ever see here, limbs flailing around like a baby deer. Thank god for Spivey holding it together. Hawk fights back with a suplex on Spivey and JR’s predictions of the match not going 10:00 are sadly untrue as we cross that mark long after they should have wrapped things up and kept Sid from getting exposed. False tag and Spivey misses a blind charge and runs into Hawk’s boot, and it’s hot tag Animal. Shoulderblock for Spivey and he slugs it out with Sid and gets a powerslam behind the ref’s back, at which point Teddy Long brings in the key gimmick for the DQ at 11:45. This definitely went too long but wasn’t quite as terrible as I initially remembered it. *1/2

The Skyscrapers v. The Steiner Brothers

From Clash IX next. So for those still keeping track, the Steiners were in fact tag team champions at this point, although the title match doesn’t air until a few days after this. The crowd is REALLY revved up now for this one. Rick immediately hits Spivey with a release german suplex and clotheslines him to the floor and the crowd is all about it. Back in, Spivey catches Rick with a tombstone for two as they are wasting no time here. Rick comes back with a clothesline and Scott comes in with a Frankensteiner, and then hits Sid with a rolling fallaway slam that actually turned out to have punctured Sid’s lung and screws up their plans for the next few months. But Sid I guess doesn’t realize it at this point and comes in with a blind charge that misses, and Scott goes to work on the arm until the Scrapers double-team him to take over. Spivey hits Scott with a tilt a whirl slam and a big boot, but Scott gets a suplex as they are having what Jim Ross might call a SLOBBERKNOCKER. A knickerbocker slobberknocker in this case. Rick comes in and the Steiners run wild for a bit, but Doom runs in for the DQ at 6:09 as Sid seems to have realized that he’s hurt. Woman hits Rick with her shoe and he goes after her, but we get the historic debut of Nitron as her bodyguard (Tyler “Sabertooth” Mane from the X-Men movies) and then the Road Warriors also hit the ring for a four-way brawl to set up Starrcade’s Iron Team tournament. Anyway, these two were just throwing bombs at each other non-stop and it was pretty awesome. ***

Wargames 91: Ric Flair, Sid Vicious, Barry Windham & Larry Zbyszko v. Brian Pillman, Sting, Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner.

From WrestleWar 91. Pillman’s shoulder is all taped up, due (kayfabe-wise) to a Horsemen attack covered in the pre-match video. Pillman starts with Windham and gets a flying clothesline with the good arm, and uses the roof of the cage for leverage as he takes Windham down with a rana. He chops away in the corner, and headfakes Windham into taking a missile dropkick. He misses a splash, however, but comes back with a low blow. All’s fair in love and Wargames. Barry hits the cage and starts the blood flowing early, so Brian gives him some extra treatment on the cage. Jawbreaker and he bites the cut and hammers it in the corner. Hiptoss and he goes ground and pound, and back into the cage goes Windham. Pillman goes up with a flying clothesline and another jawbreaker, and he tosses Windham into the second ring and into the cage again. Windham is just selling like nuts for Pillman here. Spinkick puts Windham down and Pillman goes to work on the leg, but Windham comes back and slugs it out with him. Windham tries a piledriver, but Pillman reverses and comes off the top with another shot. The first period expires and the heels win the coin toss (duh), so Flair is in next.

They exchange chops, which Pillman WINS, but the Horsemen double-team him and send him into the cage shoulder-first. Windham spikes him into the cage and Flair holds the arm while Windham pounds it, and they dump him into the other cage. They work over the shoulder until Sting makes the save. He goes nuts on both of the heels, and gets a double-clothesline that sends the crowd into the atmosphere. Sting pairs off with Flair with a bulldog while Pillman keeps at Windham, but Brian gets crotched and the two-on-one commences on Sting. Pillman comes back to save while Sting no-sells Flair’s chops, but Larry Z is next in. Pillman puts Windham in a figure-four, and Sting dives from one to the other with a clothesline on Zbyszko. Flair & Larry go after Sting, and Flair breaks up Pillman’s figure-four. The Horsemen take over and pound on Sting, but Rick Steiner is in next to save. He clotheslines everyone and pounds Flair in the corner, into a belly-to-belly. Flair meets the cage and starts bleeding. Meanwhile, Pillman pounds Larry in the other ring until getting hung in the Tree of Woe and stomped. Sid Vicious is next in, and he goes right for Pillman’s injured shoulder. He then helps Flair out by holding Rick in place for a low blow, and clotheslines Sting. Pillman keeps pounding Flair into the cage, as does Rick. Poor guy. Larry sends Rick into the cage, but he no-sells it. The heels take over on Pillman & Steiner, but Scott Steiner is the last man in and clotheslines both Flair & Windham. Butterfly bomb on Larry, and he nails Sid with a flying clothesline (blatantly called on camera by Sid and Rick) as Sting puts Flair in the Scorpion deathlock.

