Sid Vicious was one of the biggest stars of professional wrestling in the 1990s, in a career that spanned WCW, WWE, ECW, and smaller stages. He had a sensational look and was a key figure in getting the powerbomb over as one of the most popular finishers of the era. He wound up on the short list of performers to have won world titles in both WWE and WCW.

Related: Sid Vicious Is The Most Inexplicable Wrestling Star Of The 1990sWhile the big man had his share of critics on account his of his limited in ring skills and questions about his commitment (with infamous rumors about him skipping out on stretches of wrestling to play softball), fans tend to get nostalgic about him now. Unfortunately, the last memory many fans have from his time in the mainstream spotlight was when he broke his leg.

How Sid Vicious Broke His Leg In WCW

At the Sin 2001 PPV, Sid Vicious worked a main event Triple Threat Match, joining Jeff Jarrett in challenging Scott Steiner for the WCW Championship. The match had some fun spots, like Vicious reversing offense from the two heels to deliver a double suplex on the two of them, but was pretty lackluster on the whole. That includes the underwhelming reveal of Road Warrior Animal as a mystery man to join Steiner’s Magnificent Seven faction that was just taking shape, in a storyline that would never fully be resolved after WCW ended.

The lowest of lows for this bout came when Vicious attempted offense from the middle rope. While cameras mercifully didn’t catch his landing live (likely a miscue, because that’s a spot they typically would have wanted to make sure fans saw). Vicious broke his leg on impact, his limb clearly bent the wrong way after. It was clear something had gone terribly wrong, and he wasn’t just selling after a wrestling spot, though Steiner did his best to distract from the issue with low-key kicks at Vicious, and doing his signature push-ups to lead the audience’s attention away from how hurt his opponent was.

Why Sid Vicious Sued WCW

If the idea of Sid Vicious leaping off the ropes come across as odd, that’s with good reason. While he had good mobility for a guy his size, he simply wasn’t a wrestler who ever delivered moves of the ropes. According to an article from The Bleacher Report,

Vicious claimed it was John Laurinaitis who gave him clear directions to execute this spot during the match. The big man indicates he was clear in his hesitation—both because he wasn’t used to executing spots like this, and because he had only returned from a shoulder injury in 2000 and was worried about getting his timing right to protect both himself and his opponents. Laurinaitis purportedly pressured him into making the leap just the same, with Vicious suggesting he caved, against his better judgment, to make a good impression on WCW’s new management.

Vicious having expressed that he didn’t want to jump off the ropes became the basis of a lawsuit. Vicious sued the Universal Wrestling Corporation (a Turner holding company for unpurchased assets from WCW) and Laurinaitis. Vicious's attorneys claimed “breaching of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, tortuous interference with contractual relations, attorney fees, and unjust enrichment” on account of how the injury occurred and how he’d been treated afterward. That includes WCW using footage of the accident for their own gain and collecting insurance money afterward. Vicious lost the summary judgment, appealed, and that case was dismissed as well in 2005.

Sid Vicious After WCW

Sid Vicious was more or less done as a figure on the national wrestling scene after that point. While one of the things listeners of Jeff Jarrett’s My World podcast have learned is that Jarrett, his father, and other stakeholders discussed bringing Vicious into early TNA, that deal never materialized. Vicious made sporadic indie appearances over the years to follow. In a more widely seen swan song, he appeared on the 1000th episode of WWE Raw, on in a series of legends to decimate Heath Slater in a weeks long angle.

Related: Every Version Of Sid Vicious, Ranked From Worst To Best Vicious remains one of the biggest names in wrestling history not to have garnered a WWE Hall of Fame induction, and it’s not publicly clear if that’s a conscious choice on the part of WWE, an unintentional omission, or a result of the two sides not coming to terms. Otherwise, it may well be a matter of time given his stature in the business and the nostalgia he provokes for a wide swathe of the WCW audience.

It’s a shame when any wrestler gets hurt in the ring, and all the more so regrettable when it happens in the context of a widely viewed PPV match. Moreover, it’s understandable why, in a litigious age, Vicious would try his luck at filing suit against his former employer. The lawsuit didn’t pan out, and this moment turned out to be a sad, anticlimactic end to one of the most featured runs in wrestling history. Still, it is also reasonable to think Vicious’s time in the limelight may have run its course. In the next two to three years, the business underwent dramatic shifts with WWE moving into Ruthless Aggression with a youth movement that saw new top names like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and Batista take center stage, while TNA largely sold itself on its X-Division and otherwise featuring a more athletic style. Vicious surely could have found a place, but he wasn’t getting any younger, and his ring style was growing particularly dated, meaning his worst injury also hit around the time he may have taken a big step back regardless.