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He's a lapsed fan and all my years and wrestling.
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We've already kind of talked about it in our look back at the remarkable career of sid. He kind of disappeared in nineteen ninety seven.
From the WWF. Yes, yeah, it's very weird.
And we last we're with our hero here on our tribute TLF style to Sid, who, of course we lost this year. We had listened to the audio of him dropping the WWF Championship to Undertaker at WrestleMania thirteen, which of course was his second title run, and then after that we hit you with the deep dive of his winning the championship over Brettbart on the February seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven Raw, and it just seemed like, all right, Sid has now arrived. He's won the championship twice. He's
now a firmly ensconced main event player. He's going to be around for a while, especially as WWFRE constitutes its image and tries to go more attitudinal and features him and things like the Raw is War opening package and all of that. And then he's gone. And you were really keen to point it out. I wasn't sure as if we went you would forget this or not recall it. But you remember the last time we saw Sid on WWF television.
I do it, you know, because I, uh, just because what happened for me was I It's not because I remember it from being when I was watching back then. It's rewatching the raws more recently within the last like I don't know, probably eight eight, seven, eight years, whatever it is, because I saw the show. You know, I'm watching every war and then you know, he just vanishes kind of after you know, I think he fast pay per view was King of the Ring and then he's
just kind of gone. And then a few weeks later, all of a sudden, he comes out as maybe Steve Austin's one of Steve Austin's potential partners for Canadian Stampede, and it was one of the most jarring things I'd ever seen.
Tell me why, Tell me why?
Because you know, as a fan, I just kind of accepted the fact that he was just gone, you know, that he was gone whatever. And he disappeared after King of the Ring and that was it, and so and even then he was I don't think I remember him being featured too much on TV, and so to see him come out and not really do anything, it's just an appearance, like his music hits and he comes out and poses, but that's it, and then he's gone, and that's kind of it. Like it's just a weird to me.
It's it's like it's like Vader being in in the WW like way into ninety eight more than he should have, right than I'm comfortable, right more than you know, because you're like, are you serious? Like Vader was there and it's like, wait, Sid was still there, Like what the fuck?
Right here, I am thinking that this was a big enough impact player that if he did anything on WDWF television I would remember, not there would be eight months after my last memory of the guy where he was actually still on television, right, And I definitely Sid fits that category. But you know that justified tribute show in Lapstom because you remember these things, of these these fleeting appearances.
There are so many other wrestlers I'm sure that made appearances months after their last one and then disappeared into the night that we never think about again. But for Sid, it just seemed significant that he was missing. Was it was a noticeable absence, and like you said, he sort of popped his head back up one more time, very and much the same way he did in nineteen ninety six for the International Incident replacing Ultimate Warrior. Right here is that are preparing a multi person a tag team
main event for in your house in July. The next year, his name is in the sauce again for Team USA, and I invite you to consider it because we've done Canadian Stampede. It's of course one of the best WWF pay per views of all time and so reflective of what was going to happen, absolutely and what the reflective of what was about to happen with Stone Cold taking off is the unquestionable top man in the business and the guy that would reverse the WWF's fortunes. But I
invite you to consider. I invite you to consider Psycho sid being on Team USA at Canadian Stampede.
I don't know how I feel about that, right.
It kind of doesn't feel right like he feels because he's not someone I mean, not that Austin is either. But Austin's feud wasn't really about Canada versus the USA. He was just he was just picking on the hearts. But like l od theyre USA, you know, Chicago, you know the whole fucking thing, Shamrock.
And gold Dust.
Who was it was?
Who Ken Shamrock and gold Dust?
Ken Shamrock. Yeah, I guess I can kind of see that gold Dust. I can't really see although he's Hollywood, So I don't know, but he's definitely a stretch, But I think more of a stretch would be said, because he's a fucking loner, you know, that's his thing.
Yep, yep, And whatever you try to place him in a group or a stable or in a bodyguard position, eventually he'll find a way to break out of that and it'll be someone's bright idea to give him a singles run toward the war title. And that's just name the organization he's ever been put into a tag team
or a group scenario with. But I don't know. It's just it's such a significant landmark show in that team, as bizarre and motley crue as it was supporting Steve Austin at Canadian Stampede is so kind of burned in the memory and in the history that it's wild to think about SID being in there and how that might disrupt the dynamic, because the one thing you can say about Team USA at Canadian Stampede is Steve Austin was by far and away the brightest shining star in the.
Bid Fay side, no question.
But if SID was there, I wonder if that dilutes the intensity in the real sort of concentration of energy into what Steve Austin was doing.
I don't know, I maybe, but I do feel like Stone. I feel like Austin at that point was such a fucking a spark plug that he would not have allowed Sid to overshadow him. Yeah, you know, like I think he would have. Fucking I think he would have. He would have found holes in Sid and fucking exploited them.
And if there's one thing we've learned about Sid by this point in his wrestling career is he's not going to stick around very long if he doesn't get the impression that he's not authoring, sort of like the gait, He's not somebody that can lay claim to drawing the house. Even if WWF is struggling, so to speak, not so much. I mean, the ticket sales aren't great, but they're nowhere near where they were ninety five and into ninety six,
come nineteen ninety seven. But still the television ratings, as we've documented so many times, including that raw where he won the title, just so impossibly far away from Nitro that it just seems like it's a feutal effort. They might as well just stop trying on Monday nights, and for Sid, you know, when he looks around and he's being put in a scenario where he doesn't feel like he's a single guy that can draw the house and take credit for the house and call himself a draw,
that means something to him. That's kind of sure to hear him talk about his career that ended up being why he was in the business. Of course, it's it's mostly about money, but for him, like if he's not able to lay claim to filling a house, then he's not going to be able to maximize the amount of money he can make. He's he said, before, you know, I've been I've been in this business in such a way where I'm making a lot of money but not drawing a lot of people, and it just doesn't satisfy me.
Mmm.
It just doesn't give me what I come to really want out of pro wrestlers, which is really interesting considering the movie he's about to make, which of course completely subverts that notion. But it's what I think what he basically means is when he's been in WWF, he's he's slotted as somebody that can that can be somebody who is associated with the main event such that you can say, you know, Sid made evented this show, so this business
has something to do with him. In WCW. In the second run too, to a large degree, it was always so muddled, like.
Was it Sid? Yep?
Sure Sid was in the main event, but the guy he wrestled had a million other people he was feuding with, and this match thread through, you know, Sting versus the Horsemen, whatever the case may be. When you go back to that Halloween havoc that he that he headlined for the first time. So it's it's not a surprise. I don't think that if what they have creatively for Sid is that he's going to join a Team USA with somebody else the helm that he's gonna it's gonna get a
bad taste in his mouth about it. Now, what's great about a tribute show is we picked subjects where, like you said, there's this nagging curiosity like what the hell happened to said in nineteen ninety seven he went from
mainaventing WrestleMania to m hmm, completely disappearing. And you know, unless you do kind of a close examination of what he said about his career and what was said contemporaneously, you don't really understand where he went and why he only popped his head up a couple more times in nineteen ninety seven. Right, but I think in our next chapter here in the Sid Tribute, it's time to do that, boss.
Oh please.
It's really wild how he does so little on WWF television for Russelemnia thirteen too the summer, but how much actually happens behind the scenes with him.
I love it, just you.
Know so many further variations on the theme of oh, Sid's getting another opportunistic injury, A cinek might say, you.
Know, you know here, this is what I picture too, Okay, of course I picture him. You know, he's back. You know he comes to TV every week whether or not. No he doesn't. He certainly doesn't. He's not to go to TV, but he does it on his own. He feels like, you know, he he he chooses to go.
I will be at the TV that you don't tell me to be at.
Right, right, Sid, Look, Powet, we don't need you to be at TV. I'll be there on time, but I believe it. With bells on, yep. And I just picture him, you know, I picture him just kind of like coming in there with with his his roller bag, and he's wearing jeans like a tucked in a short sleeve you know, plaid shirt all right, and he's wearing a baseball hat yep. And he's kind of like walks in like he owns the fucking place, doesn't talk to anybody, just fucking walks in.
But people are like, what the fuck is I supposed to be here? Right?
He's not supposed to be here, right, and sid walks in with the look of somebody that's oblivious to that, but deep down he's excited to have a fight about it.
Yes, yes, exactly.
It is someone who acts like he wants to avoid arguments, but he can't survive without getting into a little verbal tussle with people on the regular. That's his whole strategy, honestly.
You know when when when he feels like his position on the card isn't going to be one that it's going to let him take credit for houses and maximize income, particularly in the WWF you know pay system, where your position on the card really does impact your your take home before everyone had the guaranteed deals downsideals, he's looking at this landscape and he's like, no, Nope. You know, if I'm not, if I'm taking a step down from the main event, something's going to go wrong. I'm going
to force an argument. I'm going to force myself to take exception with something I'm pitched creatively, and I'm gonna be gone. It goes back to the Crusher quitting every summer so we can take the take the summer off, having an argument with verne Gana and over the years you're, Okay, he's just gonna do this because he wants an excuse to not have to work the summer. I get it, and would see it. It was it was injuries and he
always you know. The best thing is like he says, ask hardcore Hally about the nineteen ninety five neck injury, and then you read Rli's book and he's like, yeah, is lying. It's like I asked, I asked him Sid, and the answer isn't exactly.
What you're anticipating. How do you know he's not lying?
Sid thought he had alibis.
I do have alibis. I have many buys people by shows for me right because I'm Sid.
I have many buys. By the way, have we gotten the the returns in from WrestleMania yet, Yes, the least bought WrestleMania of all time. I would introduce you to the WrestleMania you headlined that couldn't even beat w c W one censored WrestleMania.
Yeah.
Sid was a big draw man. He knew how to draw. That's one thing you can say about him. No, that's one thing you can say about him. You can say a lot of things about the guy, and that's why you're paying tribute to him, But that's one thing you cannot say about him, that he was a draw.
That's so incredible.
Ye, And we'll get more into that as we go here. But again, there are so many things happening, because if you recall after WRESTLMINGI thirteen for the April show in your house show.
And that was what one was that that was holding and hell's me Revenge of the Taker.
Revenge of the Taker. And do you remember, of course that's a Brett Steve Austin rematch. Yes, we talked about that in the nineteen ninety seven journey available in the archives.
But yes, do you recall that.
At first it was to be Brett versus Sid at Revenge of the Taker. No, ladies, and gentlemen, I didn't know that. Consider a world where Brett comes off the win over Steve Austin and the famous post match angle at wrestlming He thirteen, Sid comes off the loss to Undertaker, and Sid and Brett interfewed. Not Austin and Brett.
Well, I mean, you know, in a weird way, it would make a little bit of sense. Although you know, here's the thing. This is the thing about that while while I don't I can see that as being, yes, a thing, But what I would what I would think would happen, is that Brett would face Sid and Austin would cause Brett to lose in some fashion.
Oh, certainly Austin wouldn't exit the picture. But the idea of going right back to the match and what that meant for the trajectory of Brett and Austin in nineteen ninety seven would have been totally different.
If I mean, maybe, you know, I don't really think of that match as being a thing that really did much to their feud. Yeah, that you know the I mean, listen, I agree like the fact that they had a rubber match, although it wasn't really rubber match because Austin lost both but I think.
I'm getting is the reason you don't think of that as a big landmark part of the feud is because it wasn't in the plants.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
It was cobbled together because Sid fell off the card. They had even promoted it a couple of times on television that Brett and Sid was going to be a match on this show. But I just think when we when we construct the Steve Austin Breheart story from Survivors series ninety six all the way through ninety seven, Yeah, this is a this is a part that if you switched out this match, you'd wonder, like second third order effects, how that might differently affect the way these two developed.
Because the fact of the matter is after Revenge of the Taker they had clashed again, Brett and Austin had gotten their hands on each other again after the blood bath at WrestleMania, and if that had been delayed two three four months, you wonder how differently it would have felt when Austin just kept pouring it on as opposed to getting back into the ring.
With the man.
But that's another example and a motif that's developing as we go through Sid's career of a guy who is sort of like in the background, and his little maneuvers are having a big impact not on his ability to draw money, but on the programs that do end up drawing money, and the wrestlers who do draw money end up in the positions they ended up in because of
Sid's many decisions and pivots. So it's a rather rich year of nineteen ninety seven, though just sitting home watching wrestling television every week, you would not know it as it regards Sid and the moves he's about to make. As the Attitude Era is about to begin, and we're dawning on another holiday season around here, Boss, Am I wrong about?
The halls are decked, the the atmospheres where it should be. You know, it's a it's a it's a downer of a beginning of the season. So it's, uh, you know, we we need something, We need something to kind of pick up our pick up our spirits. So we decorated way early this year, uh, for Christmas, and it's it's feeling wonderful the way it should be.
And we're coming off the conclusion of the Mighty tlf X games. Yes, we are as lapsed Vince as most of the smart money would have predicted on the front end, but you know, subjected to a fair, open and empirical vote.
I do wonder. I do wonder this. I do wonder if Hogan, if Hogan had been on the other the other side, Yep, I think that would have been a very very that would have been a closer, because I'm pretty sure if if you did have Hogan and Vince on opposite sides, it would have been kind of easy money that that's going to be the main event.
I think it's going to be the main event. But let's not forget the people had their chance to vote on Vince versus Hogan and it wasn't even close.
No, I know, but I think when it comes to but it's not the finals though, yeah, you know, like if it was the finals.
I think Vince crushes him by the same margin if no kidding.
Interesting, I don't know, I'm not sure. I think the finals mean a different thing. I mean, I think, you know, I don't know. I think it would have been I think it would have been a different ballgame.
Very interesting, And you know, weigh in with your thoughts. The lapsed fan at gmail dot com. Let's just say, Santa's mail sack is swelling quite a bit as we head into the holiday season, so if.
He does have he has two mail sacks.
Actually, Santa's gonna have to sit down and get through a lot of letters from young boys and girls, I think before he takes off on Christmas Eve. So oh, let us know all about your thoughts on the King of the Caste. It started with thirty two participants and we want to send our great appreciation to Russ and so many members of the Solar System who will make this such a fun way to celebrate ten years of lapstom. It of course came down to lapsed Vince and lapse Nash.
And on the day where we elected our next president, Vince McMahon is elected King of the cast Now you tell me that there's not something larger going on there. Just from a timing standpoint, we certainly did not plan this, and all of a sudden, right before us lay an allegory, if you will.
It was yeah, yeah, it actually you know it when it kind of came, when it kind of came to be, I felt kind of like, um, wait a minute here, like this feels actually maybe a little wrong.
Is Vince about to take the victory podium at a time when someone else is about to take the victory podium. That's going to replace the US attorney that's running the DOJ investigation into Vince McMahon, and we'll probably kill it where it stands.
I believe that I have. I believe that I've elected myself president, and that's how I roll. It's gonna be the United States of Vince McMahon, the US.
V M.
Linda for Commerce Secretary.
Yes, yes, definitely something of that nature.
Because you guys know about commerce, after all.
Well we we you know, we are commercial enterprise, so we know commerce. We know you know, we believe in uh, consumers better and and consumer motivation as well as any number of of you know, different you know, dynamic metrics of them, of corporate and business and monetary nature.
This American work period, period period. I don't think much more needs to be said. Lapsed. Vince crowned King of the cast on election day twenty twenty four, and again great thanks to everyone who helped make it possible, everyone who voted and participated, and I think it all ended up where we thought it would. It's one of those things where you tell yourself that the reality might not be what it appears to be, and then of course
it was. Of course it was all along. Did you think Jesse had a chance, did you think anyone did you expect lapse on Ash to be there?
I listen, it went down to It went down pretty much how I envisioned it would when I kind of played it out in my in my brain when the brackets were first released, I said, it's I thought there were possibilities that you know that that Hogan or Vince, you know that that to me, what could have been a toss up? Same thing with Jesse Nash. But I figured it was either going to be Did you call Jesse early? I did call Jesse early on, but I did think to myself, like, it's going to be one
of those two either way. I don't know who will come out on top if it's Nash and Jesse, but I knew it would be one of those two guys. At the end, I did think about it might have been Jesse, but there's always you know, Nash is always kind of lurking in the back.
Amazing, amazing stuff. It was great that someone that was inserted late in the process after the first draft of the Brackening was done and lapsed. Heel and Heart made it all the way to the final four with the solar systems Yep, yep, speaking up for what needs to be spoken for. And another character that you thought, you know, because they are your favorites, they're somebody else's favorites. You realize that that's not how the country runs. Yeah, that's right,
people like Vince always end up winning. That's really not more complicated than that.
Because here's the thing. I'm untouchable, and why are you untouchable? Because I am a master of things. Okay, I'm a creator of things. I help the economic machine.
