Sid Eudy, a professional wrestler known as Sid Justice, Sid Vicious and Sycho Sid, who rose to fame in the 1990s and won multiple championships, died Monday. He was 63.
The cause was cancer, his son Gunnar Eudy wrote on Facebook.
Eudy was one of his generation’s “most imposing and terrifying competitors,” World Wrestling Entertainment said in a statement. Listed at 6-foot-9 and 317 pounds, he was one of the biggest of what are known in the industry as big men, who often play supporting roles because they don’t perform the high-flying moves that thrill fans.
Eudy was a very big man who became a star in his own right. He headlined Wrestlemania twice and became champion of both the World Wrestling Federation, as WWE was then known, and its 1990s rival, World Championship Wrestling, a rare trifecta.
Eudy first entered the world of wrestling in 1989, when he signed with WCW, then an upstart circuit.
In 1991, Eudy debuted as Sid Justice in WWE, the organization said, as the special guest referee at SummerSlam 1991.
Wrestlemania featured Eudy in its main event twice, in 1992 against Hulk Hogan, and again in 1997, against the Undertaker. Eudy was both a two-time WWF champion and two-time WCW champion. He was also a two-time United States Wrestling Association champion.
“One of the most brutal Superstars to ever terrorize WWE, the sadistic Sid brought an intensity that few could ever hope to contain,” the organization wrote. “Just ask the litany of ring legends who have incurred his wrath — a hit list that includes Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, Bret ‘Hit Man’ Hart and many more.”
Sidney Raymond Eudy was born in West Memphis, Arkansas, on Dec. 16, 1960. He is survived by his wife, Sabrina Estes Eudy, his sons Frank and Gunnar, and his grandchildren.
In 2001, during a televised pay-per-view WCW championship match, viewers watched Eudy injure his leg on live television after he jumped off the rope and accidentally landed badly, snapping his left leg at an unnatural angle.
It effectively ended his career in major pro wrestling. Eudy himself acknowledged as much. “With my injury,” he said in a 2023 interview, “I feel I came up short with solidifying myself as one of the top 10, 15 money-drawers in the business.”