During a recent ‘Inside the Ropes’ interview, WWF/WCW Legend Sid discussed a significant leg injury that occurred during a World Championship Wrestling match in January 2001 at the WCW Sin pay-per-view.
During a four-corners match for the WCW World Title, a high-risk move suggested by John Laurinaitis went awry when Scott Steiner didn’t move as expected. Despite Sid expressing discomfort and seeking a change in the plan, Laurinaitis insisted on sticking to the original idea.
The result was a severe fracture of Sid’s tibia and fibula.
Here’s what Sid Vicious had to say about the botch that injured him so bad, he had to end his career eventually:
“Johnny Laurinaitis, they give him a one-day position to be like the book or the guy who came up with ideas. So he thought was Scott Steiner, if you watched him if he took a high boot in the corner, he took it really well. And he does it where his face into your foot really hard. So John says ‘We’re going to do something really crazy, we’re gonna get you to jump off the second rope and give Scott a high knee’.
And I told him, I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. When he tells me, ‘We’ve already got it written down, it’s already in the back, we can’t get out of it.’ So two or three other times, I came to him through the day and I said ‘I just don’t feel comfortable with that’. And so they just wouldn’t bend.”
Sid did get back in the ring to wrestle a few matches after he returned from this career-ending injury, but the powerhouse was never the same afterwards. Apart from a June 2012 win on RAW, that featured his return to WWE (fka WWF) as that night’s surprise opponent for Heath Slater, Sid never made it back to the big leagues anymore and eventually retired for good.
The graphic botch became one of the most infamous clips in professional wrestling, that ever went viral on social media, most likely because the clip features an open fracture.
You can watch this horrible injury below:
