Sid x2 [RF Video Shoot Interviews]

The Good
Sid Eudy did a pair of interviews with RF video with a decade between them and so I listened to them back-to-back for a different effect. The first looks at his early days in Memphis through his second (and final) WWF run, so it's about 10 years in 80 minutes. The second looks at his stint in ECW through his WCW run and untimely injury in 2001, so around 3 years in roughly 140 minutes. At both points, he was at a low point in his career, but optimistic about his future. He was very open and honest about the circumstances surrounding the scissorfight with Arn Anderson, his use of steroids, his failing of drug tests and his views on most everyone in the business. Sid is admittedly both peculiar and emotional and he understands that others in the business are similarly odd and get caught up in the business, in understanding that, he seems to be able to keep things into some perspective. He has great confidence in his character and drawing power, so much so that he holds himself above Steve Austin, The Rock, Ric Flair and others. Sid is able to touch at aspects of his psychology, but never as much as I'd like, especially considering how much he proclaims himself a "genius."

The Bad
Sid really pushes himself as having one of the best minds in pro-wrestling. Certainly, he has mind for crafting his character and getting himself over, but he does not reveal his genius here nor in his matches by my account. He uses the example that he created the Colonial Robert Parker (Robert Fuller) character in WCW, which was a wildly entertaining personality as Fuller's Foghorn Leghorn was really good that is fine, although Parker was not exactly a top or money-drawing interview during his time in WCW. Sid also explains that he pushed to bring Harlem Heat in although he wanted to give them a gimmick as former death row inmates whose services Col. Parker won in a bet with the Governor of Louisiana, he also thought the two should use shackles and chains on opponents. Although very outside-the-box, such a racially charged and violent sounding gimmick never got approval with Dusty Rhodes. Sid definitely has some unique ideas, but I'm not sure if he had money-drawing ideas based on those two examples. Sid puts himself over as being the pivotal character in the shift to the "Attitude Era" as he was the first major tweener. Certainly, he was over and was a major tweener, but I couldn't say he was "the man" as there were others around him that did the same thing at about the same time. I'm not going to come out and say, as others have, that Sid seems as high as he is delusional, but I cannot say I entirely buy into opinions of himself and his legacy. Sid says all kinds of wacky things. He puts over ECW because it allowed "spitting" (didn't realize that was so key to his act and that it was so controversial). He puts over Bam Bam Bigelow as the "greatest ring general" that he was ever in with. He puts over Sting as the "greatest pure babyface" of all-time. I cannot say that Sid's thoughts and opinions were useless, but there is a lot of unusual items mixed in there and definitely some unbelievable ones.

The Rating: ****