Sid Vicious Interview

[Guest Trivia247]

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The following are highlights from Xtreme Mayhem's interview with Sid Vicious! The interview was conducted by Mike Nagel and Jeff Meacham and runs over 75 minutes! Listen to the interview by clicking on one of the links below, or by visiting http://xtreme.themayhem.com/ which contains the current show plus archived shows!

 

Sid started off by talking about his leg injury that he suffered at WCW SIN in January 2001. He said it had been almost three years now of solid rehab, and he said it has been the toughest test in his life right now. He said that it still hurts when he puts too much pressure on his left leg while standing. He rehabs two to three hours a day, and still has time to workout. In the last six months, he has been able to do things he wasn't able to do before such as squats, which is a positive step forward. People come up and think he is looking better than ever and they ask if he is ready to come back, and he said that these people don't know how badly he really got hurt. He said never say never, but he doesn't expect to be wrestling again at least for the time being.

 

- He talked about how it was hard to turn on the TV and watch what he had been doing his whole life after seeing how WCW handled the situation by showing tons of replays and making more angles out of the whole thing. He didn't like how he couldn't go back on TV and represent himself and let people know that he could possibly come back someday. It is also hard for him to watch today because he pictures himself being there and he feels like he went from the highest high to the lowest low in just two seconds. He felt that since tons of people were being released and not being used, he knew that nobody was going to pick up for the phone for a guy with one working leg. He said that the business was already on a downward spiral and the sale of WCW just made things worse. He said that problem with Vince is that he didn't put his personal differences with Ted Turner and WCW aside in order to improve business at that time. He said that WCW had already been sold and everyone knew it, and Vince should have put over WCW instead of gloating and burying WCW on television. He also felt that WWE losing the "WWF" brand name hurt business as well because WWF was the name that the average person associated wrestling with. He talked about how much money WWE lost when they had to change their name.

 

- Sid continued to talk about WWE's declining business. He said that a friend told him that WWE was coming to Memphis this past Friday night for a house show, and Sid mentioned that he didn't see or hear any commercials or any type of advertising for this show. He said that the arena holds 15,000 people, and according to his friend, only about 1,700 people showed up. Sid mentioned that him and Bret Hart worked a show in Detroit, and despite the Red Wings playing for the Stanley Cup next door, they still sold-out. He said that when he gets a chance to watch WWE, he said nobody is taking care of the things that he thought Vince would not had wanted to be on the show or projected.

 

- Sid said that he has heard about NWA TNA, but hasn't had a chance to watch the product and he has only seen one commercial for it. He said that Terry Funk had predicted to everybody several years that eventually everything would be PPV.

 

- Sid said that he would like to see wrestling focus again on good guys against bad guys, and he feels that there isn't anything wrong with good guys or bad guys against each other, but he doesn't feel that it isn't the kind of follow-up entertainment that will keep people watching every week. He said another problem wtih WWE has been that they are repetitive with the same matches and they always say that every match is the biggest match ever. He feels that WWE is so caught up in trying to turn things around that they don't catch all the smaller problems and try to fix them. He would like to come back some day, but he wouldn't want to come back to the way things are right now.

 

- Sid said that the greatest highlight and thrill of his career and life was not only wrestling in Madison Sqaure Garden, but winning the WWE title there as well. The title win made him realize that people need to give back to the business. He did have a problem with hitting Jose with the camera. He told Vince that it sucked, and everybody in the room had a shocked look on their face. Sid felt he should have beaten Shawn with his strength, and then at the Alamodome Shawn would have beaten Sid's strengh with his own strength. He said it was frustrating when he was getting really over as a babyface, and then Vince wanted him to become a tweener all the sudden and have him work one night as a face, and the next night as a heel. He said it was so hard to work matches as a heel because fans were cheering him anyway, and he would have been a stronger draw and the heat for the match would have been stronger if he was strictly a babyface. He felt that a person's drawing ability diminished a little bit everytime when guys switched back between a face and a heel so often. Sid brought up Bret Hart's WCW run and how turning him every week killed his drawing power. He brought up Kurt Angle is a current example, and he's the world champion.

 

- He said a few years ago, everybody tried to take credit for the business doing so well. He brought up a segment with Edge on Tough Enough. Edge has said that he grew up admiring Hulk Hogan, but once he got into the WWE, he realized that he didn't have to be Hulk Hogan to get over and he got there because of his workrate. He said whoever came up with that phrase should be shot and killed. He said not everyone can jump through a table, but everyone can work hard in their own way. He said it doesn't matter who has good workrate, it matters who can sell tickets and draw money. They brought up Hogan, and Sid said that Hogan has always been credible and he felt that Hogan has been misused in recent years.