Any chance, Vince, after all these all these blemishes on your name, all these actions against your person and your reputation fall by the wayside, what at a time, and things get settled and wallpapered over and dropped cold, any chance you walk back out there onto that stage and let everybody know what you think of them once and for all. Does TKO need to prepare? Does Mark Shapiro and others not Mark Shapiro triple h I'm talking about now, I'm talking about the h the TKO boardroom.
You know, Look, I am a white billionaire.
Okay, Mark Schapiro said he just had lunch with you, that it wasn't anything more than that. I thought it was strange that after what happened, I let me tell you this, all right, the ballot box that he came out and said that. But yeah, I just want to about what you thought about it.
You've got TKO, all right, you got t KO sooner than later that company is going to be called VKM. Yeah, that because that's who runs the ship.
Have we only just begat? Who have we only just begun?
Makes the decisions?
What's going to happen to triple H?
Triple H? I mean, you know, there are there are times when you see your children who are progressing in a way that you're like, yes, you know this is a pot you know this is good, this is good. And then you know, sometimes they start to make wrong decisions. Then that means they have to die.
So you're saying, you're Jared Kushner isn't going to be part of your your administration.
I will say, And when Daddy is back at the head of the table, huh, the real head of the table, there's going to be a rearranging of the chairs.
And Stephanie and Ivanka and Jared and Paul are going to find themselves having an awful lot in common something I'm.
Going to find myself's new children, new children who understand that my decision is always the best one. My decision is the way things need to be. My decision is for America.
So I hope your disposition as is as sunny as ours is. As we salute the folks that help make
the TLFX Games not only so fun but poetic. At the end of the day, is all things lapsed always somehow end up being And we want to expressly think Garage Beer, who have been tremendous partners and sponsoring everything we've done along the course of the TLFX Games tournament and proudly ascribing their name to the tournament to determine the greatest character in the history of well, if you ask some folks, the greatest wrestling pod there's ever been,
what you know about it? What you know about that engagement which now about them them X Games, What you know is Vince triumphs as always and Garage Beer appeals over there saw to it that the effort was worth it, and so we salute them and we will certainly recommend that you pop the top and some of their premium beverages, beer that tastes like beer, as they say over there, Yes, the next time you join us for a live call
or such on Patreon. We also want to thank when we're in this category, a rather resilient sponsor who just you know, continues to continues to let's say, supplement the cast boss. Yes, a friend a Titan Nutrition. As we head into the holidays, and if you've got workout nuts in your life for people that are thinking about that New Year's resolution, right.
Are you going to work out? And genetic jackhammers too?
Right?
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you achieve your health and fitness goals. Around this time of year, many people planning it moving off some of the inches heading into the holiday season so that they can be prepared to perhaps gnauch a little more than they typically would. And one product that can only help you burn off those excess calories, but also give you the metal boost you need to move your body is
Titan's powdered weight loss formulas called end Light. This great tasting drink increases your metabolic rate so you burn more calories both in the gym and at rest. It also contains healthy fiber, which is great for gut health and helps keep cravings away between meals and while it has plenty of caffeine to substitute your coffee, and Light is also designed to help you focus, lifting your mood and productivity. And Light comes in six amazing flavors that can be
easily mixed and taken on the go. And you can find all this at Titan Nutrition dot net. And here's the catch. Use the promo code lapsed LAPSD check out. You're going to get ten percent off that purchase and free shipping. So here we go tight nutrition dot Net discount code lapsed. Use that to tell them we sent you and let the virtuous circle continue on into the holiday season. And the New Year Titan is the box to check for the gym hitter in your life more
for yours. Truly, we very much thank them for their partnership. As we start thinking about what to put under the tree, I think we're already worried, boss about where to put the stuff we've already gotten.
Oh my goodness, I don't even know where to begin.
We are joining you here on this lapse tribute show to sid this regular main feed show, if you will, for the first time since gathering around the aforementioned sorrow hearth, Yes, for the twenty twenty four TLF Christmas Show taping. We know what you have done. We've taken stock, we know what it has done to us. We've taken inventory, we've
seen it all, we've recorded it all. Of course, it's going to be a doozy of course, yes, you know what podcast as you locked down with the appropriate holiday spirit this year, and we can't wait too unload it on the Solar System and much the fashion that we
did last year. But suffice to say, we sat there as if someone had shot us in the head in our comfy sofa chairs, with all of the generosity of the Solar System and the creativity of the Solar system and the tenderness and thoughtfulness of the of the Solar system resting at our very feet next to the fire and Boss. I don't know if people deserve what we're about to unload on them.
I mean, it's something, you know. The people who gave gifts, they know what they gave and they know, you know. But when you put it all together, when you put everything together, when you put the setting, when you put in the uh, you know, the unscripted nature of things. Yes, you know that is our show. There is a it's it's a really it's a crazy motherfucking thing. It is
a crazy motherfucking thing. And you guys are going to be I imagine you're going to be pleased, surprised, and maybe, I don't know, maybe mortified too.
We did what had to be done. You in the Solar system who sent gifts, did what had to be done, and it's a smashing, smashing success. That's all I can say. That's all I can promise here as we celebrate ten years of Lapsed with our upcoming our third unwrapping Yes coming in December to the main feeds.
The Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lampsed Fan. He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and and JP Soro.
Having just done that, having just gathered together as we love to do around this time of year, it being fresh in our minds, it's just impossible not to to give some voice too. How that all left us feeling. And let me tell you, folks, and you'll hear it during the show. We've got to figure out a plan here.
We've got to figure out a plan because I don't know if you think we live in four hundred thousand square foot mansions or what, but I know there aren't enough storage lockers in the county to account for the excess that's rained down upon us. Not a clue what to do with most of it. So appreciative that people took the time, but my goodness, I don't know. It might be we might have to start talking about regifting around here.
Boss, I will sell it. I think that might be, uh might be something that needs to be done. It's it's such a I mean, I wish I wish people could have seen the atomic bomb that went off in my my you know, family room.
Well, they'll they'll get a taste on our socials because we were we were active with the photography or in the course of this thing. But it's there's no substitute for standing in that room and just seeing the paper and the refuse and the and seeing the pain, seeing the pain. You know, you said to yourself, all right, there's this many boxes that have come to the post office. This is great, there's this many gifts. No, you open the box, there's sixteen things in there.
I know. That's that's that's the thing. You know, you kind of forget. It's not just one thing in a box. It's a lot of things in a box.
It's postmodernism in a box. You're damn fucking right now. It's gonna be a TLFX. Miss you already know what it is, and you know where to be, and you know to pour a tall glass of eggnog.
Before you do it.
Yeah, oh yes, coming your way tlf twenty twenty four Christmas Show and also coming your way, the conclusion of the epic TLFX defining Carnies are Forever Journey under the sinning.
Yes, got two more left, two more left? All right? We have we have of course, invaded the Daniel Craig era of the Bond, the most recent era of Bond. I mean, I want you to know something, you know we're going. I can't. I'm not sure. I don't know if we've ever gone this close to Like I'm trying to think of a movie that we saw we would have done cinemat that was very very close, only within a couple of years of lease from when we did it. You know, I think this might be the closest.
Yeah, this is getting very close. I mean because Terrifier too, Yeah, Terrified too, was it?
For sure? Terrify two? For sure. That's a good point. I didn't even think about that. That's just because reason I'm trying to take that on my mind, because that was last year. Yeah, right, so but uh yeah, like it's kind of I guess maybe what's so interesting to me is the fact that you know, we've gone from way in the past, We've gone from the sixties all the way to now and uh yeah, we've got two more left and uh you know we close out this
uh this wild and unpredictable. And I mean, if if if you like, if you like movies, if you're a James Bond fan and you're not signed up for cinemat I'm telling you what what happened was. First of all, there are so many wrestlers that have been redisc covered I'll say that rediscovered within this journey. And also, it's not just the story of Bond, it's the story of individuals. Yes,
it's the story. I mean, there are so many players in and there have been so many threads that have been told over the course of this series that even I wasn't expecting. I had no idea, like the certain areas, I had no idea we were going to be telling basically talk about the downfall of MGM Studios. I had no idea that we're going to be doing that, right.
I had no idea that, you know, there would be this guy Kevin mclory who would end up being a thorn in everybody's side, and you know, and watching the rise and fall, and I never I'll tell you what I never. I never thought that I would find Roger Moore to the most fascinating individual of all time.
It's it's so full of revelations. As someone who's not a cinophile, sitting in the spectator seat, sitting in the passenger seat as boss Man drives the flip side of what your custom to here in the main show. I am just so amazed at how interested I find myself in the minutia of these films and franchises. And it's not just the wrestler, as I suspected when we started under the Cinemat all those years ago, that draws me in,
but it's equal parts. Just the way the dramas of Hollywood echo the dramas of wrestling exactly back a certain amount of time, there's no difference. You know, you talk about Cauliflower Alley Club and you talk about the heritage of wrestlers kind of sharing the same fraternity towards the turn of the century with actors.
Yep, it becomes.
Really fascinating to think about how closely intertwined they were. It's it's it's two p's of the same pod, yeah, for sure. And that pot is under the Cinemat, good damn right, And it's available for the Executive Producer tier and above. Over at patreon dot com slash the Lapsed Fan, where you prove you're either just along for the ride or you're helping to author what we've been doing for ten years. Take the pride of ownership. That's where we're headed, folks.
If you don't own something, no one takes you seriously. So have some ownership stakes in this cast by putting fuel into the engine instead of just standing on the side of the road with your arms folded expecting everything to operate perfectly without you having to lift a finger.
Not up, not up.
And it's not like we don't give you something in return. We give you the smash hit under the cinemat. So many critically acclaimed things coming in on this Bond series and all just kicked it into a new gear this year. Frankly, I mean, scary movie season was phenomenal. Christmas movie season is coming up. There really isn't a better time of years.
It's we get some some great stuff for Christmas movie season. Well maybe not great stuff, but it's gonna be fun.
Great, great in the way that we've accustomed you to think of great.
Yeah, yeah, that's for sure.
And and there aren't tallmount we shy away from climbing either, but the small mountains can be equal parts. Is fun just as your accustomed to on the main feed. You know how it goes the shows that you care least about are some of the most revered TLF episodes.
I mean every every every show has a story that's right, no matter how big, no matter how small.
We don't give a fuck. We don't give a fuck. Bring any set of facts to us and we'll put it through the process and you'll be glad we did.
And that is doubly the case. Over at patreon dot com, Slash the Lapsed Fan were not only do you get under the cinemat but if you have the courage and the resources to join that tip top mote tier, the premiere select Group, our ride or dies, as I like to say, the folks that are like, not only is what you guys do good and worthy of money, but you know I want to be I want to be
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Podcast, want to be on the front line, in the front lines.
When you think about it, you think about how much of a cliche it became in recent years. Everybody is a podcast. Everybody is a podcast. It doesn't mean anything to have a podcast. Well, over here, it does.
Yes, it does.
Over here, it does.
Want to tell you what this is the difference though, Okay, yeah, you know what, Everyone can have a fucking podcast. You're absolutely right, every're gonna have a fucking podcast. But I'll tell you what. It doesn't matter that you have a podcast. It matters what you do with the podcast and go all right, And there are a lot of fucking ham
and eggers out there who just have one. And you know they Number one, two, things will happen, Okay, either they're either they're gonna they're gonna stop because they they they nothing happens fast enough, which is always bullshit to begin with. All right, nothing ever happens fast. Okay. Number two, they you know, they become guest reliant and they can't find guests, and then you're gonna fail, all right, and you're gonna quit because you don't put the work in
the actual work, and the actual work is hard shit. Yes, it's time consuming. Yes, it's stressful.
Because you did a podcast because you think it would be cool to have a podcast, not because you must have a podcast. We must have a podcast. Yes, we've been told this for too many years, even before we started the show, and it might not have been a podcast per se that they were calling for, but folks knew, Folks who observed the dynamic knew that there was a community for this stuff. And the proof points just keep flowing in year after year, incremental by incremental. The returns
are in, and the returns are looking decidedly positive. And so patreon dot com slash the lapsed fan is where to go to prove that you're worth the shit in a world where unless you're coming out of pocket, you you barely exist.
Yep.
And we don't write the rules, but we certainly play by them. And the mote tier, as mentioned, not only do you get that extra panache from your co chair is not only are your nearest and dearest to our heart when we're thinking about special events and things that we want to make exclusive to you folks out there in the Solar system, exclusive access to your co chairman. Like our phone calls between each other when a wrestler
passes away, that's mode only. Also mode only, it's getting on the living room carpet with Mama sorrow ah yes, and watching the matches of your and just hearing a voice. It's really like it's as if you had an Alexa
in your house that's downloaded. Yep, what every mom and dad has ever said, every kind of subtly disapproving mom and dad has said to their sons and daughters that are wrestling fans, and just watch it, watch it sing like a symphony and going directions you never could have anticipated.
It's it's a reminder as to in a way, you know, it's a reminder of really the shame and pain it is being a wrestling fan. Okay, that's what it is. It reminds you that that that uh, you know, what you're watching is uh, you know, it's it's harmful to yourself.
And it's certainly not something that even if you watch it your whole life, that your parents are ever going to really understand. And by you know, insert parents, everybody, polite society, yes, anyone you'll ever run into for the rest of your life, you know, has no one.
Let me let me tell you this, no one's going to think more of you for being a wrestling fan.
Not everybody will think less of you. But you're exactly right, no one will think more of you.
I I challenge anybody to just you know, you meet somebody new for the first time and tell them you're a wrestling fan and watch how far they distance themselves.
Oh really, there, it is so like you're talking about like w w oh okay, okay, okay, okay, that's why we're here. Where the corner you retreat to when it's like God, yeah, in trouble, I'm trying to I'm out there in the real world and they're looking at me. Well, look, there is something wrong with you. But this is how you deal with it. TLF is how you deal with it.
And we'll send you back out of that corner and fighting shape with vasoline on your cuts and your mouthpiece firmly affixed and hopefully the blood flowing as it should in those cramped up legs. So Wrestle Mamia is a great way to get in touch with the kind of thing we're talking about. As the Boss Man watches all manner of matches from the archives with Mama Sorrow in the room, commenting things that are on the minds of people who haven't been wrestling, brain addled with the course
of their lives. And we say this because we're part of it, We're inextricably part of it. We say it not to cast judgment we say it to just have our eyes wide open about the company we keep as these long time obsessive wrestling fans, so then we know.
You're out there too.
The Christmas Show proves it, Patreon proves it. It's a wonderful thing. So join us for Wrestle Mamia and the Moteer if you find yourself so inclined and find yourself in receipt of the resources to do so as we close out twenty twenty four in the year and with the holidays upon us. Of course, if you've got a lapsed fan in your life, there really is no excuse as far as schwag availability.
Oh fuck yeah.
I walked down in your basement when we were recording the Christmas Show, or after we recorded the Christmas Show, and I laid eyes on it for the first time.
What did you see?
I laid eyes on the TLF Letterman jacket. Yes, you did, and the fashion of the black and red raw is war jacket that Vince and Jr. Started wearing wearing right around the time we're arriving at in our sid tribute, by the way, and I.
Looked at that thing, good point.
I observed the craftmanship. I observed how the letters were raised off of the fabric. I observed the the leather texture of the red sleeves, and I just I was just flabbergasted by the quality.
It's a beauty. It's a real beauty. You know, we geta I gotta find a place to take it out for for a test drive. But yeah, it is a beauty. Yeah.
If there's some if you're looking for something premium for the TLF fan in your life, and if they're you know, if they have kind of like the aesthetic that fits with that, look, man, this is the ticket. This is what Dicky has come up with over at Chopped Teas. Our Chopped Tea store is just off the chain. But Letterman jacket, isn't just it that that's available on kind
of a limited run basis for premium price. I would suggest to you at some point it won't be a purchase option because these aren't these these aren't cheap to put together. This is high quality craftsmanship that Dicky is facilitating here. But there's a lot of other stuff, non T shirt stuff like hoodies and caps and jackets, and then you.
Know, and he's also been able to take some of the items that yes, that haven't been able to to cross the line over at over at pro wrestling teas. So you know, some of the stuff that you know, like the the the new warlorder shirt that I made ten years ago, the design that I made ten years ago that just you know, because of because of you know, any kind of copyright issues, no one knowing you know,
they were progressing t's wasn't able to do. But it's available now over it chopped, so you know, stop ticking around.
Yeah, there's no excuse. And progressing t's is very much worth mentioning because that's of course our full gallery of every T shirt in particular that we've ever come up with, and progressingts dot com Slash the Lapse fan is a place to go for you know, let's face it, the key piece of wardrobe for any self respecting wrestling fans the black T shirt.
Oh fuck yeah. I mean listen, we cater to the black T shirt.
That's how you know, Like, if you're driving around trying to find a wrestling venue, that's how you know you're on the right block because you see two blocks worth of people wearing double x or single XL black T shirts lined up.
