Justice Served: The Failed Run of Sid Justice in the WWF

Brian Damage

The year was 1991 and the World Wrestling Federation was beginning a tailspin due to various scandals involving sex and steroid abuse. Hulkamania was starting to fizzle out and Vince McMahon was beginning his search for the WWF’s next big thing. He seemingly found it when McMahon was able to snatch Sid Vicious away from his rival in WCW.

Here was a man who stood 6’7 and weighed over 300 pounds. He was chiseled out of pure muscle and was an imposing character to witness. Sid was indeed the man who would carry the WWF into the next millennium. Sid was the heir apparent to Hulk Hogan’s throne. To be the top guy, Sid needed a name of a top guy and the moniker of “Sid Vicious” just wasn’t going to work. He needed a name that kids could look up to. A name of a larger than life super hero. Vince dropped the last name Vicious and Sid Justice was born.

Sid Justice got his first taste of the spotlight, when he was chosen to be the special guest referee in the SummerSlam main event pitting the two top babyfaces of the company Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan versus the “Triangle of Terror” in Sgt Slaughter, Col. Mustafa and General Adnan. The end result had Warrior and Hogan winning with Sid and Hogan posing for the fans after the match. The Ultimate Warrior was fired immediately after the match and was not present for the post match celebration. Warrior had allegedly held up Vince McMahon weeks before this main event threatening to no-show it if he wasn’t paid money he felt he was owed at WrestleMania VII.

Vince paid the Warrior to get him to show up for the match and subsequently fired him right after it. This left a vacancy for a top babyface, and Sid was the answer. Sid started winning quick squash matches against enhancement talent at television tapings. His first big program was going up against the evil heel Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts. According to Jake, the two were going to have a huge run but Sid injured his bicep and the feud was changed to Jake versus the Macho Man Randy Savage. The injury certainly sidetracked Justice and the big plans they had for him at the time. Sid would miss a few months of action while he healed up. In the interim, Sid apparently started getting in Vince’s ear that he really felt his character was better suited as a monster heel.

Vince was certainly reluctant considering he had a specific vision of what Sid Justice was going to be. Some have speculated that Sid wanted to become heel more so because being the face of the WWF meant more traveling, more special appearances and overall a much more grueling schedule. Sid didn’t necessarily want to give up the money, titles and everything a big push had to offer but he also didn’t want to give up one of his passions away from the ring, softball. Yes, Sid was an avid fan of playing softball and being the top guy just wouldn’t fit into that. Sid Justice would return from his injury at the 1992 Royal Rumble. The final four participants of the match were Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage and Justice. In a bizarre turn of events at the time, Sid eliminated Hogan to the roar of the crowd in Albany, New York. Hulk was on the outside shocked that his “friend” would eliminate him from an everyman for themselves Rumble. Hulk started pleading with the fans at ringside but was greeted by boos from WWF fans who were clearly behind the Hulkster’s elimination.

The already eliminated Hogan then grabbed Sid’s arm from the outside of the ring, allowing Ric Flair to eliminate Sid from the match and become WWF champion. It should’ve been presented as a heel move by Hogan but instead the WWF planted the seeds for a Sid Justice turn. After the Rumble concluded, Hulk Hogan was apparently livid. According to Sid, Hogan stormed right up to Vince McMahon and started screaming at him. Hogan blamed the fans turning on him on the way Vince McMahon booked the match and started threatening the boss. Sid and Hogan then exchanged a few heated words with each other before Hogan stormed off. Sid would later say, the entire experience left a bad taste in his mouth. After all, Vince was the boss and Hogan basically cried and carried on like a child because things didn’t go his way. Sid said he walked up to Vince afterwards and gave his notice citing that he didn’t want to work in a place where a grown man like Hulk Hogan would act that way.

McMahon was able to talk Sid out of quitting and continued to promise Sid various things like more money and a WWF title run. Sid agreed and continued his run with the company. From that point, Sid made sure that he would get whatever he wanted from the company. He told Vince he wanted his good friend Bruno Laurer aka Harvey Wippleman to be his manager and traveling buddy. Before that though, they started Sid’s journey to becoming a heel that ultimately would lead to Sid vs Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 8. The WrestleMania 8 match was designed to help Sid get over as a monster heel but, as usual, politics got in the way. Hogan and Sid couldn’t agree on a finish and a DQ result was finally agreed upon after Papa Shango interfered.

The match was awkward and not up to par of usual Mania matches but what made it worse was the finish. Hogan did his patented leg drop and went for the pin, Shango was to jump in the ring and break up the pin attempt but Shango got his cue late from George Steele. By the time Papa Shango got his cue to go to the ring, Sid had no other choice but to kick out of Hogan’s finish becoming one of, if not the first wrestler to kick out of it. The match ended on a disqualification with no real upward movement for either wrestler. It was then reported by Dave Meltzer that Sid had failed a random drug test before his match at Mania. The WWF was going to suspend him but Sid decided to quit and go back to WCW. Sid denied the failed drug test rumor and said that he went on the WWF’s European tour after WrestleMania. Sid claims that Vince McMahon approached him and said he had an idea to make him the biggest heel the WWF had ever seen. He was going to feud with the returning Ultimate Warrior.

Sid and Warrior never got along and their program was a mess from the beginning. Sid claims that Warrior refused to work with Sid on how the match would go and the agents allowed Warrior to do whatever he wanted. Sid threatened to quit if Warrior continued to go into business for himself, but the agents and Mcmahon didn’t listen. After a house show match against the Ultimate Warrior at the Boston Gardens, the finish stayed the same with Warrior looking stronger than Sid. Justice decided he had had enough and quit the company. In reality, Sid admits that by that time, WCW’s Kip Frey reached out to Sid and offered him a better deal. Sid agreed to it and ultimately left the promotion. The stories don’t all seem to add up WWF claimed they fired Sid and Sid said he quit the company. What we do know is, the Sid Justice project failed in 1991-1992 but Sid would eventually return.