History
The night after WCW’s Mayhem PPV, Ric Flair had promised new champion Scott Steiner a surprise opponent for Starrcade. After Steiner had defeated Stevie Ray in the main event, the surprise attacked. Sid Vicious had returned to WCW.
On Thunder, Sid explained his return. Back in April, all champions had been stripped of their titles when Bischoff and Russo had returned. Sid had never lost the belt.
Steiner fought Buff Bagwell in the main event. As the match was going on, Sid appeared on the Turnertron to taunt Steiner. The match ended with Bagwell in the Steiner Recliner, and afterward Steiner locked Bagwell in another headlock. Sid appeared at the top of the ramp and that was the end of the show.
The following Nitro saw Oklahoma return to the show by insulting Sid. Sid came out and chokeslammed Oklahoma. That brought Commissioner Mike Sanders out who informed Sid that he’d crossed the line by attacking Oklahoma. Sid was handcuffed and taken to jail.
As Sanders snickered backstage, Steiner told him to get Sid. Sanders informed Steiner that CEO Ric Flair had sent Sid to jail. Steiner went berserk. He said that he wanted Sid by the end of the show or he was coming for Flair.
Flair, for his part, spent most of the show coordinating things backstage to get every wrestler out of the building as quickly as possible to avoid being attacked by Steiner.
Steiner had General Rection in the main event. Steiner won the match then got a microphone and announced that time was up. He headed backstage. Arn Anderson sent Fit Finlay to warn Flair what was going on. Steiner spotted Arn and called him Flair’s friend before dragging him out to the ring. Steiner locked Arn in the Steiner Recliner. We went backstage to see Finlay holding Flair back, and then Goldberg ran past them both. As Goldberg headed to the ring, we had a multi-angle collision as Lex Luger cut him off with a chair. As Luger and Goldberg fought, Sid finally appeared and hit the ring to save Arn.
On Thunder, Flair was disgusted. He came out and made two announcements – first, Steiner and Sid were not allowed at the show, and second that Steiner was suspended and stripped of the belt. Mike Sanders came out to accuse Flair of jealousy and Flair repeated his decision. The Turnertron then lit up with Arn Anderson, who asked Flair to change his mind because he wanted Steiner to go down as the champion. Flair listened to his old friend and announced that Steiner was still the champion.
Nitro opened with Flair coming out and making the ruling that Steiner and Sid could not come into contact with each other, under threat of suspensions and (in Steiner’s case) stripping of the title. That brought Sid out to threaten Flair. Flair simply advised Steiner that anyone he’d been putting in the hospital recently might be there and made a main event that saw Steiner facing Sgt. AWOL of the MIA. Sanders came out, so Flair told Sanders he’d be facing Sid.
Sanders came out for his match and claimed that he wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle. Sid didn’t care and obliterated him. Sid headed backstage and started gathering car keys. As he drove cars into a circle ring, the rest of the wrestlers started heading outside to watch.
Steiner defeated AWOL in the main event and the Turnertron lit up with Sid, who said that since Flair said they couldn’t fight inside, he’d set up outside. Steiner grabbed his lead pipe and took off for the back. The two of them brawled outside as the show ended.
Flair gave up on Thunder and said that if Steiner and Sid were going to fight, let them go at it. That caused Sid to start calling in to the show on his cell phone and telling the announcers not to let Steiner leave until he got there.
Steiner defended against Meng in the main event. As Steiner put Meng in the Recliner, Sid made his way down to the ring. Steiner met him in the aisle. The two brawled into the ring where Sid chokeslammed Steiner and posed as the show went off the air.
That brought us to Starrcade. In the end, Steiner (with the help of Midajah and no help from a missed Jarrett guitar shot), forced Sid to submit to the Recliner.
Nitro the next night opened with Flair saying he’d reveal Steiner’s mystery opponent at Sin later in the show.
Steiner soon came out and, after running down Dallas Page, called out Flair. Flair came out and announced that he was making a three way dance at Sin. Steiner was the first entrant and Flair’s mystery man was the second. The third would be chosen that night, and no one knew who the entrants in the mini tournament would be. Steiner said he’d find the mystery man or he’d be coming for Flair.
Steiner was seen backstage, approaching Luger, Bagwell, and Jeff Jarrett to help him find out who was in the matches. Jarrett even denied that he was in one of them.
The first match saw Lance Storm taking on Rey Misterio Jr. Lance wound up locking Rey in the Canadian Maple Leaf for the win and a place in the final match later that night.