Sid works on Pillman’s shoulder, ramming it into the corner and ripping the bandages off it. Pillman fights back, however, and goes low, and soon it’s four figure-fours on the Horsemen as the crowd goes insane. They all escape, but Sting presses Flair into the cage roof in a cool visual stolen from Steve Williams. Pillman chokes out Zbyszko while Sid stomps Rick Steiner and the Horsemen double-team him. The Horsemen go after Pillman, but he keeps fighting Flair with chops. Scott DDTs Windham, but Sid lays him out. And then the spot that makes this a famous match – Sid faceplants Pillman, and then powerbombs him, catching his feet on the roof on the way up and dropping him right on his neck, nearly killing him. Then, he does it AGAIN, legitimately injuring him and drawing El Gigante out for improvised finish whereby he surrenders the match on his behalf to give it to the Horsemen at 22:05. Most assumed Pillman’s career to be over at that point. Typically great and bloody Wargames, although not quite as great as I gave it credit for first time around. Still one of the best WCW matches of the 90s, though. ****1/2

I was really hoping for more deep cuts and TV squashes, to be honest. Or at least matches that aren’t available on a million DVD releases already.

Hulk Hogan v. Sid Justice

From Wrestlemania VIII. Sid attacks and Hulk immediately chases him to the floor. I’m glad to see Sid is back in his regular black trunks and boots after months of the stupid straps. Bobby: “He’s just a human being! An annoying human being!” That’s a pretty good summation of Hulk, actually. Gorilla notes that they broke the mold and there will never be another Hulk in the history of the sport. Just ask Vince McMahon, who spent the next decade trying to find one. Hulk chases Sid to the floor a couple of times and then yells at him to come back in and fight. YOU’RE THE ONE WHO THREW HIM OUT TO THE FLOOR! Make up your damn mind! Gorilla declares that over the years, Hulk has dodged no one, which is of course a damn lie as usual. He sure dodged Rick Rude. And Jake Roberts! He was probably so threatened by Honky Tonk Man’s out of control popularity in 1986 that he forced his friend to turn heel. KIDS LOVE THE OLDIES STATIONS! We do a test of strength and Hogan cries for mercy as usual while looking to the crowd for someone to run in and save him from his own bad choices, but then realizes that he has to get out of this one himself and retreats to the corner. Sid beats on him with knees, but Hulk hits a corner clothesline and Sid no-sells it and chokeslams him, drawing a pretty significant babyface pop from a pro-Hogan casual crowd, and then stops to tell us about his favorite saying. Sid works him over and boots him to the floor for some punishment with Dr. Harvey’s black bag and then goes to a devastating neck massage in the ring. HE’S GONNA KILL HULK WITH KINDNESS! Amazingly, Hogan fights out of Sid’s chiropractic skills after taking a quick nap to recharge his aging batteries. Sid puts him down with a side slam and informs us that the powerbomb is coming up next, but it only gets two and Hulk makes the comeback. Big boot and legdrop follow, but it only gets two as they’re stalling like crazy waiting for Papa Shango to hit his cue. Sid’s kickout SHOCKED the crowd, and Dr. Harvey runs in for the DQ to improvise a finish at 13:37. And then FINALLY Papa Shango makes it down to the ring, perhaps because there was all those ho’s backstage like we talked about earlier, and they double-team Hulk until Ultimate Warrior makes the unlikely comeback and saves Hulk. And they pose together to end the show, as Hulk rides into the sunset and will surely be gone forever. DUD