I mean, come on, triple XL quadruple XL as well, and with what around their shoulder, usually a championship belt because they on something somewhere is there the champ right, it's not because they it's not because they They're they're carrying a phony belt that means absolutely nothing on their shoulder.
And then with that visual, I I you know, I developed some internal comfort that I found my destination. But at the same time, as I locked my car door, I look down at my shoes and I do a quick exhale, and I shake my head and I walk towards my people once again.
Yep.
And we look forward to seeing everybody when we're out and about in the wrestling world. But there's no better way to fly the flag and please send us on social and stuff. We love when people go to wrestling shows wearing stuff from Pro Wrestling t's. It's always such a treat to see people fly the flag. I'll never forget the homie Scott Suddy in the front row of an aw show. Oh I love it, grabbing his laps fan logo T and just like what I need, forcing
it into the foreground. Oh God, what pride that's sent through through our veins. So Pro Wresting ts dot Com. And I want to give a special shout out to Andrew. Andrew is somebody who recently took us up on our Sids Vanna's line. In tribute to Sid and his proclivity and his mission really to send as many cases of Vienna sausages to his church in Memphis as he possibly could, we've developed a line of Sid's softball Vienna T shirts. Yes, he was passionate about the Viennas and so are we.
And I want to thank Andrew for putting down real American currency to purchase the cenn Sid's Vienna's T shirt Overpro Wrestling dot Com. Salute to you, sir, and I hope you wear it with pride and wear it with joy this holiday season. Well that's that's important business. But it's yes, it is, it's business. Nonetheless, let's get into a little bit of fun, shall we. Let's get back
into where Sid stands in nineteen ninety seven. So he's dropped the championship to the Undertaker at WrestleMania, right yep. And you wonder, you know, because for Sid, it's always like they gave me the belt because they believed in me and I was going to go on a run.
And of course it's never that. It's always said, you'll be a good placeholder until we get to the people we really want to build around, which will never be you at large part because you have certain limitations as a performer, and we never know when you're going to just completely up and disappear on us or you know, oversleep the Royal Rumble ninety seven press conference where we're trying to fill the fucking Alamodome.
I'm trying to get my stuff done.
And so were we, and that's why I have.
You don't understand I have responsibilities. Yeah, I do understand.
That's why I'm kind of.
I have responsibilities outside of yours. I need to accomplish things. I have accomplishments that rely on my attention.
Yeah, so they're not quite accomplishments before you accomplish them. But I do understand what you're trying to say.
That's what they think you do.
That's why the sentimentation is so good, because he would plub the syntax that way, you would have to be like, well, I kind of get what he's saying. But do you think sid went into WrestleMania expecting to lose the championship.
I'm sure he did. I'm sure he went in there thinking that there's no way he's losing the championship.
Here he is in one of his many shoot interviews, this one with our video, talking about his mentality going into Chicago that night and the end of the title reign that began on the show we last covered for you on the sid tribute was you know, I was.
Told again, once I get to go back, as long as I was doing good business, that we were going to keep it on. I got to WrestleMania, it was dropped to me, I was gonna drop it, So I said, okay, finally me.
Yeah, you know, and.
That's the only God knows what the story is behind that pregnant pause.
Yeah. I mean that was definitely like what what, how am I going to share this story?
Yeah?
Maybe because you found out that you you know, what do he say? Like, they're gonna keep me champion as long as him drawing money.
I was told again, once I get the belt back, as long as I was doing good business, it was dropped to me, I was going to drop it.
Well, I don't understand you're telling me I'm dropping the.
Belt tonight, yes, said it's kind of an obviousness.
Said yeah, well, I mean, you know, it's just the way we got to do things. I don't understand. You're telling me right now that I have to drop the belt. You said that I did not have to drop the belt. Well, what I said was you didn't have to drop the belt. We wouldn't take the belt off you unless it was you know, as long as you were doing good business. That's exactly what I'm saying. So why are you taking the belt off me?
If we told you ahead of time that we're to take the belt off of you, you wouldn't have showed up. That's why.
I mean. There's that, and I mean said, I mean to be frank about it, and you're not doing good business. Business is down with you on top.
I mean, this is on track, on track for the lowest bought WrestleMania of all time.
Just sorry, What the hell are you saying? Are you saying that I'm a draw? Are you saying that I didn't pack the house with those fans out there?
That's what I'm saying.
Shut up.
I want you to look me in the eye. I want you to look me in the face. Mcmn.
I want you to look in the eyes of Sid and I want you to tell me that I am doing bad business.
Said, you're doing bad business.
You understand what it means to be the master at the road of the world.
That really good And sham Michael's shamacho.
He goes away with his damn leg is damn me and his smiles gone around the back.
Of his head.
You don't have to worry about Sid smile.
You haven't worry about Sid smile.
My smile stays right. Words should be on my mouth now, not getting from.
Here here, not in the back of my head like sham Michael's.
My smile and on the back of my head like sham michaels.
Let's fucking go.
I don't know why you're telling me. Fix it, man, You tell me right now. You're telling me right now that I don't have what it takes a draw.
Someone get him a piece of paper and some crayons, please and improved.
If you want to prove that you can draw, I'll tell you what they You know, there is a there's a daycare center in the building, and they've got crayons and markers and construction paper, and you can show me if you can draw. But if you're going to do that, which I definitely think you should, the one thing is they don't allow championship belts in the daycare the beauty family.
You know, you go to the house and they got drawings on the fridge and no, that's so cute. You realize most of them are done by Sid.
I Frank to that.
No, Dad, you think Frank would get off his ass for a second to color a picture of you?
Out of your mind?
I got a garage full of Vienna's because of that fucking guy. I feel like we ended up with a garage full of Viennas by the time the fuck could run, rapping.
Was over too. Oh, I know seriously, so like I'm.
Looking down and at inventory that that failed to be distributed as originally arranged.
Uh uh said.
We're going to keep the belt on you. No, we're not, said, why would we do such a thing? That's the story with him. It's like I never got the run. We've heard it, you know, I never got the chance to prove that if you keep the belt on me for a period of time, I can be among those top drawing champions that you had. And yeah, yeah, they sure didn't go with you, because every two months it's like, oh this wasn't what I thought it's gonna be. Uh my bicep hurts, Like come on, man, what do you expect?
But yeah, that pregnant pause was so much. You know, there's so much more shit he pulled at Mania so much more.
Maybe went into Undertaker's locker room and try to convince him to like say, no, you're not gonna take the belt.
Well, you probably came up with some kakammy thing where like you don't do this, I'm not going out there or something.
I don't know.
That's just what I heard in that clip. I thought that was fascinating.
Mark. I want you, Mark, I want you going there. You tell them you're not taking the belt. You you look me right in the eye. Run now. I want you go out there. I want to tell Vinswick man, I'm not taking Sid's belt.
What hits you in the head like a shot?
Or I'm gonna kick you in your kneecap?
Wow, whoa, that's a threat. Jeez, how's he ever gonna come back from that? It is funny to threaten somebody with a very kind of rudimentary blow like a single blow like that, not to the face, just to some other appendace kneecap. Well, hey, if you kick Mark Kellaway in the knees, you could uh incapacitate him.
Before could he couldn't he could implode, could.
Just vaporize where he stands. But yeah, it really tasty to think about what was on Sid's mind because you watch the shoot interviews that he did over the course of his life, and they're so meandering, and it seems like he's holding nothing back. It seems like he's got a he's got like a SOB story for everything that's
ever happened in his career. Not a SOB story, but kind of like, you know, it's always like, oh it was great, but you know one thing I always bothered me, or one thing that really sucked about that whole thing, or one thing that really couldn't get over. There's always that at the end every time, which I love about the guy. I mean, that's that's that's our oxygen here, you know, as wrestlers who can't help but let some
grievance out every time they open their mouth. But for Sid, it's just like man if if if in this instance, he wasn't comfortable saying what was on his mind in that exact moment. I can't imagine when you consider the things he does say, the things he does insist on mentioning it's a it's it's.
Yeah, there's something. If there's something that he's holding back from, it's gonna be pretty pretty fucking juicy.
So coming off Wrestling Maney thirteen, he hits Peoria the March twenty fifth taping where he beats Jerry Fox and then uh, he goes to Kuwait with the ww OF tour in April of ninety seven. You know, they would often go to the Middle East, not often, but when they did go.
Isn't it that it's that tour, isn't it? Isn't it that tour?
Isn't what that tour where Vader gets stuck? He nailed it. Yeah, this is the tour where Vader does a morning talk show with Undertaker in Kuwait and.
Is Taker just sits there like a fucking idiot.
Oh yeah, yeah, we went through this on the nineties seven journey. I think yeah, and uh, you know, the rest of the host starts implying it's fake and says asks if it's fake, Invader gets up and snatches him by the shirt and idiot. It's a big international incident and they don't want to let him go return to the United States and he's going to be charged and it's bloody hilarious and Taker has to pretend to still be in character the whole time, even though.
But he's not even like you know, keep in mind, this is Undertaker also dressing as right biker Taker, you know, big dead Undertaker. Like he's just he's he he's just he's sitting there. I mean, he looks not like the Undertaker. You know, he looks like two thousand Undertaker. It's very odd.
Absolutely, it's odd, I agree, And it's a it's a time of great identity crisis for the Undertaker because they've put the strap on him. Now he's the man like, he's the guy that's going to go around and represented Waifs Champion. He's not this side show that doesn't really get a lot of media exposure because he's a gimmick like no, and now he's got to be the WIF Champion.
He's going to be doing interviews. He's got to figure out how to talk and still be the Undertaker and still keep up this k Fabes kept up so long with the gimmick and was so well respected for keeping up. So I think that's kind of interesting crossroads and that whole thing. But yeah, this is the tour and Sid didn't want to go on the tour. Of course he didn't. As we'll get to he thought it was a wonderful opportunity as a matter of fact, to let a lot
of nagging injuries heal. And he found a way to take it very personally that WWF instead of taking what he thought was a golden opportunity to take him off the road and suffer no ill consequence because there's not a lot of US cities that they're going to hit during the Kuwait tour to rehab some injuries and let him come back when they get back from Kuwait. He's doesn't want to make the shot. He doesn't want to go, and that they him go anyway.
And on.
April ninth of nineteen ninety seven in Kuwait City, he loses to Freddie Joe Floyd in Kuwait. Oh really, in the first round of the Kuwaiti Cup. Oh my god, So this is not the one that I'm mad wins? Remember that, didn't they do that the year before he won the Kuwaiti Cup.
Yeah, something like that, and.
They showed it on TV and played it up this one, they hardly been mentioned on television. But but yeah, he loses to Freddy Joe Floyd. Hkak Tracy smothers his old pal from from Memphis. So I'm sure that wasn't a huge negotiation of all the jabbronis to have Sid lose to. But you know, when Sid's losing to someone like that, or losing in a very quick way, you know, he's coming off of having been told he's been a bad boy, you know, and this is your punishment lost to Freddy
Joe Floyd. He's the equivalent of you know, rubbing the dog's face in the mess, you know.
Yeah, fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their candy. It's the lapsed fan. He's an lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carneo m JP Sorrow.
So it's not going well in that result, I think tells you the story and then all of a sudden, what's also in jeopardy? His April match with Brett House with Brett Heart at the In Your House pay per view Brett House. Yes, all of a sudden, it's a problem. April twentieth, nineteen ninety seven, Dayton Daily News headline, Steve Austin, not Psycho Sid to be in your House. Wow, it's by Alex Marvez. The circumstances entering Tonight's in Your House pay per view show may be more interesting than the
card itself. The World Wrestling Federation was forced to change Bretdheart's opponent to Steve Austin after Psycho Said missed a Monday night raw show two weeks ago.
Oh my god.
Sid told WWF officials he had injured his back, but some believe that was an excuse to avoid losing to Heart. Considering Sid's shaky track record, that WWF decided it couldn't risk billing him on in Your Head House. Austin versus Hard is the promotion's hottest feud, but the WWF was hoping to save this match until later. Don't don't expect a conclusive finish, because neither Austin or Hart can afford to lose. And I'm sitting here and I don't remember the finish. I think that's probably oh.
DQ, Yeah, Austin puts Brett Hart in the Sharpshooter and the the Heart Foundation comes out and disqualifies.
Brett like right a Monday night raw finish on pay per views, right right, which tells you all you need to know about how how not by design? Rematching these two a month after Mania?
I mean, it's a shame. It's a good it's a decent match too. It's like, oh, yeah, they're not gonna do anything you can't have. I mean, you really, you can't have a clean finish on you know, that's that's your money feud. That that should have been your WrestleMania fourteen main event.
Oh yeah, we've talked about that, Austin Hart Mania fourteen. If the screw job doesn't happen, that's the move easily, not Austin Sean. But yeah no, yeah, So what's this all about? Sid? I mean, what back injury? All of a sudden after your well, you know you told him, right, you told him they shouldn't have sent you to Kuwait.
I said, don't, don't, don't take me to Kuwait. So you take me to Kuwait, I get injured? What happened?
I've done so many jobs to suggest that I don't want to do a job I've done more.
Well, let's let's just let's just let him say.
Oh boy, Uh, the first injury was a back injury. And that wasn't a fucking injury. First of all, it was a bullshit, fucking deal, Bruce Piccher, not fucking fat
ass Jim Ross. My back was fucked up because I was taking those suit plexes off that fucking top roade for Brett every night, you know, and okay, god, and it just seemed like every night my back was landing right on that piece of iron or something, and I was just totally worked well all right after els Mania, I told Vince, I said, I don't want to go to that damn Overseas them sorry radio bullsh because I
know there weren't going to beat people there. And I said, it's be a perfect time for me to get my back piled up. And I had, uh one day surgeries. I had a series of three of my needed to do and it was taking an epidural, which is you know, a big long need onto your back for cortizone injections, which would obliviate the pain for at least a year. So when they came back from Overseas, they said well, have you got releasing the doctor yet and.
I said no, I haven't.
You know.
He said, well, man, we need to make Monday, not Row. It's coming Monday.
I said, well, I can make it, you know, and I'll just go to the doctor when I get back. They said, no, we need to go right now to the doctor and have a look at you.
Now. This is before they started the court zone treatments.
I said, guys, if I could just have a couple, I mean, don't worry about my back.
I'm telling you right now, if.
I go to the doctor, they were probably don't want to do surgery. And I was, you know, I knew that that was how fun e stept it was. Then I said, what my doctor came get me in today. I was leaving to go to the family union for Saturday, and I was going to be back Sunday to go fly Monday from Monday out Row. So as soon as I have the phone, they coming back, like thirty minutes later. They actually called my own doctor and Scudy said we really needed him in there. Could you please get him in?
So I said, okay, I'll call you back about thirty minutes. Five minutes for my doctor's office weren't in sure enough. He said, man, you're like six weeks eight weeks off or something. So that I called him back and see what I fucking told you, And see that's what started my bullshit. There was them two fat fox getting in my way to see events, knowing it or not knowing it.
If he does do it, then that makes him a dumb fuck too to take a talent like me and just fuck me off like that, because I was willing to come back to work without a fucking doctor's release, because we all had to do that, and we're all going to have back problems, you have to walk around them. I mean, it was nice to get those Corrizon shop if that's just a doctor's way of making a quick fucking cup of way, you know what I mean. It gives you temporary relief, they say for one year, but
after that's going to come back anyway. And the thing is, we all know when you've been in the business, loans we have, you got an injury, it's gonna go away sooner or later, you know what I mean. So if you're gonna cry out every injury you have and not be at work every night because you got an injury. But some people are then you never fucking work. But that's where that that injury came in. It wasn't really
an injury. It was just I needed a little time off, and then when I came back, we had the wreck and that's when I had the real surgery when I didn't invertebrate in my neck. I mean, I don't know what reason in the world, but they wanted me to have a doctor's release from my back before I came back. I guess for whatever reason they wanted to fuck with me or something. But I said, then I'll come back and then I'll go to the doctor and I'll just say.
I'm okay and we'll go on heals. Okay, well that's what we'll do.
And like I said, when we talked to your doctor said he'll squeeze.
You in and I said, okay, I didn't want to go to the doctor because I know exactly what it said.
Nice is at least it's not complicated dealing with the guy. Huh No, not at all. What the you guys told me. If I go here, then but if I did this, but if I didn't go there, he's not even open today. I'm going to reunion. Fine, I'll go tomorrow, but he can't even fit me in. Well, I go my reunion just like the what I didn't what? Why why are you telling me about your reunion?
What do you have to do?
Care?
Stop it? Stop it?
I mean what a what a okay? First of all, tremendous that he calls Jim Ross and Bruce Richard fat Fox. Oh yes, tremendous, absolutely, because I bet what's happening. And you can hear a little bit of annoyance in Bruce's voice when he did a pod about Sid like in JR.
