I am making my way out of Liverpool’s Exhibition Centre for a breath of fresh air. Fresh being the operative word.
I have balanced the previous four hours of my afternoon between a windowless, shoebox-sized staff room overstuffed with a hastily assembled interview area to double as a ‘media lounge’ (LOL) and a windowless convention hall full of wrestling fans.
In short, I need to inhale oxygen that has not been lingering in the dank, custard thick atmosphere of several hundred pro-wrestling enthusiasts.
As I gasp towards the automatic doors that will allow the air to whip off the River Mersey into my lungs, a gust of wind whips a Dallas Cowboys baseball cap towards my feet. I recognise the cap almost immediately. It was very recently sitting atop the head of a former WWE and WCW World Champion, who I had conducted an interview with half an hour earlier.
And sure enough, there he is again. All six feet nine of him. Pacing back through the entrance way to retrieve the cap that had gone rogue. Former World Heavyweight Champion. A man who had, at one time, been known as Lord Humungous, as well as the Master and Ruler of the world. The monster villain who had electrified Madison Square Garden at the expense of a beloved babyface. He had been vicious, he had been a psycho, he had served out his brand of justice. He was Sid.
On this howling Saturday afternoon in central Liverpool, however, Sid Eudy was a humble gentleman, despite his list of accolades. I pass his cap back to him and am shown a sincere appreciation for my efforts.
“Why thank you, young man. I appreciate that.”
It is a far cry from the vitriol Sid Eudy became famous for seething into the nearest camera for a decade-and-a-half as he put together a career that is set to be honoured at this year’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, during WrestleMania 42 week in Las Vegas.
As I give the four-time World Champion a ‘don’t mention it’, Sid stops me, “Didn’t I just talk to you? You did the interview?”
I had indeed just interviewed the former member of the Four Horsemen. However, this skyscraper of a human being was not about to take me to task for my line of questioning, but rather, afford me his time to extend the conversation further.
“Y’know, I felt like we had to rush that whole thing. I can do better than that,” Sid offers. I am humbled that, despite his schedule being more tightly packed than Vader’s singlet, the former World Champion wants to take the time for a rematch.
We do our best to find a secluded area away from the throngs of autograph hunters and fans hoping to secure a photograph sans meet-and-greet fee.
Eventually, we settle on a table at the far end of the lobby area of the convention centre’s neighbouring hotel. While we revisit some of the questions from our previous interview 30 minutes earlier, I begin by asking him a question that feels extremely pertinent to the modern day, almost two years after Eudy’s untimely passing. I ask Sid about his chances of going into the WWE Hall of Fame. Seven years on from our conversation in Liverpool, the two-time WWE Champion will finally be inducted but, in 2019, it was an honour he was relatively unmoved by the prospect of.
“I think the way they’ve treated that whole thing, it’s a bit of a joke,” Sid told me, “I feel with what I achieved, not only in WWF but WCW also, that my career stands up to a Hall of Fame level. I held the world title in both those companies, main evented two WrestleManias, worked with all the top guys. But here I am, still not in there and you look at some of the other people who have gone in and, to me, it makes no sense.”
I probed Sid further to gauge whether he was bothered by his absence at the time.
“Part of me wonders why you’ve got guys in there who have never worked the territory. There are guys like, and they went in recently, the Rock and Roll Express. What did they ever do in the WWF? They never worked for Vince.
“Warrior’s in there and he caused all kinds of problems. There are guys in there who I think are great guys and I’m happy for them. But for me, I think it’s a joke you can put people in there who were never even in the territory before you’re putting in guys who won the WWF Title.”
After his last full-time run in the old New York territory came to an end in 1997, Sid only made two further appearances in WWE, returning twice in 2012, first to defeat Heath Slater in a match and then again several weeks later, during the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw, alongside fellow legends such as ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, Vader, the APA, Lita and Rikishi to once again take down Slater.
So if Sid had been on good enough terms with WWE brass at the time to score two comeback appearances in 2012, why had more appearances not been forthcoming and, in 2019, was that something he was hoping could still happen?
“I really don’t know. I always talked myself into trouble over there. There was a time a few years ago I talked to them about maybe coming back, but I sent a lawyer to discuss with them and they just wanted to talk to me. But I didn’t want to do that because I always ended up getting mad and saying something that got me in trouble. So those talks never went anywhere.
“I think there could be ways I could contribute now. I don’t know if they would ever see me as a manager or something. I don’t know.”
Sadly, Sid left us in August 2024, passing away at the age of 63 after suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He may not have held much reverence for the WWE Hall of Fame, but it is still a shame he never got to experience his upcoming induction, which feels as though it is happening far too late for a star of his stature.
Looking back across a weird and wonderful career, Sid fondly remembered a collection of his favourite memories with me, particularly his white hot, but all-too-brief spell, in ECW in the late 1990s.
“I loved working in ECW. Paul [Heyman] was a great promoter and it felt like they were really building something from the ground up there. The only problem I had was, when I first went in, they did it unadvertised, so it was a surprise. So I did a bunch of these unadvertised appearances. Which were great.
“But then Paul starts putting me down for shows where I’m already booked in other places and I can’t make the dates. So when I don’t show, it’s ‘oh Sid didn’t show up’. Which wasn’t really the case. I loved my time there and getting to work with some of those guys, especially Sabu, was so exciting.”
As for favourite opponents, the Master and Ruler of the World was in no doubt who his preferred rivals were.
“Oh Vader and Bam Bam [Bigelow], without a doubt. Both those guys were total workhorses.
“Shawn [Michaels] was great as well, I had some of my best matches with him. Funny story about Shawn, when I got cheered over him at Madison Square Garden, when I won the title. Didn’t phase him at all. But Hogan, when the crowd booed him eliminating me at the Royal Rumble in 1992, he went hysterical backstage. Hated it. Thought Vince was setting him up and replacing him with me. But Shawn, total pro about the whole thing.
“Vader and Bam Bam were great. Always firing on all cylinders. Those matches were non-stop. With Undertaker, we would have plenty of good matches, but there were times when we’d do ‘code Fresno’ which was a reference to Fresno, California. In other words, there’s not a lot of people here, let’s just go home.
“I remember one night, with Vader, I tried this silly spot where I did a sunset flip, which for a guy my size looked stupid. But then Vader would sit on me to get the heat back. I thought it was a funny spot to do. Then we get backstage and Leon [White, Vader’s real name] says to me, ‘Sid, do I not do everything I can to make you look like a million dollars every night?’ So I say, ‘yeah Leon, you do’ and he says, ‘that sunset flip? Never do that again’. I always laugh about that.
Seven years on from our two conversations in Liverpool, Sid will finally become a WWE Hall of Famer. He may not have had much desire for an induction in his later years, but a look back across a career that took in world title reigns, WrestleMania main events and countless memorable moments with the biggest names the industry has ever seen, proves that this is a long overdue crowning achievement for one of the most charismatic and beloved superstars in wrestling history.
Thanks for the rematch, Sid. I’ll raise a softball bat in your honour in Las Vegas, this month.