Sid Vicious, Vader & Rick Rude v. Sting, Dustin Rhodes & The British Bulldog

Holy shit, finally something on this compliation that I haven’t seen a million times! From Clash 23 in 1993, after Sid made his WCW return and formed the Masters of the Powerbomb. Sting grabs a headlock on Rude, who was introduced as “the man who claims to have never lost the US heavyweight title”, which would be maybe be the least catchy nickname of the year. Rude beats on Sting with forearms in the corner, but Sting backdrops him and hits him with a press slam while Jesse discusses Rude carrying the US title belt around and hiding it in a briefcase. That’s a stupid idea, who would care about someone carrying a title belt around like that? Vader comes in and goes after Sting, but misses a splash and hits Rude by mistake. Over to Sid, but Bulldog slams him and Sting uses the ropes to crotch him as the babyfaces control in their corner. Dustin comes in and beats Vader down in the corner to a huge reaction before dropping elbows on him. But then he goes to the top rope and misses an elbow, and Vader knocks some sense into him before following with a Vader Bomb for two. Rude comes in with a gourdbuster for two, adding YOU AIN’T SHIT, RHODES so we all know where we stand. But then Dustin hits his own gourdbuster, so Sid has to come in and toss Dustin into the corner a few times to put him in his place again. And then Sid shows the MAT WRESTLING with a headlock takedown and then clotheslines him down for two. Vader pounds him down, but then goes up and gets powerslammed by Dustin. Rude cuts off the tag and tries a tombstone, but Dustin reverses that into his own and makes the tag to Sting, but the ref is of course an idiot and can’t see it. So the babyfaces come in anyway and it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA. Sting tries a Stinger splash on the floor and hits the railing, and then Race hits Dustin with the Magic Briefcase and Rude pins him at 11:00. This was really good and it was on the verge of getting great before the abrupt finish. ***1/2

WWF World title: Shawn Michaels v. Sid

We skip ahead to Survivor Series 96, a show I haven’t reviewed in a while. Kind of surprised they didn’t even include the Masters of the Powerbomb PPV match or the evil midget vignettes or SHOCKMASTER. Sid slugs Shawn down and draws a big pop for it, but Shawn fights back and draws boos before taking him down with a side headlock. So Sid uses his own and a slugfest erupts, which goes badly for Shawn. Sid with a press slam, but Shawn escapes and then flees the ring in terror. Back in the ring, Shawn catches him with a cheapshot and takes him down to work the leg, which the crowd does not enjoy. So Shawn aggressively puts him in a figure-four, seemingly legit annoyed by the crowd’s reactions to the match. Sid fights out of that and goes back to pummeling Shawn in the corner, so Shawn kicks the leg out of his leg to take over again. An annoyed Sid kicks him over the top and Shawn tries to skin the cat, but Sid clotheslines him to the floor again while Vince notes “a lot of people are rooting for Shawn Michaels” with the same conviction one might claim “gas is under $1.99 a gallon in many places in the country”. On the floor, Sid presses Shawn and drops him on the railing, but he’s visibly and audibly gasping for air now. Back in the ring, that gets two. Sid with the backdrop and he goes back to the clubbing forearms and boots in the corner, but Shawn retreats to the apron and necks him on the top rope, ANGERING the crowd in MSG. Shawn goes up and Sid catches him and puts him down in a backbreaker for two as the anti-Shawn contingent gets really loud now. Sid keeps punching, so Shawn makes a comeback and the New York crowd boos him out of the building. So Shawn goes up and lands on Sid’s foot, and Shawn takes a big heel bump off that because he’s smart enough to go with it. Sid with a Million Dollar Dream, but Shawn fights out of that. Sid tries a chokeslam to a giant pop, but Shawn pokes him in the eyes and superkicks him. But Sid catches the foot, and chokeslams him to a giant pop. This sets up the powerbomb, but Shawn reverses to a small package for two as JR rails against “all that Last Rites crap”. Shawn fights back and kips up, but Sid clotheslines him back down for two. “Shawn wouldn’t quit if he had both legs broken!” notes JR. But what if he had one knee injured? Sid mugs the cameraman and grabs the camera, then uses it to hit Jose Lothario, who was standing on the apron instead of minding his damn business. So Shawn superkicks Sid, and then stupidly goes to check on Jose, who is having a heart attack or whatever. Yeah well it’s a rough business. Lots of ex-wrestlers have heart attacks, cry me a river. Back in the ring, Shawn bumps the ref, which allows Sid a chance to hit Shawn with the camera on the floor. And back in the ring, it’s POWERBOMB time, with no Last Rites crap this time, and Sid wins his first World title at 19:55 to an earth-shaking pop from the cynical twentysomething males in MSG. Man, Shawn carried Sid to the match of his life here. Just an incredible performance and timing. ****