While he says diplomatic things about Sid, particularly after his passing, and otherwise he doesn't have a lot to say, like Sid is not someone who comes up in the books he's written and said, is not somebody he wants to talk much about, it seems like to me, which is weird because he was, you know, head of Talent Relations and there during Sid's biggest mischief years.
Yeah. Can I just say too, By the way, I just so I have I'm looking through now because he said I don't know how often did he say it was facing Brett Hart. I don't know.
He just said he's taking suplexes all the time. I don't know if it was every night.
I mean, so far the I've only seen three matches I've been going through since February of ninety seven. I'm on the history of w website and there are maybe three let's see here, I got I.
Think he would take them in the triple threats with Sean.
Well, they haven't had They had one in January. Yeah, and then he had three four four steel cage matches between March seventh and March ninth with Brett Hart. Besides that, he was teaming with Brett Hart. Yes, he and he and and Brett. We'll go against Sewn, Michaels and Steve Austin.
But it's every night, boss, I'm taking super plexes every night.
Super plex? Are you taking superlexes from your partner?
So when you see him take a superplex against Brett in that cage match after what but shoves down Vincent all.
That, I mean, I'm sorry, I don't. I just don't think that that sid is taking a fucking superplex.
Well it wasn't an injury. I love this, that bullshit thing. It wasn't even injury. Well, was it? Why is there a deal then if you're not hurt, like I mean, I get it his whole thing, And did you decode what he was saying, like what is the case he was trying to make kind of He's saying that like I just needed to heal from a from a minor problem. I don't even call it an injury. And I thought, you know, since someone's gonna be in kuwait, I should
just sit here and fucking rehab. And instead they're like, we need you to go to raw uh And you're like, okay, but I don't have clearance, and they're like, you need to get clearance. This is at a point in time when WWF for some reason got very particular about having a doctor's okay before someone came back to the ring. They're probably afraid of getting sued or something like that, i'd imagine. And so Sin is like Sid, Sid's the
master of this game. Since the master of the doctor's closed or who knows what he tells the doc when he gets in there. You know, guys, I'm telling you he's gonna tell me that I can't work. Just go in and said, because you know they're thinking they're doing like a third party check and verification on this guy. They think they're doing their diligence. Yeah, I mean, what are the odds, I said, just goes into the doctor and says, Doc, I can't even move.
I just caid, doc, Doc, I want to ask you a question. Yes, just look me the eye. I want you to look me in the eye. I want you to answer the question, am I able to.
Go to work?
Well?
Before you answer that, answer the answer the damn question, Well, should what kind of work do you do?
I'm a long jumper, That's what I might have put it.
Well, you see, you're like a long jumper, like like that, kind of like an Olympic athlete.
Yeah, that's exactly what I am.
Well, I don't think you should do that. No, no, no, no, I can't go to work. Doctor said, So, Doc, did you say I could go back to work? I said no, I said, no, we cannot go back to work if he's that kind of an athlete. Absolutely not.
How long do I need to rest?
Doc? Well, I mean, honestly, are you training for the Olympics? Yes, I am.
How long do I need to rest?
Well, I'd say you need at least, you know, some maybe about two months of rehab. Doc.
How long do I need to rest.
I'd say at least four months.
Awesome at that KFA doctor that's three minutes from his house. Yeah, okay, real, a real fresh set of eyes, a real objective observer. I mean, I'm not doubting the guy was hurt, but he says it right there in the clip. You know, if you took off every time you could argue that you're hurting, you would never work, especially back then. So
it's it's just it's phenomenal. And he's basically to my here my ear, accusing Prichard and Ross of you know, saying, fuck this guy, like we're gonna catch him in a lie, you know, and you don't catch Sid in a lie. You don't do it because he's just never gonna He's never gonna grant your premise.
Right exactly, Listen, Sid's always gonna get out of it, or he's gonna find a way out of it, exactly.
Just when you think you've like laid a fact pattern bear that calls into question his h his all the things that he said with so much conviction, something else comes up and he's just like, God, this is just gonna go on forever, isn't it unless we just give him when he wants, so let's just do that. But this is this is it, this is where they completely lose patience with him. They've got the strap off him.
He played the role he needed to play during all that messiness with Sean giving up the belt, and now there's pretty much we're headed towards zero tolerance policies it regards the Sidster and uh and these whole meandering games don't don't really hold water anymore. So that's what's going on around the April nineteen ninety seven In Your House show.
Sid also says in the same interview that he had never heard of him being booked to wrestle Brett on the pay per view, despite it being on the docket and advertised once or choice on television. Meltzer reported that Sid's been working with a hernie in a disk in his back that was caused, you know, by straining and the other things talked about, and he says the reason was
handled so clumsily. This is the Sid Brett match on the April seventh, nineteen ninety seven, an episode of Monday Night Raw is they literally didn't know about it as the show was going on that Sid was not going to be able to do the match.
Oh my god.
I didn't know if he'd actually be there on RAW or not. So this must be April seventh. Must be the Raw that he's talking about that they called him and said they'd need him for that. He knew shows, and then all the doctor stuff happens, Meltzer reported. Apparently Sid left a message at the office over the weekend. Nobody was there, and Raw was taped on a Sunday night, so nobody knew.
I think this is where this started. Is that the voicemail for nor We talked, Yeah, we did this amazing. This is where we did the we started the whole thing.
It was this missed Raw, unbelievable. And he calls on the weekend knowing no one's going to be there, you know that whole trick. Yeah yeah, yeah, like telling Holt to facts the thing on a Sunday that he's going to exercise creative control against a head of bash at the beach two thousand, just just to.
Cover your rent.
You're ass legally upon Eric Bischoff's suggestion that he'd later claimed to know nothing about that, and he didn't think to call the building Meltzer reported to let anyone know he was hurt. Ends up talking to Evince later in the week, and Meltzer was reporting that no word on how long he'll be gone. But there's also a lot of skepticism at the time to the legitimacy of the maladies he.
Was an injury or some sort. I mean, you didn't call. I called, and even if I didn't, I don't need to tell you if I called her not right? Well, I say, uh, you do kind of. I mean, what is there anything we can do to to help you? I mean, we listen, we don't want to.
I mean, let's be honest, pal. Yeah, I mean, you know, Brett put you over three times in a row. You know, now it's time for us to get Brett back on track. And it's you know, you gotta, you gotta When when can you come back? Because you know Brett needs that. You know, Brett needs his win back. Remember the flip side of the coin when he was taking power bombs every night?
Said hello are you there?
Said ship?
Oh?
Ship? He was listening. He was boyling, is what he was doing. I don't answer you face McMahon.
Oh that's in a shot.
Oh, don't.
That's Brett. I to the sid and I want you to look me in the eye.
We're on the phone. Shut up, sadly exactly.
I don't have to come to work because I had the master.
And the ruler of my world.
To say that again, yes, that these are all facts. I understand that. However, you do you do have some contractual dates. I do not have contractual anything. Uh told have contract mm hmm is that true? Does he not have? No? No, we we we have, we have we have a contract. I got right here, Pa, you signed it. I'm looking at it right now. I want you is real good? Pick man? See it's not the world champion.
No, yes, woh see, it's real simple.
See it's real simple. You go around there, you start promoting that undertaker, that piece of shit. You go around and you're backing up Steve Austin, Sean Michaels, Brett Hart. But I want to ask you one thing. How come I'm being overlooked and stick man? Is it because I'm not a big movie star?
He goes out of the old promo. He's only got like four or five scripts in his head. Really, let me guess it's real. Let me let me. Guess what I said. The game we play is simple?
Is this some? Is the game we play simple? I'm gonna tell you what's simple? And I ask you again, Is it because I'm not a big movie star like Hulk Coagan, the Immortal One himself said, I don't really care about Hulk Hogan. I know he's over in WCW. Is it because I'm the newcomer? Said? You've been in the company, I mean, on an office since nineteen ninety two. You're not a newcomer anymore. I want you to answer this one question, vis Nick Man, I want you to ask me if I know shit.
Do?
This is an interesting position, all right, I'm do do do? Do you know shit? I don't know shit.
I don't know you.
I don't know where I am. And that means I don't have to obey and I don't have to sit around and do things that you want or that I think that I need to do. I'll tell you what I need to do. I have got three hundred pounds of things Vienna sausages in my garage right now. Uh okay, Vietna three pounds. Okay, that's a lot of canned meat. Did you say Vietnamese sausages. You're saying Vietnamese. So that's not what I said. I got Vienna's, I got Vina, I got vienna is coming out of my ass.
He says it like it's He says it like I got I got whooping cough, you know, like I got Vienna's. Look, look, I got Vienna's. Like that's one thing you can't say about me is that I don't have Viennas.
If you need me, send me pictures of viennas I got them, if I need to prove to you that I have all that I have all these Viennas in my in my garage because my fucking son doesn't didn't deliver them on time.
Vienna's.
You talk about what else might they be packaged with? In terms of an overall holistic meal?
What do you I mean Vienna's. It's a that's a hearty meal, is it not. It's like top of.
A serial killer. You're just hoping he doesn't shoot.
I'll tell you in my experience, Vienna sauage, very hearty meal. I see h. What do you what do you exactly? Do you do you? Are you calling the police? Exactly? Are you so? What exactly I don't know how long I can do this. I don't not want Patterson. You better call the goddamn cops. I don't know what I'm fucking doing here. So what what? What? What would do? What would you kind of eat in addition to the Vienna sausage? Would you have another, uh maybe a side
dish or something. So you get a nice cheddar cracker and you put the viennas on side on top, you know, in between, you make yourself a sandwich about to drink, about to drink? Said, wow, you have a beverage to kind of wash down me a Vienna sandwich? I just get bow water. It's all these a ball of water, I'll say you would if you really want to make it a successful meal, a meal that will draw fans every single time, Well, this is what we need, we need.
I guess we should start doing na Vienna sandwiches to fans and arenas. I guess they draw people. You can get all right, if you really want to make it a full meal, you get yourself a moonpie, I say, moonpie with Vienna sandwiches and a bah wah wah. Do you get that one bah wah wah ball water? So Bruce, he called you a fat bitch.
Any comments at this point, it's a lot of skepticism because again Sid had everybody's number, He had Vince's home phone number. Vince isn't that hard to get in touch with. So everybody's got the booking sheets. You can let everybody know. So that's the that's the part where the bullshit flags go up and you just think, Okay, Sid doesn't want to play anymore, and that that was the feeling.
It just was damn it well. But also there was a feeling of relief.
That well, we got WrestleMania out of it, we got the we got everything on taker, and.
We're moving forward. So that was the feeling.
Man, if a guy, thing that we wanted to do was make sure the guys were taken care of. Also, we had to take care of the company. So if you come in, it was a changing in times in general, where you say you're hurt, Okay, we need you to get checked out by a doctor, find out what's wrong with you, find out what it is that you need to do to correct the problem. Once you do that, we also need a doctor to release you and say, yes,
this person is in good physical condition. To be able to go out and compete and be a part of the show.
That's what we did.
So if that is getting in his way, then yeah, we got in his way. But we're taking care of the company. We're taking care of business because just the business was changing. Couldn't just take someone's word and say, yep, okay, I'm clear to go now after you've told me, and after you've got a doctor say no, you're not good. So it was I think it was the first time that he was really being challenged on some of these things.
And if that's the case, then that's case.
You were saying, boss.
Well, so he says like, oh, we got you know, we at least we got it on you know, we had WrestleMania. We got WrestleMania from him, and we got the belt onto It's like, wh why didn't you give the bell to take her fucking in February at the final four? Then yeah, that was your big problem.
Yeah, it's it's it's it's an interesting call. I mean, I think probably started to be a good match for WrestleMania they were going to do. I think one of the things we figured out doing this whole thing is that they were going to do Sid Undertaker title or no title at WrestleMania, right, right, So if you're going to do that, if it's going to be a championship match all of a sudden, might as well have Taker
win it at Mania instead of Final Four. I guess that was always supposed to be the show to figure out what to do without Sean there and bridge the gap. But yeah, so this is you know, to hear Bruce tell it, this is people challenging Sid. You know, these these up the these injuries that seemed to come up right at the same time that they're proposing he do something that they probably think he doesn't want to do.
Enough of those strange coincidences, and they, like we said, they thought they were going to, you know, catch him in the act, catch him in a lie by engaging the doctor. And I'm not sure that didn't just make everything a lot worse. And Pritchard on his show goes on to say that they were still hopeful come that in your house, that Sid would show up and Ross before that, and he says he thinks Vince felt that if we put him there and gave him the opportunity,
he's going to see it. And he's going to come back, but of course that wouldn't be the case come early June. There's a barding that said was supposed to return on the May thirtieth show in San Jose, but claimed he had the flu. It wouldn't be back until June twenty eighth.
He had to flew the coop.
He flew the coop exactly. But he does come back June's second, nineteen ninety seven in Huntington, West Virginia, and not only does he come back, we get that result that tells us he's been a naughty boy. He loses to the Undertaker in five minutes.
Wow.
There was a rematch on Raw between Undertaker and Sid in June of nineteen ninety seven, and Undertaker does an interview, you know, kind of laying out what he's become since beating Sid and makes a comment about ruling the world, and that brings out Sid, who challenges him to a match later in the show. Then Taker beats him quickly. And Meltzer was reporting at the time that when Sid showed up, they told him he's doing a job for Undertaker and he didn't want to do it, and he and was given.
When the belt back parent. Did we say that's the thing? Did we say that that was going to happen? Wait, you thought we were going to put the belt back on you? When you put the belt back on you, That's why I came back, I said, just someone told me, because you told me this man that you're giving me the belt back.
Was the name of the person that told you this?
Was it Sid? By any chance? Did did Sid tell you this that? Or tell you? What?
Was it?
Bo?
Was it? Oh? Shit? Was it bo? Justice?
Does Bow know Pal? Does Bow know the finish is Bow and the No?
Shit, that's a good question. Or does Bow blow? I'm well, you're talking pale right now, you're talking crazy. But I want to tell you exactly who it was, yes that told me I was going to get the title back? All right, I'm all here, and believe me. I'm all ears, and I want to get my firing hand ready because someone's gotten fucking fired. It was stens nick Man. Wow, Uh who I'm fired? Do you know? I gotta go? Bye?
And it was given some threats, according to Meltzer, s to his future employment and finally agreed to lose to Undertaker. As a result of that, A pictcher just talked about remembering that and Sid saying something's defective. Well, you're bringing me back and I'm gonna go out and do a job tonight. What good will I be after that? And Pritchard's thought is, exactly what good have you been for not showing up for all this last bird of die?
So at least let us get a win on television for the top guy and see what happens from there. But Richard said he just didn't understand why he was being brought back to do a job. And our feeling was you're being brought back so that we can get something back on television because we're really not sure what the future is.
Why you have me lose, well, because that's you know, you When you lose something, that's the way it goes.
I don't lose.
People don't believe that I lose because I'm a shooter.
Excuse me, don't you remember a shooter? Don't you remember that magazine feature you did on me?
Impty, I hunt uh hunt game.
This.
I saw your meeting there with Big Sid. What's on his mind?
Oh? I'm telling you he's hunting you, hunting me?
Huh, that's he said.
He's hunting game. He's hunting hunter.
The hunter is becoming the hunted bell.
The hunter hunter. You're being hunted by a hunter hunter.
Let me ask you a question, Pelle. If I asked you to stand naked in the middle of Times Square and deface yourself.
Would you do that? Would you do that?
Would do that?
If I told you to do it? Would you do that? Would you do that? Would you be a good son and do that for me? Go out to Times Square naked? All right, touch yourself and like wave it around.
How do you prove you prove loyalty to events? You masturbate to completion in Times Square?
I would like you to do to pleasure yourself in Times Square. I want you to lay on lay on the ground, all right, lay on the ground in Times Square naked, and I want you to pleasure yourself to completion.
Paul, this is Jack and JP. They host the Lapsed Fan podcast. Actually, oh, you're the guys that, uh, you guys would talk about, you know, wrestlers jerking off all over themselves. And so if you guys talk a lot about Dix, I always think that's kind of weird. You can't picture his face right now? Yeah, totally to laugh at us, Well, weren't you telling people to suck it for years? Didn't you kind of go half naked during the beginnings of d X, you know all the time.
I mean, oh, I was a kid.
These guys thought it was a shoot. You believe these guys, Oh my god, Well like his chrow magnan forehead and his bald head.
Oh god, his bracelets. You guys need a little you know, you guys need a little uh, you know, a little dose of reality. Guys working you know, God's been working your gimmick too much.
I don't know if you know the the LAPS fan podcast. Oh yeah, yeah, you guys are the who who oh whoa whoa guys, right, so uh ah giving us every indication at the time, Bruce says of Sid that Sid didn't know what his future was in the company, And in fact, if you look through the tea leaves at the time, there was some overtures clearly being made from
Sid towards WCW. And I do wonder if, yeah, when he got that pregnant pause there, I do wonder if he kind of a called WCW in frustration when he realized they were taking the strap off of him.