Mike Awesome came out for the next match. His opponent? Jarrett. Jarrett won the match and headed backstage to find Steiner waiting for an explanation. Jarrett said that he’d fibbed because Flair had ruled that anyone who told that they were in a qualifier would be pulled out, and besides, he was doing all this to protect Steiner and his title.
Storm and Jarrett faced off in the finals, and Jarrett won a clean victory. Steiner came down to the ring and again threatened Flair, then headed to the back. He pounded on Flair’s office door with his pipe and then saw Flair exiting down a hallway. Steiner followed and the mystery man (in all black and wearing a mask) attacked.
Mike Tenay sat down with Flair on Thunder, but still couldn’t get any information out of him about the mystery man.
The Cat fought Steiner in the main event. The mystery man came out and paced at the top of the ramp as Steiner won with the Recliner and then left as Steiner came out of the ring and charging up the ramp.
The next episode of Thunder (Nitro was pre-empted) saw Flair announcing that Steiner was suspended for a week. That brought Jarrett out who demanded to know who the mystery man was. Flair responded by booking Jarrett vs. Sid, and if Jarrett lost he was out of the Sin match.
Jarrett faced Sid during the main event and the mystery man appeared. Suddenly the mystery man ran into the ring and attacked Sid before he unmasked as Scott Steiner.
Flair came out on Nitro and explained that he had a decision to make. After there wasn’t a definitive winner on Thunder, who would get the slot in the Sin match – Jarrett or Sid? Flair decided to just make it a four way match instead. Steiner came out and said that it would be him and Jarrett vs. the mystery man and Sid, so Flair showed Steiner footage of Jarrett accidentally blasting him with a guitar at Starrcade and lying about being in the qualifying match a few weeks before. Flair then asked again if Steiner could really trust Jarrett before booking Jarrett vs. Steiner in the main event.
Steiner and Jarrett were shown backstage a little later. It was apparent that Steiner was beginning to suspect Jarrett was up to something.
Sid, meanwhile, faced off against Shane Douglas (who was trying to get into the Sin match himself). Sid defeated Douglas and then was attacked by Jarrett and Steiner before he could get backstage.
Steiner was fighting Jarrett in the main event when the mystery man hit the ring and attacked Steiner. The three brawled as the show went off the air.
On Thunder, we saw Steiner and Sid brawling backstage. Later in the night, they faced off in the main event. Sid was preparing for the powerbomb when the mystery man hit the ring and attacked (giving Sid the DQ win). The mystery man then unmasked to reveal Jarrett. Then Flair and the real mystery man appeared on the ramp.
That brought us to Sin. Jarrett and Sid were the first two out and they immediately started battling. Steiner made his way out third. Flair finally sent out the mystery man. As he headed to the ring, Sid experienced one of the most grisly injuries in wrestling. He jumped off the top turnbuckle and landed on one foot to give a big boot with the other. His lower leg snapped in a compound fracture and Steiner almost immediately covered him to end the match. Afterward, the mystery man unmasked as Road Warrior Animal.
In a rarity, this feud did have a strong foundation. Sid had never lost the belt. In another nice touch, the announcers began billing Sid as the Original Madman, and a worthy competitor for the hair-trigger Steiner.
Also, Sid and Steiner’s wrestling skills were about on par. Steiner had deteriorated a great deal, and while Sid had never been a Bret Hart in terms of pure skills, he always had a certain charisma that got the fans behind him.
The backstage stuff was great, too. Seeing CEO Ric Flair try to protect his roster from the rampaging Scott Steiner was an excellent touch. Bringing Arn into the fray was just the icing on the cake.
However, the ending of the feud was sudden and unexpected. After Sid’s injury, he would never make another appearance on WCW television (other than replays). As a matter of fact, it would be over a year before he would be in a wrestling ring again.
Scott Steiner remained with WCW as the champion until the company closed, losing the belt to Booker T on the final episode of Nitro. After Steiner’s Time-Warner contract expired, he headed to World Wrestling All-Stars (as many of the WCW stars who weren’t picked up by the WWF did). In 2002 Steiner signed with the WWE and came in at Survivor Series. While there, he feuded briefly with HHH before beginning a feud with Test. Steiner was released in 2004 after suffering an injury. In 2006, Steiner signed with TNA, where he remains today.
Sid remained with WCW until the end although he never again appeared on WCW television. He made his way to WWA where he worked as their commissioner. In 2004 Sid returned to the ring as a competitor in a match for Canada’s Internet Wrestling Syndicate. Sid continues to compete on the independent scene today and is currently feuding with Jerry Lawler in Memphis.
