Sid represented Diesel's first lengthy feud since winning the title.
Listen to our June 1995 podcast, reviewing King Of The Ring 1995 which, along with being an absolutely dire show, featured Diesel and Sid in a tag team main event.
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We will, at a later date, discuss the wider implications and reasons behind the demise of Diesel in the WWF. But his feud with Psycho Sid in the middle of 1995 is probably as good a place as any to start. Having a good showing against Bret Hart at the Royal Rumble (where Hart played a not-so-subtle heel) and against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XI (where Shawn basically played a big babyface) – the company had burned through the two logical matches following Diesel’s title win. Now it was time to return to normalcy.
Sid returned to the WWF in February 1995. The last time we saw him he was blowing a big opportunity to become the WCW champion headed into 1994, being fired after getting into a quite serious altercation with Arn Anderson in the UK on tour in October 1993. He arrived as a heavy for Shawn Michaels replacing, of all people, Diesel – who turned on Shawn at Survivor Series 1994, the end of a year-long slow burn face turn.
Michaels faced Diesel at Wrestlemania, having had his breakout moment at the Royal Rumble, and basically gave the company no choice but to turn him face with his crowd pleasing ring style being uncontrollable these days. The company avoided doing Michaels vs Diesel, face vs face, at the first In Your House (because face vs face matches never really happened in this era – sans Bret/Diesel at the Rumble). And with the newly turned Michaels not needing a bodyguard, that left Psycho Sid with nothing to do. Bring in Ted DiBiase.
DiBiase had assembled his “Million Dollar Corporation” - a group of wrestlers who literally never seemed to win. Sid, Kama, Tatanka, Henry Godwinn. Hell, even Bam Bam Bigelow lost to Lawrence Taylor and then to Diesel before turning on the stable. The corporation were all heels and heels always lost. It was a match made in heaven.
Sid vs Diesel was a perfect fit for the WWF. We were in an era where WWE really wanted to size match their opponents – just look at how they nearly ruined the Undertaker – and Diesel vs Sid made a good big main matchup. But while it had size, were they capable of having a match that was remotely passable?
No.
We started at the first edition of In Your House. Sid and Diesel meshed about as badly as you’d expect, with no cohesion and no in ring action to speak of. The show started with a stellar opener between Bret Hart and Hakushi, but this match involved too many rest holds. The only shining light was both managed to hit impressive powerbombs on the other (Sid injuring Diesel in the process). The match even ended by disqualification, Tatanka ending the misery of all concerned.
The injury potentially extended the feud. It was decided that Diesel would be fit enough to wrestle at King Of The Ring, but not fit enough to wrestle in a singles match. So instead we got a tag team match, Diesel aligning with freshly-turned Bam Bam Bigelow against Sid and Tatanka. The match-up at least made sense, even if it looked awful.
This was the crowning turd in the water pipe that was King Of The Ring 1995. A terribly booked show, with no redeeming features ended with a lifeless, boring main event. There’s nothing on this match, the crowd reacts like there was nothing on this match, and Sid puts the crowd out of everyone’s misery when he just buggers off. Diesel, still nursing the elbow, doesn’t do much wrestling but does pick up the victory pinning Tatanka.
Onto July, and we get the rematch between Sid and Diesel that we perhaps would’ve got at King Of The Ring. The company decide to do this as a lumberjack match (perhaps as a result of WCW doing one at Bash At The Beach), but they decided to do a lumberjack match with literally 30 lumberjacks. While it did add an element of smoke and mirrors it still wasn’t able to cover up Diesel vs Sid being a poor showing. The only real action actually comes from Shawn Michaels diving onto Sid, Diesel diving onto some lumberjacks, and Diesel being attacked by King Mabel mid match. Diesel at least wins.
And that is where this blog ends. Sid was meant to move onto face Shawn Michaels at Summerslam, but the company panicked when the saw the potential line-up, so they switched that to Shawn vs Razor in a ladder match. Diesel went onto face Mabel… yep, the company had definitely learned their lesson.
Sid returned to the WWF in February 1995. The last time we saw him he was blowing a big opportunity to become the WCW champion headed into 1994, being fired after getting into a quite serious altercation with Arn Anderson in the UK on tour in October 1993. He arrived as a heavy for Shawn Michaels replacing, of all people, Diesel – who turned on Shawn at Survivor Series 1994, the end of a year-long slow burn face turn.
Michaels faced Diesel at Wrestlemania, having had his breakout moment at the Royal Rumble, and basically gave the company no choice but to turn him face with his crowd pleasing ring style being uncontrollable these days. The company avoided doing Michaels vs Diesel, face vs face, at the first In Your House (because face vs face matches never really happened in this era – sans Bret/Diesel at the Rumble). And with the newly turned Michaels not needing a bodyguard, that left Psycho Sid with nothing to do. Bring in Ted DiBiase.
DiBiase had assembled his “Million Dollar Corporation” - a group of wrestlers who literally never seemed to win. Sid, Kama, Tatanka, Henry Godwinn. Hell, even Bam Bam Bigelow lost to Lawrence Taylor and then to Diesel before turning on the stable. The corporation were all heels and heels always lost. It was a match made in heaven.
Sid vs Diesel was a perfect fit for the WWF. We were in an era where WWE really wanted to size match their opponents – just look at how they nearly ruined the Undertaker – and Diesel vs Sid made a good big main matchup. But while it had size, were they capable of having a match that was remotely passable?
No.
We started at the first edition of In Your House. Sid and Diesel meshed about as badly as you’d expect, with no cohesion and no in ring action to speak of. The show started with a stellar opener between Bret Hart and Hakushi, but this match involved too many rest holds. The only shining light was both managed to hit impressive powerbombs on the other (Sid injuring Diesel in the process). The match even ended by disqualification, Tatanka ending the misery of all concerned.
The injury potentially extended the feud. It was decided that Diesel would be fit enough to wrestle at King Of The Ring, but not fit enough to wrestle in a singles match. So instead we got a tag team match, Diesel aligning with freshly-turned Bam Bam Bigelow against Sid and Tatanka. The match-up at least made sense, even if it looked awful.
This was the crowning turd in the water pipe that was King Of The Ring 1995. A terribly booked show, with no redeeming features ended with a lifeless, boring main event. There’s nothing on this match, the crowd reacts like there was nothing on this match, and Sid puts the crowd out of everyone’s misery when he just buggers off. Diesel, still nursing the elbow, doesn’t do much wrestling but does pick up the victory pinning Tatanka.
Onto July, and we get the rematch between Sid and Diesel that we perhaps would’ve got at King Of The Ring. The company decide to do this as a lumberjack match (perhaps as a result of WCW doing one at Bash At The Beach), but they decided to do a lumberjack match with literally 30 lumberjacks. While it did add an element of smoke and mirrors it still wasn’t able to cover up Diesel vs Sid being a poor showing. The only real action actually comes from Shawn Michaels diving onto Sid, Diesel diving onto some lumberjacks, and Diesel being attacked by King Mabel mid match. Diesel at least wins.
And that is where this blog ends. Sid was meant to move onto face Shawn Michaels at Summerslam, but the company panicked when the saw the potential line-up, so they switched that to Shawn vs Razor in a ladder match. Diesel went onto face Mabel… yep, the company had definitely learned their lesson.
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