WWF World title: Sid v. Bret Hart

From In Your House: It’s Time, which is the natural followup after that last match. Shawn joins us on commentary for this one, unleashing bitterness at Bret even before he finishes the entrance. And then Sid enters and Shawn calls him “the world’s most expensive piece of luggage” in a burn so sick that the entire front row needs salve. Bret attacks to start and Sid puts him down with a clothesline before stomping him down. Bret takes him down and drops an elbow on him while Shawn rages about not being allowed to be different and how everyone is “vanilla and boring” like Bret. Back in the ring, Shawn goes off on how Bret has become bitter recently and forgot how to smile, and Sid backdrops Bret to the floor and runs him into the railing. Sid tries a powerbomb on the concrete, but Bret runs him into the post to break free. Back in the ring, Bret goes to work on the back and drops elbows on him before going to a rear chinlock. Bret keeps working the back and decides to expose a turnbuckle before hitting a back suplex for two. Bret goes up and Sid slams him off as this match has literally turned into Bret wrestling himself out there. Sid comes back with a big boot and powerslam for two. Short clothesline gets two. Bret tries the Sharpshooter and Sid kicks him to the floor to escape that, but that pesky Steve Austin runs out and clips Bret behind the ref’s back. Back in the ring, Sid points at the knee in confusion and then beats Bret down and ignores the apparently injured leg. Bret tries to run him into the exposed turnbuckle and Sid drops down to escape, which looks like a botched spot. So they set up and do it again, and this time Bret takes a bump into the steel like he was supposed to do. Sid is looking lost out there. Sid with the chokeslam for two. They clothesline each other to the floor and Bret kicks Shawn out of his seat (“Hey, it’s your match, take it!”) and then Sid also goes over and gives Shawn some attitude. So Shawn tries to run in, but Sid runs Bret into Shawn, powerbombs Bret, and pins him to retain at 17:08. Shawn added an extra star on commentary, which is good, because Bret had no idea what to do with Sid out there. ***

WWF World title: Sid v. Shawn Michaels

And we finish out the trilogy with Shawn’s rematch at Royal Rumble 97, although both guys were not exactly running at top speed here. Shawn was suffering from the flu and sleeping it off on Vince’s couch pretty much up until the time of the match, and Sid had just been in a car accident and was still recovering from that. Unlike Survivor Series, Shawn is definitely the babyface here, and he wins a slugfest and boots Sid to the floor. Back in, Sid goes right to the chinlock only 2 minutes into the match. Shawn fights out of that, so Sid runs him into the corner for a Flair Flip to the floor. Sid runs his back into the post and he gets two off that in the ring and goes to another chinlock. Shawn fights out of that and Sid puts him down with a clothesline for two, drawing a heel reaction from the crowd. Sid with a bearhug to keep things at a snail’s pace, but Shawn goes up with a forearm from the middle rope, only to get bearhugged again on a second try. Shawn fights out and slams him, and goes up with a flying elbow, but Sid catches the superkick and dumps Shawn to the floor. He follows with the world’s most gentle powerbomb on the blue mats and then threatens to beat up the entire Lothario family by himself, but Shawn makes the comeback and the ref is bumped. Sid with the chokeslam with no one to count, but a second ref comes out for two. So Sid punches that ref out, but Shawn grabs the camera and knocks Sid out in retaliation for Survivor Series. That gets two. So Shawn fires up one more time, hits the superkick, and regains the title at 13:45. Shawn looked like a complete mess here and this was easily his worst PPV main event that I can recall. *1/2