What's the problem, Why why not tell that? Though that seems like a weird thing not to tell.
You talked about sid not telling it. Yeah, yeah, well probably there's legal sensitivities about opening up those conversations before the contract is expired. That's always been like a two.
Even this far out.
Yeah, yeah, like that's always been a two faced thing about wrestling. Were like it was like a big deal when Jericho in his book talked about like coming to Vince's living room table a dining room table when he was still under w'sw contract. Because that's tampering. You're not supposed to you're not supposed to be going after somebody that gives the other company legal recourse. But of course everybody does it. You just don't admit you're doing it.
But you usually send out feelers through back channels and things, and you know word gets back to them. You want word to get back to them because you want them to sweeten the pot. You want them to suddenly take your demands more seriously because they're afraid you're going to jump, and you need them to know that to get that leverage. But at the same time, you can't be too explicit about it. This is me hypothesizing what may have been going through Sid's firing neurons when he paused there in
that interview. But yeah, this is the time too when people like Shan's going to WCW. Remember that did the whole backstage fight with Brett and he's going to go right to Nitro and all that shit. This was that time where it's like, what's the next shoot to drop on the big migration to WCW. And it would shock me if SID didn't find a way to get his name in that sauce. So I think that's what Bruce
Richard is intimating. There and there and there was There was like a one off clipping I found looking at news coverage of Sid, mainstream news coverage of SID in nineteen ninety seven, where it's trip up said he's heading to WCW. It was completely unsourced. The cares like one of these, like you know, local wrestling newspaper columnists. They don't have any sourcing or anything like that, but for some reason bold enough to declare it's going to happen.
Of course it didn't.
Wow, But uh, you know.
That usually bubbles up to the surface because there's some fire to the smoke.
It's the Lasall Wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan. He's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnacio and JP Sorrow.
But it continues for Sid. He hits Lowell on June six, ninety seven, teaming with Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin. There's a three man team for you. Yeah, I tell you that's crazy if you think O. When Bulldog and Jim Knightheart they moved to Portland and Maine for the same match. And then King of the Ring like you mentioned, takes place June eight, ninety seven in Providence and on that show, Jim Knighthart Owen Hart and British Bulldog from the Heart Foundation they defeat. Do you recall who.
Sidneylod Well done on.
The show said on the losing end, once again, you can tell this isn't going anywhere in particular. Then there's the June ninth, nineteen ninety seven row. This is the infamous one in Hartford where Brett rips out some of Shawn Michael's hair backstage. On that show, Undertaker, Sid and Ken Shamrock defeat Jim Knighthart, owen Hart and the British Bulldog. So kind of pushing in the direction there of SID of being aligned against Team Canada against the Heart Foundation. Yeah,
ros Ward June ninth, ninety seven, Harvard Civic Center. The next the same night, he defeats owen Hart. That's probably taping for the next week. They go to Montreal June thirteenth of nineteen ninety seven, where the Bulldog defeats SID in the European title match, and then they go to Toronto on June fourteenth, where owen Hart defeats SID for
the Intercontinental title. So if he's taken back to back losses here in Canada, you can tell this is us definitely out of the SID business and they're definitely trying to get as many wins over him as they can.
And these were the these are house shows or these are on TV the house shows?
Okay, Yeah, the TV one was the six Man and him beating owen gotcha. So they're not even having to lose on But there must have been something that fell apart around that June ninth raw taping in Hartford, where you know the next two shots they have he's losing to Bulldog and Owen in Canada. There's got to be that had to be some last straw argument or something like fuck this, We're not doing this anymore kind of thing. This appeared in the June sixteenth, nineteen ninety seven Canadian
Press out of Hawkesbury, Ontario. It's about to get a lot more complicated because even if they were throwing in the towel on sid as, those match results indicate their hand would also kind of be forced. Hawkesbury, Ontario, four World Wrestling Federation superstars were turned home Monday, banged up with cuts and bruises after the car they were in flipped at oh Boy and route to About in suburb
and Ottawa. On Sunday, they were in a Lincoln Continental that hit a soft shoulder of Highway forty near Point Fortune, Quebec, about two kilometers from the Ontario border, said Quebec Provincial Police spokesman Pierre Robischowed. They were heading from rap from Montreal to the Choral Center in Cannata, Ontario, for the WWF Canadian Challenge on Sunday night. WWF spokeswoman Joe Anne Rougeau, that's gotta be j Jacques. Joe's a daughter or something.
Joe Ann Rujeau said, Psycho Sid really named Sid, Udy, flash Funk, Charles Skaggs, and Flash Funk is always around when Sid when happens, but it's going down.
Uh.
Philipon and Doug Furnace or Dwight Furnace were in the car when it tumbled three or four times. Wow, the passenger side was totally crushed, she said from Montreal. The car is totaled. I bet you can't even tell the color. She said. It appeared Furnace suffered the most serious injury, a broken shoulder blade, while the Fawn suffered a concussion and cuts to his scalp. And this would be the end of Furnace and the Fawn and WWF boss right here. No,
it's a result of these injuries. They pretty much know the push, the push. They come back, but no one kiss a fuck.
It's over.
It's over.
They're in srivs at seven, right, it's over.
Ah, that's sad.
Skaggs was unheard except for bruises, while Udy, the six foot ten, three hundred and twenty pound former WWF champion, was experiencing numbness in his arms.
And legs. M.
Yeah, well, let's talk about after the crash. Enough of a before the crash. They're all having a hard time moving, Rajau said, adding everyone with the exception of Lafawn was headed home to the United States. Lafun is from Quebec but resides in Calgary. Roubischoud said the driver lost control while trying to adjust the sun roof. Beauty was behind the wheel.
Police, you get your rashed down steering i'sta sun roof.
Sid was bunched up his knees to the steering wheel, steering with his thumb and index finger in both hands.
Absolutely.
Claire Diamond, a spokeswoman at Hawkesbury General Hospital, where the four were taken, said that they were all treated and released. On Sunday night, the show with the core set up before five thousand fans, was delayed for about thirty minutes while organizers scrambled to change the car. So a faithful ride in Canada leads to yet another injury, hiatus and hiccup for one Sid Uti. Let's let's take it to sit in a shooting interview talking about what happened in this incident.
Right after that, we were well for Montreal Canada. That's when I flipped the car. And that's when the complete best serving body is completely up. And at first I was when I'd gotten home. I was put in the hospital for almost twenty four hours, but I was on machines that they thought I had a stroke? Did they
take that rays of everything but my neck? And then the next day I went to a neurology is that's the very first thing the actually and they saw the broken vertebrat was pinched up against my spinal cord and that's what it was causing the numbness in my left I wouldn't suffer any strength in it. I just could feel anything, I mean everything body when I mean really, Wow.
That's weird, total numbness boss.
Starting in the brain.
A bad set of circumstances here for sid, no question, And of course there's always that twist of they forgot to do an MRI of the brain, but they did a scan of everything else on the first doctor's visit. Wow, And then the next day there's got to be something there. There's got to be some reason. He pointed that out. But whatever it is, and he clearly was banged up from this accident, I don't think anybody quibbles with that.
But the degree of injury I think is sort of a case dependent on his perception of what they might do with him bringing him back into the fold, of course. And uh, obviously it was legit injury as others suffered injuries and had a difficult and long rehab process ahead of them. But that that's why Sid disappeared before that San Antonio raw that you remember him coming out at. Interesting is this car accident because he was on RAM
before and then he wasn't. But it's pretty wild that before the car accident happened, he was taking those losses like that on that Canadian swing. Yeah, you know, because that's always that always foretells.
A lot of losses. Yeah, that's usually. Yeah, he's on his way out.
I always foretell something for Big Sid, who is behind the wheel in this car accident, But it is. It is July fourteenth, nineteen ninety seven. Row comes to San Antonio, texashean Michael's hometown. He's there with Bells on as well, having come back from losing his smile and winning the tag titles with Steve Austin on Raw YEP Wrestling. Steve Austin at the king of the ring, one on one kind of forming like you know, even though they wrestled
each other, they were still sort of aligned. They were still on the same side of the baby face heel ledger if you will, And here comes Sid. Sid comes back, and Sid comes back curiously, not in the usual gear, not showing off his physique, but he's in a black turtleneck with a jacket and black pants. Yes, and there's a lot to that, but first let's hear it. This
is what you remember, boss. This is the segment on that July fourteenth, nineteen ninety seven episode of Raw in San Antonio where we see Sid for the first time since the car accident, but for the last time in the w w F at a high level. Can Sherman joining sewn on the Steve on the stage, the Patriot del Wilkes so much excitement. Ah yeah, seriously, do you remember they had the Heart Foundation in the ring, and then one by one, with Steve Austin's music playing the
whole time, they bring him out. They bring out Ken Shamrock, they bring out the Patriot, who was brand new to
the WWF at that time. Yeah, that's wild, pretty sure, this is his first appearance before the people in WWF standing shouldered shoulder with Steve Austin and on the Titan tron by the way, they have Old Glory the American flag waving, and then they bring out Sid and you heard the people go especially nuts for the reappearance of Sid standing tall behind Steve Austin and before the American flag. And then Shawn Michaels comes out. You know, he's not
ready for battle. He's dressed in like his fucking khaki shorts or whatever he would be wearing in the summertime back then. But it's wild, like, how much more interesting would Canadian Stampede be if it was Steve Austin, Sean Michaels, Sid the Patriot, and Ken Shamrock instead of what we can right.
Crazy?
This segment indicates that's what they had in mind, the storyline being Owen and Bulldog as tag champs. We're going to defend against some combination of all those guys and it would be decided and revealed later on in the show. The typical ratings ploy who indeed would get those those shots, and it ended up being Steve Austin, and none of the people on the stage do you remember how this episode of Row concludes who joins forces with Stone Cold
Dude Love, Dude Love. It's the debut YEP of Mick Foley as Dude Love YEP on the July fourteenth, nineteen ninety seven Raw, and throughout the course of the evening, we hear backstage from everyone who joined Steve Austin on the stage, from the Patriot to Ken Shamrock to Shawn Michaels, all kind of describing while why they're in the hunt and while they were aligning themselves with Steve Austin here in pursuit of the tag team championships in Warfare with
the Hard Foundation. But we don't hear from Sid, but he went home. We see you say that, we see Sid, but he's the only one we don't hear from a curious choice, but to hear Jim Cornette tell it, who, of course was serving in the executive capacity at the time and certainly was was no fan of Sid's prior behavior and business dealings, had the unfortunate and unenviable task of trying to corral Sid for not only in appearance on this episode of Raw, but also for a post
segment promo. Much like the others did, and there's a very clear reason why said didn't make it, and we're going to get to that right now. This is from Jim Cornett's podcast, and we also get a little glimpse of what, well, let's say, the negotiation was ahead of this episode of Rossid's final appearance on WWF television here and how there were some terms that had to be reached before Sid would get on the plane.
Of course, it was the goddamn San Antonio, the Joe and Harry Freeman Colisseum. Because I remember I was so hot that I was ill and almost threw up by the time I got back the hotel room.
It was like one hundred and ten in San Antonio that day, and.
Vince had insisted he come.
He'd been off because he was injured, and Vince had me calling, and I called and got his wife because he was out. He was playing softball or he took the softball team to Oceola or somewhere in Arkansas. And I said, Vince wants him, you know, at raw Monday night. He doesn't have to wrestle. He know he's hurt, but he's got to make an interview appearance and do part of this deal.
Right.
Oh, he's not gonna like that. He hasn't had time to train lately. He doesn't feel well. I said, he's not wrestling.
How bad could he look in a fucking month.
I'm thinking to myself, we haven't said him in a fucking month. How what could he have deteriorated too? And she said, you know, Sids often said that he he thought he might be happier if he went back to selling farm chemicals. I don't know whether she's trying to just pour her heart out to me or negotiate with me on his behalf, like you better give me more money. He might go back to selling farm chemicals. And I said, I said, nevertheless, Vince wants in there. He's sending a
plane ticket Monday, San Antonio. He's going to do this interview thing.
Right.
So he shows up and I Katie remember the particulars. But the four top baby face whoever they were at this point in time, was michaels Is whoever the fuck? They all come out on the stage and confront the group of heels in the in the ring, and Sid is one of them, and he he didn't take his shirt off, He's dressed his streak gloves. He didn't take his shirt off because he felt like he hadn't tanned
like Jesus Christ. And then they were supposed to come back at the top of the hour seg seven and that was when Raw was a two hour show and do some kind of run in and whatever and pay the thing off. And we started looking around for where Sid that's right, and asked Bruno, you know RV Whippelman Downtown. Bruno because they went back to the Memphis days and.
That was his manager of said justice, yes, and we said where Sid. Oh. He came up to me.
He said he felt like he was having a heart attack. I said, who, where'd you take you for? I took him back to the hotel? What the holiday inn?
For a heart attack?
He said, just waiting to go back to the hotel is so hot?
The jeez, so he made he didn't make that segment. He doesn't. You don't see him for the rest of the show. Nope, he had a heart attack. That's just I mean, come on, I mean, look at that. That's that's that's that's what happens.
Why are we making light of all the challenges the man's facing.
I know, I know, look I had a heart attack. What you sound all right? I may have had a heart attack. Oh that's not what you said the first time. Tell you you said you had a heart attack. I had a condition, a condition. I may have had something happen to me. I cannot talk about it. Well, you've been talking about it the last two minutes.
I may have had something happen to me that I cannot talk about. Now, Cornette opens up a very important vein, I think, for us. In our Sid tribute, Sabrina answered the phone Sid's wife, Oh, yes, and I do invite you to consider Sid, pantomiming over her shoulder Patterson Vince style while she's talking to Cornette about this raw appearance,
pretending he's not home. But she was really good at doing if I may make a supposition there and and basically, you know, sometimes Sid just feels like you just go back to selling form chemicals.
You believe.
She says that, Oh it's so, it's so rich, you know, she's just so predemptibly.
I think he's you know, he's he's been talking about he just wants to say molans, you know, that's what he wants to do.
Now.
I think he's kind of over the whole wrestling. He's wants to mo Loans.
I think it's his home, his his his, his business that he set up. The catchphrase is kicking grass, and he's gonna be out there turning over a new leaf in life. You know, sometimes I just think Sid just wish you'd go back to selling farm chemicals, so stupid. Oh my god, she thinks like and she thinks like she's going to get them to agree to pay him more to show up, right, No, And he's in the back like making gestures like, okay, tell him a care cop.
Tell him I wish, I wish I'll go back to selling form chemicals. Tell him that.
Tell him so Brina, he was go top tail the could they sell farm things?
And it's just not Yeah, it's just not easy to get Sid to show up, and it's not easy to get Sid to do anything at this point, and so you can start to see that the challenge is when he disappears and Bruno, who's of course the first guy he went to when he had to skip town in ninety two, remember that whole fiasco, yep, as they high tailed it from a to to Logan airport because the STENSI the warrior didn't want to do business and he had enough. While simultaneously there was the whole issue of
a failed drug test around WrestleMania eight. That was also an issue, and it's more severe cracking down on steroid use in the company. And yeah, Bruno is just the guy he turns to to say, you're coming with me, you're booking the flight or whatever the hell you're doing, you're facilitating my flight in the middle of the night. Here my fleeing of the territory, and you're coming with me, whether you'd like it or not. Brune of course did
not go and stayed there and managed other people. And then by the time Sid came back, I guess they rekindled the friendship. Never really heard that there was a falling out between those two, interestingly enough, but it's telling that with Sid missing as he's due to make an appearance on the flagship television show, that Bruno is the only person in the building who knows about this heart attack or this field or suspected heart attack. And over
in WCW is oh, no, that had already happened. I was going to make a smartness comment.
No, no, no, no, it was going to be.
Ninety seven, Starkad Nash and Giant, Right, yes so yeah so over in and Atlanta, Kevin Nash takes careful notes about what to say when he's penciled into job to the Giant at Star Kid. So there go Sid, not only once again, but kind of for the last time.
Yeah, it really is. I mean he comes back with like little one off things after w W gets sold, but that's.
It really only once. Yeah, and Doc Hendricks promote SummerSlam to the New York audience. According to this piece of reporting on the syndicated shows that reach New York, and they're listing a series of matches for Summer Slam ninety seven, including Vader versus Sid, Wow, Brett hartbers Undertaker, which Shawn Michael's a special ref one, the Owen Hart versus Steve Boston neck break match. All that I was supposed to feature Sid versus Vader.
How about that? That that's fascinating. No one have been interesting.
