Sid Eudy, Pro Wrestler and WWE Champion, Dies at 63

Sid Eudy, a six-time world champion professional wrestler in promotions USWA, WWF (now WWE) and WCW, has died at the age of 63 after a years-long battle with cancer, his son Gunnar announced on social media. He wrestled under ring names including Sid Vicious in WCW and Sid Justice and Sycho Sid in WWF.

Eudy was one of the top pro wrestling stars of the 1990s, performing in the ring with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. One of his first big matches came in 1992, where he was in a headline match against Hogan at WrestleMania VIII that ended in a disqualification.

Over the course of the decade, the performer jumped back and forth between Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation, Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling and independent promotions like the United States Wrestling Association in Memphis, where he feuded in 1994 over the USWA Heavyweight Title with longtime rival Jerry “The King” Lawler.

After that run, Eudy began his most prominent run in wrestling in 1995 in the WWF, serving initially as the bodyguard of Shawn Michaels before joining the villainous Million Dollar Corporation faction, under the leadership of longtime wrestling bad guy Ted “the Million Dollar Man” DiBiase. As part of that group, Eudy competed against future WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash — who was wrestling under the ring name Diesel — for the world title, but was unsuccessful.

Eudy’s climb to the top of the WWF wouldn’t come until 1996, when he developed the character Sycho Sid, an unstable maniac who would stare off into the distance and was prone to furious outbursts. Sycho Sid would compete against Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship, finally winning it for the first time at Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden.

Sycho Sid would go on to continue fighting for the title over the next several months against Michaels and fellow top star Bret Hart. Finally, in arguably his most famous match, Sid lost the WWF title to the Undertaker in the main event of WrestleMania 13 . It was a match that would become the sixth in Undertaker’s 21 consecutive victories at the WWF, now WWE’s flagship show.

After that match, Eudy left WWF due to a neck injury that would require surgery. He would return to TV in WCW, where he would win the promotion’s World Heavyweight Championship as part of feuds with Hogan, Nash and Chris Benoit before suffering a catastrophic leg injury in a televised match that threatened to leave him unable to walk.

After years of rehabilitation, Eudy returned to the ring in 2004, continuing to wrestle on the independent circuit through the 2000s. In 2012, he made his return to WWE for the first time in 15 years as part of the 1,000th episode of “Monday Night Raw.” He went on to have his final match in 2017 in Ontario, Canada.

Eudy is survived by his wife, Sabrina, and his sons, Frank and Gunnar.

The post Sid Eudy, Pro Wrestler and WWE Champion, Dies at 63 appeared first on TheWrap .