WWF World title: Bret Hart v. Sid

From RAW, Feb 1997. Bret goes after the knee and gets the legsweep for two, then works on the back instead. Sid gets the heat and works him over in the corner, but Bret goes to the knee again and he’s clearly not into it tonight. Can’t blame him. He was having some very real second thoughts about signing the new deal at this point. And then Bret wraps his leg around the post and invents the ringpost figure-four before our eyes, as we take a break. Meanwhile, we get the “Foot Action Rewind” of Final Four. I didn’t realize Mel Phillips was sponsoring these shows. Back from break with Bret working over the knee in the corner, but Sid pounds away with clubbing forearms to make the comeback. Legdrop gets two. Sid goes up with the world’s worst Alabama Jam and gets two. Well, I guess that one he tried on the WCW PPV was worse, but this was pretty bad. If you can’t jump in the air and land on your ass properly, you shouldn’t really be going up the ropes. Bret misses a charge and clotheslines himself on the ropes while the crowd just openly cheers Sid more and more. Steve Austin runs out again and attacks Sid, but that gets him nowhere, and Sid comes back in with a sunset flip that Bret reverses into the Sharpshooter. Sid is done, but Austin hits Bret in the head with a chair and leaves, allowing Sid to finish with the powerbomb and regain the WWF title at 15:58. So Sid faces Undertaker at Wrestlemania, although the reasoning for Undertaker to get the title shot was never really explained beyond “Vince goes back to the big guys when business is shitty.” Sid was just all over the place here and Bret was putting in the minimum effort, so this wasn’t good. *1/2

WWF World title: Sid v. The Undertaker

From Wrestlemania 13, a show that I haven’t reviewed in quite a long time. Shawn is on commentary and Bret Hart quickly heads out and does a promo and calls out Shawn and his “pussy foot injury” and then tells off both Undertaker and Sid for screwing him over, just like everyone in the WWF screws him over. So Sid powerbombs him and starts his own promo, allowing Taker to attack him. Taker slugs away in the corner and follows with a splash and a slam for two. Sid catches him in a bearhug and squeezes until Taker is well and truly squozen. They fight to the floor, and Sid slams him on the table and heads back in for a chinlock here in this no DQ World title match on the biggest PPV of the year. Powerslam gets two. Legdrop gets two. Sid chokes away on the ropes and Taker throws him out to escape that assault and they slug it out by the railing. Back in, Taker misses an elbow and Sid (say it with me) goes to the chinlock. But then Taker escapes from that and goes to the nerve pinch. What a Wrestlemania main event! Sid tries the big boot and Taker clotheslines him for two. These two lunks have ZERO chemistry together. We get the double boot spot for a double down, which again makes absolutely no sense from a physics perspective. Sid is up first and gets two, and he goes to the middle rope with an axehandle, thankfully not shattering his leg on live PPV. Back up with another one, and that gets two. But then he goes up for a THIRD time and Taker slugs him down as a result and slams him off. Taker with the flying clothesline for two. They trade tombstone attempts and Sid gets it for two. So they head back to the floor and Bret Hart returns with a chair, beating Sid down with that. Back in the ring, Taker with a chokeslam for two. Sid with the powerbomb, but Bret runs in AGAIN to break that up (“Doesn’t he ever get tired of getting beat up?”) , and Taker tombstones Sid and pins him to win the title at 21:14. Probably the worst Wrestlemania main event of all time. *

John Kronus v. Sid Vicious

From ECW Guilty as Charged 99. Sid, not even bothering to wear his gear, comes out in jeans and immediately chokeslams Kronus through the ringside table and then beats him down with a chair out there. Back in the ring, Sid powerbombs him to finish at 1:25.

Unfortunately this was not at all what I was expecting or wanting. I was hoping for a bunch of 1991 squash matches where he kills random jobbers and puts them on the stretcher, and some promos about having half the brain of someone else, and scheming to blow up Sting’s boat or whatever. Not even a cool hidden gem like Sid Justice debuting as a surprise at a 1991 TV taping. Did we really want to watch multiple 20 minute matches against Shawn and Bret from 96/97? The compilation didn’t even get back to WCW in 99! I can’t recommend this one.