There's also something I want to put here, but I want to have couch it, and I do it in the spirit of hoping somebody can primary source this one
for us. There's long been a thing about how Sid had a squirrel, a pet squirrel, and that he would take it with him on the road, and that one day the other wrestlers dared him to keep the squirrel down his pants for a minute, bet him he couldn't do it, and that he accepted, And after about thirty seconds he got bit in the dick and he fell on the floor in agony, crushing the squirrel in the process, and had to.
Get Raby's shop. Oh my god.
So you can see if that actually happened, how no one would ever forget it.
Now.
SID has been asked about this point blank in interviews and just has no clue what people are talking about in a way that I don't think strange credulity like the usual. I have no idea SID answer. Yeah, So there really wasn't a lot more to go on than this persistent rumor. And I'm trying to figure out and people have emailed us about it, knowing that we're doing a SID tribute, wanting us to talk about and I
just can't find out where this comes from from. That there used to be this long form thread called like the sleeze or something. It was like a huge document full of all these like one line or things that people whisper about the other wrestlers, okay, and the sick things they've done or or might do or will do. And this may have been from that anonymously sourced famous forum post with all these things, this may have been something someone said about Sid as far as I could tell.
But if anybody knows kind of who the first person was to suggest or tell the story that Sid had this, squirrel love to run that down but could not do so. But I have the feeling that it comes from this rough time period in the WWF as far as when it happened. So I'm putting it here. And the call is out of the Solar system, you know, the email address the Lapsed fantasyemail dot com. If you can assist us as you are, I feel confident that the Solar system doesn't find that it doesn't exist.
Agreed.
So see if you can find anybody saying, oh, yeah, this is a eyewitnessed SID do this with my own two eyes, that would be extremely helpful. It's hard to know because just about anyone who was in the company at that time and has done shoot interviews could theoretically have seen this and said this. So we can't just as well, look at everybody's interview that's ever been done. That was there, but would be great to have a shortcut for people that might remember hearing it from somebody's
lips for the first time. So we're moving along here in Sid's career by herker, by Krook, whether he likes it or not. And as nineteen ninety seven becomes nineteen ninety eight, this is actually right around the time he sat down for the first RF video shoot interview, which
we have excerpted from generously. It was one of the rare times where they did a shooting interview before a guy had firmly faded from the spotlight and was still kind of an active aid free agent in the marketplace, still looking to return to WWF if he could, And he sat with him and talked about all this shit, which was an interesting choice. Think about Sid shooting on WWF in March of nineteen ninety eight. That's wild, that's
a risk, but he's doing it. And so they asked him what his status is with with the WWEF contract and he says, legally, I do have a release, and then legally I don't have a release, and that's a Sid answers you're going to get, he said. What we're trying to do is just get the final details of the merchandising worked out. How many months or how many years they're going to owe me for what's usually a general timeframe is two years of what they pay you
after you leave. So that's what we're trying to get them to say. So basically, it appears that as of March of nineteen ninety eight, you know, es wrestle Mania fourteen's getting ready to go, Sid is negotiating how much pay he's going to get for merchandising in exchange for leaving the company. Sid also said in this interview that they won't return my lawyer's calls and he's been calling, and you know, only just the thing was I told them I'm in no hurry because of my neck. But
now I'm in a little bit of a hurry. But as far as legally, I can go work anywhere I want. So basically he's it sounds like he's saying that, yeah, my contract is expired or my contract you know, is null and void at this point, but I'm looking to get more money out of them on a merchandising deal point. And so if they're going to give me that money, I'm gonna have to negotiate giving them something in return.
So in that respect, if they give there, I'm still kind of in contractual limbo and not able to go wherever I want. So only Sid can have a can be in a contractual position at any given point in time where his contract is and is not pending and valid. But of course, now where did Sid go in nineteen ninety eight? We certainly don't know, do we.
Oh? I don't think so, do we?
It' certainly as the attitude ever explode, Sid's not on nitro and he's not on raw.
Where is the man?
Well, he goes back home. Of course, Sid goes back to Memphis and what's left of that old territory that launched the lord humongous character, that old territory where he got into the ring with Jerry Lawler in the Mid South Coliseum before he knew what a turn buckle was, before he knew what anything was in the wrestling business, but had the size to get that early endorsement and you know, share the ring with Nick Backwinkle the first
time he ever had a match. For instance, he goes back to Memphis and at the time, it had been transitioned into a promotion called Memphis Power Pro Wrestling or MPPW under Randy Hales, who would go on to be heavily associated with promoting at wrestling in that great city for for years after Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett kind of set down the reins for that territory. So Memphis Power Pro still run and they're still doing WMC Channel
five Studio wrestling. I don't think they're running the Mid South Coliseum anymore, but they are doing a live event business as well. This is kind of boss the successor to the us w A. Okay, Yeah, which we know kind of bubbled up after the Memphis territory as we knew it fractured as Lawler went to w w F and it just became kind of like this feeder system thing.
Was that also part of wasn't that wasn't it was a w A.
Yeah, that was wasn't a world class part of that too, part of the us w A sort of, Yeah, it kind of becomes the us w A. This is after Jerry Jarrett buys out Fritz's interest in Dallas. They were called c w c w A and then yeah, basically the combined organizationrunning out of the Sportatorium was was called USWA for a time, and then Global moved in to the sport He drove Price reigned and Rod Price reigned.
That's correct, due to inflation, no doubt. And so Memphis Pro is not only you know, running under new auspices, it's also kind of at the catbird seat for a developmental territory deal. And this would be the promotion that Kurt Angle, for instance, would get a lot of his reps in before coming over to the main ww roster in November of nineteen ninety nine, and they would run a lot of their prospects through the Memphis Power Pro organization.
I don't think that he's exactly taken hold yet when Sid went over there, but we remember, you know, Sid went to Memphis after the second WCW run before they brought him back in ninety five to be Psycho Sid to the WWF. Oh yeah, so I'm sure he's seeing this not only as a bit of ho homecoming, but also a way to stay on their radar and prove
that despite all the bullshit, he's actually employable. And this is how he looks on television and This is how he's carrying himself and he's not too hurt, not too hobbled, et cetera, and still trying. This is just a wild and weird time for Sid starting in February ninety eight where he starts showing up on shows and Mississippi, teaming with Jerry Lawler against the likes of Reggie b Fine and Johnny Rotten. Johnny Rotten was Sid's buddy that he'd take everywhere and get bookings.
So love not everyone's got like their little buddy that they help.
It's really interesting. It's so yeah, it's like part of the playbook to to survive in the business. So they're working in these Mississippi shows. Tracy Smothers is around the territory at the time as well, Bill Dundee and some others. There's the third annual Eddie Gilbert Memorial Brawl that takes place for twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight at the Radison Hotel in Philadelphia. As you know, we start to see, you know, the Philly area indies start to pick up
again with ec W being hot. Sid goes over there and beats King Kong Bundy at the Radison in Philly, that's something to consider Sid versus King Kung Bundy in nineteen ninety eight.
Boss, I guess it is something to consider it. No, I feel about that conclusions draw.
But then he goes back to Memphis Power Pro and March teaming with Lawler again, wrestling Johnny Rotten and wrestling King Kong Bundy on a New England Wrestling show in Thomaston, Connecticut on March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight. So when we're getting ready to go to the Fleet Center for wrestling at fourteen the week before Sid's wrestling Bundy in Connecticut.
Of course makes sense.
I just can't. I can't incorporate Sid being on this track to my mindset at that time in ninety eight. I know, I never even thought about SidD. You did you wonder where he went?
No?
Nope.
As Austin descended and everything and it's all that happened, I never thought about Sid in ninety eight.
I was kind of you know, I was so into Austin at that point that I didn't really care.
It's amazing, considering how big of a deal he was and how resident of a star he was supposed to be, that we didn't think about where he was. That's that says something. He works in Middletown, New Jersey, on April fourth of nineteen ninety eight, defeating Tom Brandy, the former Salvator sincere, he works a Legends Pro Wrestling show in Sheffield, Alabama, on April eighteenth, nineteen ninety eight, against Mike Samples. He's back in New Jersey wrestling maybel on April twenty Yeah,
Mountain Holly, New Jersey. That's a show you want to see. Then he goes to Wall Township, New Jersey and wrestles Mabel again. And then he goes to Garfield, New Jersey and loses to someone named Rick Ratchett. Don't even ask me to start there. I have no idea who Rick Ratchett is. He does a Jersey All Pro Wrestling show in Bayone, New Jersey, on September twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, defeating a wrestler by the name of Patch and come fall time, as the leaves change, he's headed back to
Memphis and he's working. Yes, sir, I take that back the Mid South Coliseum wrestling likes of Bo Alexander and Bulldog Rains and Rex King and Tom Pritchard he face, he faced a bow. The boy he faced to bow, not bowjus justice as far as we know. But in fact, Bo Alexander April pardon me, October third, nineteen ninety eight,
he's in a battle royal in Memphis. And as far as I can tell, the final shot of this Memphis sojourn for Sid in nineteen ninety eight was on October third of nineteen ninety eight, as Hawk from the Road Warriors teams with Bart Gunn to beat Jerry Lawler and Sid Vicious in a tag team explosion, a main event anywhere in the country.
Boss, that is true, it was anywhere in the country.
There's precious little on tape that I could find easily of Sid during this run. It sounds like he's mostly working arena shows. I'm sure he's at the TV tapings, but he's not having matches necessarily that are reflected in his you know, record, So it's hard to pin down what shows he was at and just didn't wrestle on. But as far as I can tell, and I'd love to hear from somebody that you know, was local to Memphis at the time or somehow was tape trading for
that area and remembers this whole angle. But Sid finds himself the lead spokesperson for a stable of wrestlers in Memphis Power Pro called the POB. Now do not ask me what POB stands for, but whatever it stands for, they've got the you know, twenty five people that are at the WMCTV studios for the television show Chanting Pob POB. Whenever these guys are out there and they look to me boss, like in Aces and eights, Oh god, Sid is basically the head of a biker gang stable, and
it's hard to deal with. It's hard that Sid just isn't enough that he's got to have a new gimmick in nineteen ninety eight. It's kind of humiliating if you ask me. But Sid, you know, he was one that could kind of get carried away, letting his creative juices flow. He was somebody that if you really handed him the reins, just you could have him on board, let him do
what he wanted. He would come up with some really goofy shit that really deluded what it was that people wanted to see from Sid all these years and being the spokesperson and the lead heel for this POB stable we get and this is saying something for Sid some of the more incomprehensible promo work of this man's life. Here's just a little sample from one edition of Memphis Power pro Television. At the time Sid about to take the microphone as the head of this stable.
All right, asked Jane, we need to get some help for Darry King.
And here last Russell said, viciousious.
You are I'm gonna say, you say so, now is it?
You?
People have a lot of heart that whatever he's watch yesterday, don't discuss me.
But what I'm gonna do today, what I'm going to do to day. Some people were gonna say you.
Went over the line, said you went over the line.
That some people will say, no, say didn't go far enough. Because what I'm talking about what step we got that we'll be.
Going down line?
What what we're gonna have to do is here the last week someone so he supposed he's not opposed the Rady Hills ideas, gave this young man a call and brought him down here and did probably what they don't even realize in their own minds.
They made the biggest mistake of the art. They dete traded the pride. They dec trated the crime, they.
Burnt the charge and everything we stepped for. And I want everyone one more time to realize. I don't want you to judge before what I'm going to do today, because what I want to do today is something I don't even like doing myself. But sometimes when people step that line, they go too far.
Two things. You have to teach them a lessons.
And sometimes you have to make example the people. Then make a quick example. There's a young lady out here we call angel.
They see the faith.
You'll Palladians shit that couple of days you had a call she gonna stick in her mouth, But she's here today.
What are they talking about exactly?
I want to cart the shot of the pop girls. I want to carry me to get a guy with.
The pop goals.
A pob girl got in a car accident in his front row.
Happy over what happened last week? Here Dave Brown, Yeah, get him back on the rail.
For a long time, I have gone over the line sometimes, but for the most part, I've.
Been a considerate man.
I've been honest. But when I see my friends, my families, what happened the last week? If you want to took my hotel. My hotel right now that day?
What just get him? You think you're like an animal soday?
Today, I ain't going to be the judge and jury of the four men that were part of it is supposed to be.
In the Goblet match.
And when we get through judgings, we also going to chance him.
Here at their guns getting the Academy award, is it?
Oh yeah, you s'b vicious, still.
Knowing I will play.
It's the laps Fall Wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan. He's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnassio and JP Sorrow.
Oh my god, I don't even know what to say.
That said left to his own devices, Okay, just screaming and trying to pack sixteen different disparate things into one statement. Yeah, I mean it was just missing a Vienna Sausages thing.
I mean, honestly, he should have. I'm surprised he didn't, you know, say, hey, going to Saint Mary's.
Well, I mean it's right in the same city exactly, very approximate, very convenient. But yeah, I don't know. He's he's he's vowing revenge on somebody who had beaten down one of the Pob brothers the week before.
I don't know who.
There's a woman in the front row who supports the stable who got in a car accident and had some stitches in his mouth, and he does the the gregarious thing of calling her out and letting us all know that she's here in support. She's just screaming, and it's just like, I don't know, he doesn't seem employable to me. Hit this point, it just seems like, oh God, we're gonna sign up for this, Like.
He just seems it's just it's like it's the same old shit, but it's just getting.
Worse, getting worse. It's getting worse. And uh, you know, you realize how much of a finishing touch they had to put on at WWF to make it look like he was a good promo, you know, because he's not.
He's not.
And hear someone say he is, I'm just flabbergasted. I mean, whatever he is, it's by complete happenstance, like he just happens to be in a position where his off the cuff rantings and ravings are right a right fit for the moment, which they only are one times out of ten.
And this isn't This is what you get when you just put him in charge of cutting a you know, a traditional buy the books studio wrestling promo, you know, talking about what's happened, vowing revenge for what happened or whatever, and pointing to the next to the next thing it's gonna happen. And he is just all over the place, and you can hear Dave Brown just but just trying to prompt him to talk about how it happened last week again, and they run out of time and he's
still talking over the music. And look, I mean, you can't be a great wrestling promo if you don't know how to do that studio promo correctly agreed, and I know it, just you cannot qualify as good or great even And there he is, after all these years in the business, at the highest levels, with the biggest production budgets and the most direction and guidance. That's what he does when taking off the leash. So take from that
perhaps what you will. But it's back home to Memphis for this homebody, and he meets a fellow homebody like Jerry Lawler, doesn't he down there, boss, Yes, I'd imagine so, softball buddy and Yeah, Luller, in a shoot interview of his own, talks about Sid and kind of why he may have been welcomed back to the area time and again with open arms.
Sid was a lot like me in the fact that Sid, I don't like to travel. Sid likes to be at home, and Sid likes to play softball just like I do.
And I can honestly tell you that if given the choice of wrestling on the main event in Madisle Square Garden or playing a softball game, wrestling in front of eighteen thousand people, playing a softball game in front of nothing, but with twenty of your ends, if you had the choice between the two, probably Sid and I would both choose.
The softball game. And and a lot of people, you know, think you're crazier or.
Get a bad impression of you from that, But I think it's just you know, a difference in priorities, and a lot of people, a lot of people give Sid the the you know, the label of being difficult to work with simply because of things like that, not maybe not showing up for something so.
Because he thought something else was more important or or that sort of thing. But you know, Sid was at least not for me, never difficult to work within the ring. I thought we you know, had a lot of good matches.
So there it is.
How do they have all in Memphis?
I mean it's a weird matchup to me.
Yeah, it's kind of weird now that you say that. They never really clashed on the WWF stage. M do you think, like in ninety six or something quick, Jerry Lawler, they've made sense for a guy like Sid, you know, beat the shit out of him power bombing a couple of times.
I mean, I do like the Jerry Lawler admits he'd rather be home than anything else.
Yeah, and that's you know, that's got to be what's going through their mind when he can't make the Kuwaiti tour after wrestling A thirteen. He doesn't want to travel and all this other stuff is because he doesn't want to travel basically, right, And he thinks he can use
an injury to get out of traveling. Well, you're going to go, and he went and hated it, and I'm sure he couldn't bring his fucking gimmicks with him, so he was extra cranky and in the rest is history, but interesting perspective there from a Jerry Lawler who feels, for some reason post that Tug of Memphis, he just has to go home in Memphis. Sometimes I just can't imagine what waits for him go home. I can't imagine what forbidden fruit he's waiting to pluck, I know, to
free from its roots, oh boy and branches. But yeah, they're going back to play some softball.
And that's that.
So Sid is at least back where he, in his own mind belongs here in nineteen ninety eight, way out of the national spotlight. And again an afterthought, I think, I think, you know, it's hard to say that he was a huge superstar when no one cares where he is. Throughout the entirety of nineteen ninety eight, all the wrestling business reaches unforeseen heights. As soon as he leaves.
The WWF starts catching.