 

- He talked about working for Herb Abrams UWF in the early 1990's and said it was riot. He never worked much on the indy circuit, but Danny Spivey had convinced him to get on the show. Sid said that Herb was weird, but a nice guy. He said Herb's problem was that he didn't have all the tools to make a successful promotion, and he might done better if he had a partner like Paul Heyman who had more knowledge about running a promotion. Of course, all of Herb's money went up his nose as well. Sid said that he still had fun doing the show.

 

- Sid said that another highlight of his career was being part of the Horsemen in the early 1990's. He said that Arn Anderson told him he needed to cut promos. Arn helped him with interviews, and before you knew it, he wouldn't shut up. They talked the incident where Barry Windham dressed up as Sting at Halloween Havoc, and Sid that nobody in the crowd or in the locker room knew it was Windham. He said that a storyline like this would never work today, because nobody in the locker room can keep their mouth shut. He said that storylines are hard to get over now because nobody can keep a secret, and before you know, everything about the storyline is leaked on the internet. Sid himself wasn't even told that Windham was going to dress as Sting. Windham just walked up to him and said, "cover me!" At first, Sid thought he was going win the belt until the real Sting came back. He said that Vince used to be the master at fooling the people with stuff like this.

 

- Sid continued to talk about the internet's negative effect on wrestling. He said that it had leaked all over that Scott Norton was going to be released from WCW. Norton himself heard the rumors and then was called in at the minute to do a job on Nitro. He asked if he was going to be fired, and they told him no. He went out and did the match, and then when he got home he found out he was released.

 

- Sid talked about his feud with Goldberg, and Eric Bischoff's original plan was for them to keep building up the feud until it was hot enough and then have the big match on a New Year's Eve PPV. He said that when Russo came in, everything became rushed but he still had fun with the storyline. He said that the fans really wanted to see the two of them fight. He said the feud was so hot that they were in a headlock for around seven minutes, and the crowd was going crazy. He said it takes time for things to get over, and he brought up again how quick changes don't work because it doesn't allow things to sink into people's minds. Sid said that he likes Russo and felt that he looked forward to the future of the business, and he said the problem was that Russo never had a chance to do what he wanted to do. He said things had gotten so bad, and WCW basically wanted Russo to come in and try to revive things overnight. He said that injuries hurt Russo's run and he was a success as a heel, but people were getting injured and they needed to turn Sid face.

 

- He said the Johnny Ace told him to jump off the turnbuckle right when he came back in late 2000. Sid said he wasn't even healed from a shoulder injury and because of that his balance was off. He came back only because they needed him, so he decided to work night-to-night and see what he could do. He told Ace that he wasn't a rope guy, but Ace keep pushing him to do something off the tope. The night of the show, Sid told Ace that he didn't feel right about doing the move, but Ace told him it was important because it would lead to the entrance of the mystery man. Sid finally gave in and said he would try. Sid said he was going to jump off and give Scott Steiner a boot to the face, but he really wasn't sure what he was going to or how he would land. Sid said that Steiner didn't come close enough, so Sid thought he could hit him with a knee, but Steiner still wasn't close enough. Sid felt that a regular boot on the ground could have worked just as well, and sometimes the best spots and the simple ones. Sid said that the wrestlers need to slow down and that way, wrestlers will be healthier and promoters will be able to count on those guys being available.

 

- Sid wrapped up by plugging an interview that he was going to be doing for USA Today regarding the business not having retirement plans and protection for the wrestlers. He mentioned guys like Curt Hennig and Elizabeth who were good people that lost their lives at such a young age.

[CanadianChick 0]

He said whoever came up with that phrase should be shot and killed. He said not everyone can jump through a table, but everyone can work hard in their own way. He said it doesn't matter who has good workrate, it matters who can sell tickets and draw money.

 

Uh, so jumping off a table=workrate? Alrighty then.

[Guest BAR]

Good read. He seems a little bit smarter than I assumed.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I miss the guy.

[iliketurtles 0]

Sid is a smart guy...but he does make some comments that are just stupid...like the workrate comment.

 

I wouldn't mind him coming back that much, I suppose. I dunno what they would do with him. He'd probably have a big return, shitty match with someone like HHH, then fuck around the midcard like Steiner.

[Guest The Real Nosferatu]

I think hes retired from in ring stuff. His leg can't handle it.

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

That Halloween Havoc Story has to be bull, and the Bret sellout story is iffy as well

[Use Your Illusion 0]

I miss the guy.

Christ, so people like YOU really do exist?

 

Sid has always been worthless in the ring. I admired his passion when he first started out, because you could tell the man was out there and busting his ass despite not having one ounce of talent in his body. However, when the money brought him out of retirement, Sid's passion, or lack there of, reflected the same situation.

 

The last thing the wrestling world needs is Sid Vicious.

 

I can't help but feel that Vince might one day envision money in a feud between him (Vicious) & Gowen, though.

 

*shudders*