Fire as soon as he leaves, of course, of course, I mean as soon as he's definitely gone, they absolutely take off. It's remarkable to see. If you made a chart, a barograph or something, you'd be stunned at the correlation, the inverse correlation between business picking up and Sid disappearing or Sid showing up in business plateauing and struggling, but he fell off the face of the earth as mentioned until all of a sudden, Boss nineteen ninety eight becomes
nineteen ninety nine and this happens. I want to ask you to load up this video, but please don't hit play until I'm ready on my side, because we're about to enter a new, truncated but interesting chapter for Sid. Okay, have we ever seen Sid in the land of his an extreme?
No, we've never seen him with his extremities.
Tests and tell the people what you see, Bonny sometime here.
I mean, I'm well, I'm what I'm seeing is some goofball who I don't even know who is that with. There's a guy with you know, kind of a shaved head with scraggly hair over his face and a goatee and a black onesie. That's what I see.
Are you calling Judge Jeff Jones's robe a onesie? No, he's not a robe.
Oh, this is John Cronis. Sorry, that's pretty funny. He's wearing a onesie.
This is John Cronis, formerly the Eliminators with Perry Saturn. You recall, oh, don't du whatever you say, there we go. Let's hit play in three two one, play.
Sweet and Living on Pennsylvania.
You took me and lay me slat.
In the center.
That's Judge Jeff Joseph and.
With your four fifty.
This is ECW Guilty is Charged, the first ECW pay per view of nineteen ninety.
Yo, Cronus, I am the judge and I am the jury, and for that crime, I'm as Sault Cronus. I find you guilty as jorm.
From liliar Cronus. It was a salt and pepper.
Yeah.
I could say, okay, now.
That I've sentenced you, you will face my executioner. And you could say he's a little bit psycho and he's gonna deal him by plain justice.
And a vicious matter for us psycho and vicious manner justice. Crazy psycho said vicious Jessice, what's wrong with him?
Right?
Question? Every time the man, Oh, go all right for the pot?
Wow said he's here? Did he see de yah looking?
He he's just fucking screaming.
M hm h.
Na wear wrestling be jeans.
Brothers throws a right hand naked too, whoa, Oh my god.
We just talked to him by the throat over the top of the.
Floor of thro her table.
He's a former d w dbe you chippy and he's a monster.
They ripped through Wu s W the psycho.
Oh great chair shots, Oh god, like I would not want a Jesus.
She is trying to destroy Jock Troce. No, Jeff Jones couldn't call himself anything he wants.
They want it.
They want the power bom bomb.
The fans want to see a power bob.
It's a good one. Good night, I go away.
Somebody better get a squeeze.
Squeeze kucker.
I've got a sickly feeling that Jeff Jones, judge or not.
Can't control sick.
Well, it's fair.
The monster, the maniac SID is in E c W.
Well, there you have it.
That's wild.
Sid is in the land of the extreme. You've never seen that, No, I've never seen that before. Thoughts on SID and a gene vest in jeans, and.
You know, it kind of works. Actually, it's it's funny, you know, with the the genes and stuff. He actually kind of looks bigger. Yeah, you know, he looks more uh more, I don't know, threatening, and.
It kind of looks like he's here for like extra curriculars. He's not here at a world title, you know, he's not in gear.
Yeah, I suppose that is true as well.
I was in like a hired gun and power bombs the shit out a job like he's like an assassin of sorts, right, which is great positioning for him, because you can't just as well get into the fucking snake pit with this guy actually have them feed with one of your wrestlers. Although to hear Sid talk about it, entreaties were made and he came in with the expectation that ec Dot and Trees, yeah and Trace with a
pig big money offer. You know, we talked about not too long ago the kind of money that Mike Ausain was able to sign for before winning the CW Championship and getting a hand of that, our hands on that contract ahead of talking about him in WCW, and it was it was pretty wild, the kind of you know, six figure deals that Paul Hayman was willing to ink at this time without a whole hell of a lot to show for it from a revenue standpoint, although you know,
in nineteen ninety eight, ninety nine, early ninety nine at least there was reason for optimism that as they settled in on pay per view and really hit their stride and cleared in more systems, that significant revenue was going to start coming in from these shows and that it would lead to more ticket sales and merchandise, and they were getting licensing and things like that. So but come on, there are reasons to think that problem start affording these contracts.
But the contract at the level that SID is expecting is just asking for trouble. And so it's probably just as well that he just positioned as this killer that came in and took people out and not somebody that was actually a pushed singles wrestler. Though we did have a handful of formal matches, it wasn't all just run in some and power bombs like that. But that was
night one for SID there at Guilty is charged. And you know, it makes some sense because Paul Hayman was known to SID back from the Continental days of course Territory where he first linked up with Bruno Lauer Downtown,
Bruno's manager as Lord Humongus. Paul Hayman was also there at the time, cutting his teeth as a manager, and of course followed Eddie Gilbert who was the booker in Continental to WCW where he became poly dangerously and following shortly behind was in fact Sid, who, as we've talked about earlier in our Sid tribute, really had the door open to him to World Championship Wrestling by virtue of Eddie Gilbert coming and working on the booking commute such
as it was. So it makes some sense that, you know, Hayman would have Sid's ear in a way that maybe other indie promoters at the time in nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety nine wouldn't It also accounts for why he was able to bring in Dusty Rhodes a year later, as we talked about recently where we looked at his feud and match with Steve Carino, and so Sid is an ECW, and I just remember it being such a mind fuck because I don't know, you kind of put
ECW in a certain category of you know, they're gonna make do with this ragtag group of guys that for the most part got over under their roof, right, and so you told yourself are doing it kind of at a cut rate to try to ride this revolution as far as it's going to go, and these aren't This
isn't necessarily the most transactional locker room. With WWF and WCW breathing down their next trying to sign guys, it seemed like as they hit their own stride on pay per view that now MAYBECW could afford to keep some guys around, but not necessarily afford somebody like Sid, and that was one of the prevailing things. I remember when Sid came into ECW, it was just like, whoa like, did they have a lot more money than I realized?
What is this?
I mean, I know the particulars at all at the time of how much Sid was making, but didn't take a lot to deduce that he was one of the better paid wrestlers in the business at the time. So to see him come out in ECW as.
Really it's kind of insane, like it, I mean, it's it is a trip. And it's also you know, he's just too much, you know when you when you look at ECW, it's it's not you know, he's so much part of the of like the machine, yes, you know, and he's not. Really these are for people the ECW. To me, it has always been people who who aren't part of the machines who are trying to get themselves over.
Exactly, and that's right. This is guys who, for whatever reason wouldn't necessarily get an opportunity in the big two companies, and for that reason, ECW is the place that they're really going to go all out because that's their only chance to really shine at a higher level. And for a lot of guys, that was the case here with Sid. You're absolutely right. It was one of those proof points that happened all the time in ECW where these fans were so vehemently anti WWF, anti WCW, anti the Big two.
But the second any of those guys graced the ECW a reno with their presence, these these fans just fell in love with anybody that had been on television in the week. I'm not anybody, but anybody that had been a superstar. It instantly wasn't like, what the fuck is he doing here? It instantly became, oh my god, he's you know, he's deemed us worthy.
Yeah.
What was was the prevailing feeling and the way they popped for Sid and the way the way they want to Sid see Sid do all of his routine stuff, and they want to see the chokes limb. They want to see the power bomb. It just shocked me, honestly. I didn't think they would reject the guy. Yeah, but to rejoice that much that Sid was there. It surprised me in a similar way when Rick Rude came in It Barely Legal, and Jake Roberts showed up, and Jerry
Lawler showed up and Dusty Rhodes showed up. We talked about how surprising it was that Dusty was so wholeheartedly embraced in the land of extreme. You know, they tried to play the whole on the original hardcore whatever the fuck. But you know, the fact of the matter is he was running WCW at the time when ECW was at its most anti establishment.
Wow.
He was a guy that kind of embodied the anti break your neck for the business and ring work rate approach that so many guys in ECW were respected by the fans for, and Sid too. Sid's not a guy that's going to go out there and kill himself for great match, No, no, absolutely not. He worked harder than I think his reputation proceeded, but still not a good fit for the style de jure and ECW. But the
people just didn't fucking care. They kind of did the similar thing with nine one one, where he choke slammed everyone from you know, out of their fucking boots for weeks and weeks and months and months and months.
People love that.
That guy couldn't do anything. You didn't know anything about wrestling. He just choke slammed people.
So I don't know anything about him, indeed, rest in peace.
But they had, you know, they had that kind of archetype in ECW somebody that could fit in as just this crazy monster that would just come in and crush people for spectacle. And I'm sure it was going somewhere, but where Sid thought it was going, a fucking two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year contract was not ever probably going to be the case. But in terms of the pre existing relationship between U, Sid and Paully
interesting insight into it. Sid once did an interview with the In Your Head podcast series where he talked a little bit about Polly, and he talks about him here in answering a question about Dave Marquez, who was a long time independent wrestling promoter on the West Coast who was booking people at the time of this interview and who you know Sid had an opinion about because he'd been in dialogue with him about potentially making an appearance.
And the only reason that's relevant is because Sid decides to contrast in one very particular way Dave Marquez with the Paul Hayman he knew from ECW.
Uh you mentioned Dave Marquez And I don't know if this ever got to you or not, but somebody who knows Dave Marcus told me that he came up with an idea for you where you'd be like you were frozen or something and then you get you like thought out for your return. No, it was very big, are.
No?
No, I will think first, I don't think, you know, those guys are really nice guys, and I think the group of guys that tried really really hard, but the Nume have a a lot of uh sense of the business. I think you Dave of Spanish American version of Paul Lee. Yeah, I swear, but he's a little cleaner, a little more educated than Paulo. But enough said, I said, But you
know that's that's sort of the deal. There's like, man, you don't know this guy's taking your shirt when you leave, when you leave your room, you know, it looks for your wallet. Then this guy talks too smooth. Man, I feel like I've been gone to president and rape. That's a conversation with you guy, Paul you know, just you know, it's just was nasty little dude, never showered and stuff, you know, so charm and that he really started not taking showers there at the end, and that's where he
gives you that dirty version of him, you know. So I think that's why it gives Daymark Quz to say the upper swing on him. Say, you know what, talking face, we call those things hygiene hygiene. Yeah, the hygiene level daymarkies is like a day ahead of Paul.
Does he compliment the man anyway?
No, of course I did.
What the fuck he's saying?
Dave Marquez is like Polly, except he's cleaner than Paully. And Paulie stopped taking showers towards the end. Okay, smelled okay, And he says that, uh sure, he smells like fucking roses, a hygiene thing. He couldn't think of the word for hygiene. So yeah, definitely an interesting dynamic between Sid and Paulie. As he looks back on it. Yeah, but here's how it happened, here's how it came together to get him to come into E.
C W.
And Uh, as you can imagine, and as I can assure you, it's all very sid So.
I got a call from Paul and he was, you know, said, hey like to bring in sort of a you know, unadvertised in the beginning.
Uh.
I know, for what I think I know of the business, I think he was really doing a great job a way he was using me. It was pretty much like said, usually unannounced, unadvertised. I'd show up, you know, power bottle a bunch of guys, especially at their TV tapings, and then then they then they were doing some advertising for some of.
The house shows. But this was was the problem.
We had a deal worked out where say, you know, one hundred dollars a week, I can't remember what it was, and if I worked over two days or whatever like that was become extra money. Sure, well, I told him I was willing to work as many days as possible, and then he would call me and say, hey, what about this weekend. Well, this weekend, Morty booked me and
he'd already advertised me for some of those towns. But I can't remember now, but outside of New York of it, and then people started wrapped giving me a wrap of doing the Nose Show, which I oh my god, I did know I was advertised because I know when I was advertised, I would have made the show because we were also trying to work to do. If he could have paid me, to say, up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, then I was going to.
Be a permanent figure.
Okay, you know, so that you know he was trying to talk me into that, which I was trying to talk us about it, you know, because I was always I was looking to go to one of two big companies at the time.
That's crazy that they were really trying to make a play for Sid like that. Yeah, I don't really believe it, But what do you know, boss, I mean, what what a circumstance where Sid finds himself in a place that someone's advertising him for a show that he knows he can't make, and the promoter knows he can't make, and he gets this reputation as a no.
Show Sid get out of here.
I mean, come on, It's just amazing how a guy who did no show things also was such a victim of circumstance in that when he didn't show up, promoters just took advantage of that.
And just we're able to come on.
Hey fave the people into thinking, based on his past reputation, that yeah, this is something he would do. But according to Sid Paul was advertising him for shows he was
never even on. And again all they did was ask him how the CID how the ECW thing came together, And pretty soon he's meandering into this whole excuse series about oh, of course for everything, and he's going to it's going to find its way into the conversation even if he's not asked directly, because that's his his pre eminent memory about every little chapter of his career is you know, a moment where he did, arguably at least to me, uh, pulled a power play and uh and
it had hurt him in the eyes of the fans or something or the consumer. And he's going to make up for that here in the interview and explain that he was he wasn't told about the shows he was advertised on. And as Bruce Richard said, you got Vince's number, and I'm sure he had Paully's number as well, but here we go, here goes the the fun and games in the land of extreme when you're inessed with Sid. He did go on to say that ECW was the
second most fun he had had in the business. Now this is a shoot interviews he's doing shortly after the run, where it probably made a little more sense to stay in the good graces of Polly than any else. But talked about guys being really nice to him in the ECW locker room, calling out Saboo and Rob Van Dam in particular and RVD what's pretty complimentary reflecting on Sid
after his passing on his podcast and such. So he's doing an indie show and then he does a Queen's ECW taping and or at least he shows up, I should say, at a Queen's ECW taping because he's owed money. He's owed money and he's not happy that.
Paul you know, come on exactly then nothing. You know, if he's owed money, he's going to cause a stink.
And that Paulie is telling people he's going to be at a show that he isn't going to be at, which you know, is just something that always ends up happening to the guy, and he gets his reputation as
a no show. So he shows up with a Tommy Rodgers who's a longtime veteran of the business and also was with ECW at the time and apparently had made an alliance with SID because he also had concerns about money and ECW was so many others would go on to have and you know, Sid, I just want to be clear, boss, when he shows up unannounced or uninvited to this Queen's ECW after this bit of curflow, he is definitely not crying to strong arm Paul Hayman.
Okay, well, I showed up and Paul is freaking you know, because I was with Tommy Rodgers's the time. Rogers was owed some money as well. Of course Tommy forced him to give him cash. I said, Paul, you send me another check. You know, I know, you know you're You've been good to me. I'm not here to worry about my money. I'm just here dropping and saying what's going on?
Why haven't you called me? You know, things like why are you I'm getting the wrap of not doing those shows and you haven't told me that I was booked on any of these shows. And he was so paranoid. He wouldn't let me, you know, anybody see me through the curtain and stuff like that. I think it sort of got blown out of portion and I came there
to strong arm some people, which I didn't. You know, I came with Tommy Rogers, who's you know, a little bitty guy said, and uh, never even took any money, you know, he sent me my money and the check was good.
Definitely not a strong arm thing. No, no, no, it's going to make the record clear there.
The weak arm thing.
Actually, it's pretty funny to think about Paul French trying to make sure that the fans don't see him so they expect Sid to come out later and be disappointed.
It's like, I don't know, if you're concerned that the fans might be disappointed, maybe he's not the right guy for the job.
Yeah, I know, I know.
If you find yourself having to actively hide someone who is one of the bigger stars in the industry from your fan base, maybe there's a problem here. Maybe yeah, maybe something isn't correctly calibrated in the first place. But yeah, you're not going to tell people Sid's going to be somewhere, not tell him about the show and then foist the heat on him, which is what he said happened. But he got his check in the mail. He got his check in the mail. He didn't demand cash on site,
so this was hardly a strong arm thing. He just showed up without being invited. I don't know what the big deal is, So we fast forward. He never does that Living Dangerously nineteen ninety nine, which is ECW second pay per view of the year.
It seems like that's what Sid is doing all the time.
Absolutely, absolutely, And the Dudleys are in the ring, and it's going to really be an interesting flashpoint I think for SID and the culture clash of the CW locker room. Of course, whenever you involve Bubba Dudley and anything, it's going to be a fucking, you know, fiasco. And and here I'm trying to decode some of what Sid saying in an R video shoot interview about THECW run. He's
trying to make reference to something involving a table. Apparently some moment that was going to be climactic where somebody puts him through a table finally, and this apparently was a big fucking negotiation or something. It wasn't just a spot called one Night, and Sid wants you to know, despite what you may have heard, he volunteers this. Of course, no one asked him about it, that he was totally willing to do the table thing if they didn't try
to sneak it in. The problem was, the problem was mult listening.
Problem was those guys all were uh, Bubba Dudley and super nice guy, a little bit of a prima donna. But I don't know if it was you know, maybe he was jealous of me coming in. I don't know, maybe that's just his personality. I've got personality. People take the wrong way too, because I'm quiet to myself a lot, you know, and try to get to know people. But they are a lot of fun to work with Saboo. That made it a lot of fun too. And uh, you know, this is what is bad about the business.
I didn't realize that till at the end, that they were setting me up for a table deal for a Saboo.
All they had to do is asking me.
I don't mind.
And if anybody really looks back and sees the things I've done, I have honestly volunteered to do more jobs than most people have done like beause, especially if I was a main event and they came with a d Q or a double count out, I said, no, I'm putting the guy over, you know, especially as a hill. You know, I said, this is not this is not the way to end the show. So that's the thing is that they would have just presented that to me, and I tried to I still have now what.
The fuck he's talking about. I don't know.
We talking about the Dudley's and he's talking about a spot where Sabba was supposed to put him through a table, and somehow they expected to try to do that to him without telling him and asking him, which I don't understand at all.
But maybe I don't know how that works. Maybe more late is.
About to be shed on how ECW communication used to work, and maybe maybe Sid picks up on some of the subtle ways that they would try to get over on people on television to the benefit of their own homegrown guys.
I don't know.
I'm just trying to develop the thesis here based on these disparate parts and the weird places that Sid's mind goes when he's asked about working with the Dudleys, which, of course took places mentioned in a similar segment to what we just saw with John Cronos on the Living Dangerously pay per view, where the Dudleys is they were wont to do at the time, kind of take over
the middle of the ring. Bubba grabs the mic and just starts like a profanity laced tirade against anybody and everybody, challenging people, calling out fans, calling him homosexuals and things like that. So here's what it sounded like when Sid clashed with the Dudley's at ECW Living Day Interesting nineteen.
Boy, let's not start something.
We can't finish.
No one.
Is there?
No man with the nuts?
Is there?
No man Toumber? Now?
Is there?
No man?
Man?
Now?
Tom getting the ring more?
Godley boys?
All right, you made your point.
You embarrass yourselves by spiking Bob Artis with a godly death drop.
Why are you in breads?
Just quit while you're ahead. Get the hell out of it. Oh no, and no jog because bad man, you leave me back.
Change change James Harry, come here.
It is Wow, there's no bad.
Enough.
I'morayan TiVo Dudley.
Be careful with your whisper because she is here and the Dudley boys.
Look ready, there's no man bad enough.
You shout, whoa, I wouldn't.
Look at what.
You're such a psycho and you're so dicious's razy ro said, no man, no man, start shut up, and the Dudley wife is.
Going to work on said, and then you start beating said down a bit.
Oh Jesus.
And now the four o'clock time World Tag Team Champions.
And working over.
The six foot tag Wait, wats palmon? So apian country boy?
You're sure not pretty mouth?
WHOA?
Well, I didn't need to hear that. It's up the rod.
Whoa there's that ecw ring sound? Yeah, seriously, Sid takes over Jesus. He stretches Devon and then Spike Dudley, who was there, jumps off the ropes. He's supposed to actually jump off Sid's shoulders and clothesline Devon off a stretcher that's positioned on a ramp, and it just falls apart. Falls apart, of course he does, and then Sid just goes out and picks up the stretcher and drops it
across Devon's back. Spike hits an acid drop on Bubba in the ring for the one two three, So basically goes down as Spike Dudley and Sid as a team defeating the Dudley's here Living Dangerously ninety nine and then Sid Well he power bomb Spike Dudley for no reason, no, why not in the ring, and then he power bombs him off the fucking ramp through a table on the concrete at a high rate of speed, extra hard, for no reason. And that's Sid styles goes Now, honestly, what
was the point of that? And I think says it all there, and they chance Sid rapidly. Listen at these these proud ECW fans buss they can't stop chanting Sid.
He's such a he is such an a weird phenomenon, but he always gets this kind of reaction when he first shows up.
When he first shows up, exactly when people lay eyes on him, they just want to see him do his thing, and he's doing it here for sure. And they chance Sid rapidly as he just walks to the back and parts the curtain with them panding up like they used to do with that ECW sign right above the entrance curtain.
And that's it.
Sid has done what he came to do. Now, Yeah, can you imagine just for a second. We heard Bubba Dudley's words there. I don't know what you thought about his promo, Eh, bob Ry Dudley. Can you imagine getting sid to agree to having the Dudley say to him when they're beating him down, that's a pretty mouth you got.
Well, I feel like that's not something he actually agreed to.
We heard that little twist there in the sit commentary from the shoot interview calling making sure to take the time to call Bubba Dudley a prima donna?
What's that about? What could that be?
Had to be tied to this segment, had to be tied to this interaction that he had with the Dudley's on a big stage here on pay per view. I've never seen the Dudley's comment on it, though, so it's kind of it's kind of hard to say, you know what what was and wasn't understood ahead of time. Of course, a lot of that stuff is just up to our supposition. Wait a minute, what's this, KP.
What's going on?
Man?
It's twenty four time world tag team champion Dvon Dudley here and now hear you got a couple of questions that you want me to answer.
Now, usually they.
Don't give me requests. Where people want me to answer questions, it's usually wanting to say starting like happy birthday, things like that, brother you this so yes, Living Dangerously e c W nineteen ninety nine was a very very good pay per few for the Dudly boys. We wrestled Sid that day, and you know he was a big, big man, loved working with. Said crazy as hell, but a really really down to earth good guy. One of the questions you asked was when Bubba said you got a pretty mouth?
Was it hard to get Sid to agree with that? Well, first and foremost, Bubba never asked, He just said it, and that was it. Oh, that was the way we did things back then. I said as permission too many times. But we knew what level of respect to have for a person getting in the ring, such as a guy like Sid who had been in WWE, w c W and other organizations way before he got to ECW, so we knew what ground to flirt with and what grounds
not to flirt with. He was great to work with, very intent, somebody that basically made you push it when you didn't want to push it.
You asked the question, Eric, Sid said.
Vince said, Vince, I'm sorry Sid said that Bubba was at Prima Donna. Well, if he said it, he never said it to us. It wasn't something like, you know, he said it to be disrespectful anything. He could have been in character. We didn't know Sid like that for him to make that kind of comment, And we really didn't deal with Sid back then.
At the pay per view.
It was basically Paul Haman coming to us, telling us what he wanted, and then told Sid. And then it was conveyed that we understood what Sid would and Sid understood what we wanted.
So we went that way and we had a great time in ECW. So again, there was a.
Level of respect back then that we had for one another that we were able to do things like that without crossing the line. So I hope that answered your questions. And thank you so much for this, and you know, I wish you nothing but the best, and take care of yourself and hope see you soon. And I hope you enjoyed this cameo. Take care of my friend.
Get the lap fan Wrestling Podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan he's an lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and can.
Thank you Devon.
He he feeled the question gamely. Indeed, I think indeed, I'm not sure what that Prima Donna comment was all about, which is fair game and I guess sure, sure, But there's the confirmation that Sid did not see that line coming. And it sounds like you sniffed that one out right away.
Yeah, I would imagine. I don't think sidce he's a lot coming in fairness. Right, that's a great point.
Actually, they could have easily run it by him and he would have no clue.
Yeah, yeah, I mean he could have. I feel like they they could have given him an exact line reading and he would have been totally taken aback.
Yeah.
A lot more in that category to come as we
continue with our tribute to Sid. But yeah, so that line and you can kind of see Sid blow a bubble and bubb his face after he you know, call some the the the F word slur there and just kind of like, Okay, we're doing this, like I'm in the ring now, and you're gonna grab the moment and say a bunch of things that make you look like you're not afraid of me and and running all that and knowing you're about to beat me down, you're gonna go extra aggressive about of course, it gets his gets
back on track to say the very least power bombs Devon and beats the shit out of a bubba. But I don't know that that that pretty little mouth line was just not something I think Sid expected to hear.
What he's on his knees taking the beat down.
I agree, I agree, And there's it's a very it's an interesting one.
There's the confirmation from Devon himself, and interesting to hear him say, like, you know, it's not like we would sit down with the people that we would interact with and run things by each other. It went through Paul, which I can totally see Paul leveraging to the hilt. You know, he said this, he said this. I'll bring this word back to him, always wanting to be the intermediary in case there was anything that had to be I don't know, conveniently lost. And yeah, between the parties,
we didn't know Sid like that. He says, we had respect not to cross the line. I don't know, man, what as cross the line sound like? I guess they could have went out.
There at DNA. Was that TNA.
Yeah, he never went over there, so I guess he truly didn't cross the line Sid that is, But I don't know. That just struck me as a flashpoint in his ECW history and might inform why he was sure to make that comment when asked about Yeah, yeah, so hardcore having comes around May sixteenth, ninety nine mid Hudson Civic Center and Poughkeepsie and on the show Just Incredible actually worked Sid Vicious. They went to a no contest
in two minutes. ACRN RVD Credible was rather rather worried that he wouldn't be able to get much of a match out of Sid, and RVD was there he our RVD had this match in mind with Sid that never happened, never consummated that he thought really would have been awesome, where you know, he'd be able to work all around Sid's strengths and really pull some rabbits out of the hat and make Sid look better than he ever had. And I don't know, I actually hear hearing already talk
about that. I was kind of intrigued like an rv D versus Sid match, I don't think it would suck.
I really don't. No, I think they could be pretty good. I think I think that would actually be I mean, I'd be certainly interested to watch it. I wouldn't be turned off by it. Yeah.
Just seeing the way he would the way he would take off for some of Sid's power offense would be would be really interesting to me.
Yeah.
And I could see how RVD would find ways to fly into him and really without him having to do an awful lot, you know. In according to Just Incredible for what it's worth, he saw Sid as a fill in for Shane Douglas, who had departed the company. He says in his book, we feuded with Dreamer and Douglas working a big match together Living Dangerously on March twenty one. Soon after that, I lost a match Douglas at Cyber Slam. But come mid nineteen ninety nine, the feud with Dreamer
and Douglas ended when Douglas left the company. Following Douglas's departure, Sid Udy Everyone's favorite fill in, took over for Douglas for a time. So that's the extent of what he says about Sid. But it's interesting to hear him frame to someone that was really brought in because they were losing Shane Douglas. ECW then moved to Detroit on May twenty second of nineteen ninety nine at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, where yes, you heard this right, Rod Price goes to
a note contest with Sid. Wow in ECW, that's the main event anywhere in the country, that's the main event everyone needs. So here's Sid on his sojourn to ECW what it meant to him in retrospect, because that's the extent of it. We just read off everything that pretty much happened. Seemed like there was an awful lot more
on the table that didn't actually ever take place. Wow, I'm sure after that a surprise meeting in Queen's there wasn't much left to the relationship between Sid and ECW, but he made a couple of impactful pay per view appearances that there were a lot of eyeballs on that we just played for you. Yeah, and so it's remembered rather vividly by an ECW fan base that was kind of blown away when a guy of his statue stature would park those those curtains here, sit down to shoot interview.
Looking back on ECW and that short run and what it portended for the next move in his wrestling career.
Well, the thing was is this, you know, I'm looking for a platform ore is to you know, preach off of and that was a perfect platform to let the world see me in a small scale. Uh, somewhat a lot larger, but somewhat the same as d nw A. That's and then too it just you know, I knew Pauli for a long time. Actually I did my first gimmick Lordian Mongers started with Pauli just for a huge shots of Memphis before I went down to Continental with Bruno. But uh, and then there's a hell a place to
go to. I still believe that, I, you know, was there that that place that really had a chance to do something. But once I got there a little bit and saw how things were going there that I realized it did never make it big because they were too intent, too too badly wanted to have the company always larger than the boys. You know, they really have fans channing c W then say you know whoever you know, so you know it's like and then it's just, you know, I don't know. These guys were all nice to me.
I don't have word argument. Guy out of the place, right. So but when you're pushing your top guys, it's taz and he can't make in the WWS because he's too short. That tells you that you know your hair cutting yourself. You know, if he had a lot of office business, wouldn't be doing.
Interested in how this contract if e c w like you know, if it would have been a little bit bigger, would it would have been in a place like you would have liked that, like.
A longer run.
Well, let's say he was. It came really close to that happened, you know, Paul was really and he got it pretty close for the money, you know, to give me the money I needed, but not enough though, and so but no, I was no, I'm glad I didn't stay there because he never guy's company, you know, any bigger. So I would province anyway, which I don't I want
to do anyway. But it was just that particular time you're out there lobbying yourself, and man Eric came across with you know, dyl the lifetime, and I would have turned that down for nothing.
Eric came across boss with the deal wow of a lifetime, and it was to hear Sid say it in no small part because he found himself back on television. We know u Bischoff never shied away from recruiting his next big act from ECW. It seemed to be a key part of his playbook and Sid crossing his plane of consciousness. But you know, there's there wasn't the greatest ending to Sid in Atlanta the last time he was there.
That's true.
A lot of issues, a lot of problems, a lot of considerations. But you know what if Sid is not getting the contract he's he's liking from Paul Hayman and he's not liking what he's seeing the waycw's framed up, I'm sure he went after Taz in that interview for one specific reason, because Taz was making more than he was. Tat A signed Taz to a big I think to fifty I'm not exactly sure, but they signed him to a big money deal to try to keep him, and of course by the end of ninety nine he's making
the jump. So I'm sure in Sid's mind that's that's the dollar for you, right, he would want to stay, and the fact that they gave it to somebody else that couldn't make it in WWF is something he kept very close attention to, kept a very close score on. That's that's how sid rolled and so calling him out there. But now he's back on the national stage to some degree, and people are seeing what he has to bring to
the table. And Boss, I don't know. I mean, if we know Eric Bischoff, i'd say it's time to to gas up the jet engine plane. Don't when you say so, oh.
I think you know, listen, if he if he wants somebody, it's time to exactly get on the lear jet and travel and you know, fly over and and and really make a deal with somebody. Because he's cool. Eric's cool.
But when I flew to he said for the very first time to bring him in. When I was I wasn't charge.
At the time, I had my.
Own plane, so I fooled myself to Yeah, oh god, the little town he lived in, Mississippi.
And I didn't know what to expect.
I'd heard all the stories, all the dirt sheet bullshit from guys like Dave Meltzer. Went into the meeting with I was, I was cautious, I was reserved. I didn't know what to expect. Man, humble home, humble guy, small town that's what he loved in his family, obviously, and I kind of admire someone, especially at a young age, especially when people are dangling buckets and buckets and buckets and money in front of you. When you're a small town guy from Mississippi, who's you know, happy driver a
twenty year old car. As long as it works, that was it. He wasn't. He didn't live above his means. Money was I guess important to him. But it's clear to me now, especially in retrospect, as you just pointed out, his life, his family, his community was far more important than perhaps another opportunity to wrestle in a WrestleMania main event or WCW main event. He had his priorities straight. They're pretty uncommon in this business, and I understand that.
You know, it's hard for people to wrap their head around the idea that someone like sid would jeopardize hundreds of thousands of dollars because being with his family and being in this community and be a part of it was actually more important to him.
I admire that.
Well, that sounds like he's found a way to get over the stabbing.
Okay, yeah, I guess so, I guess it's fine to I may mean was arn was retired by this point, right, he.
Was retired from the ring, but he was definitely working at WCW every day.
But you know they were retired from the ring though, so he's fine.
Easy to keep them apart.
Yeah.
Yeah, turns out to be something that addressed and something that certainly wouldn't provide an in an insurmountable barrier. And that's that would imagine remarkable when you think about what actually happened in that hotel in England. But here we are, and this is the wrestling business, and it's intense, the battle between w w F and ww and even ECW making a bid for someone like a Sid. It's time
for the w CW largess. It's time for Sid Boss, as he tells Sean Mooney here to after all of these kind of false starts in his mind, finally, yes, finally cash in.
So Eric Bischoff lies a private plane. I pick him up at the West Memphis Airport. We go to Cracker Burrow and we sit there and make it deal with Cracker Barrow. All right, you know, he says, he goes, We're going to start you out at one point six, right, that's exactly what I was making province for four years, right, Okay, so I'm figuring he already knew that. I'm sitting there, I'm looking at him. Okay, you know this evidently, right,
But I didn't say anything. Then he goes, but he said, I mean one point six year first year said I, Oh, my fucking god, you know, because I'm trying not to show that how happy I am. So I said, well, let me think about it, you know. So I take you back to the airport, drop you mom. He actually flew himself in. He's a power as well. So did they call me the next day? We talked about on the phone.
I say yeah, I say, yeah, sounds like a big money contract there, boss, Yeah, I does. But of course we'll never know what actually was in the contract.
I don't believe that.
Next time, on the TLF Tribute to Sid, we embark upon his final run in the National Spotlight, the one that would see the end of his career in some of his prime earning years. And yes, friends, we dig in to Sid's complete WCW contract. We'll see you next time.
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