Author: On one fateful night in Blackburn, England, on October 27th, 1993, Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson got into a heated argument at their hotel bar on the first night of a European tour. It started innocent enough with a few of the guys from WCW sharing some beers after a long journey on the road. This camaraderie would not last long, and it soon led to one of the most brutal fights ever to occur on the road.
Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson Brawl Over a Ric Flair Remark
When you spend long hours on the road mixed in with little sleep and plenty of beer, tempers are bound to flare.
Words were exchanged between Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson, and a few beers were thrown after Anderson overheard Sid insulting his friend, Ric Flair.
Calmer heads prevailed, and both Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson returned to their hotel rooms. After stewing over the events of the past few minutes, Sid decided to go back to Anderson’s room to settle the argument. This is when he (allegedly) hit Anderson over the head with a hotel chair leg when Arn answered the door.
Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson ended up spilling into the hallway where a vicious, bloody assault ensued involving a pair of scissors. The result was not pretty.
NASTY BOYS:
"We flew, whatever it was, seven, eight, or nine hours across the country. We got on a bus, wrestled, drove nine more hours ’til 6 in the morning, got off the bus, and went to bed because we partied on the bus all night. Arn, Sid, and a couple of the other guys went to the bar after the bus, and that’s when it all happened. I wasn’t there, but it was a real unfortunate thing, man. What happened between Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson was bad."
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"We go over there and fly into [Blackburn, England]. We drove three hours, got to the show, just off the airplane, and did the show. After the show, we had a three or four-hour drive, maybe even five, back to the hotel where we were staying out of [Blackburn]. Everyone was off the bus, taking a few pills, having a few drinks…"
BIG VAN VADER:
"If I were asked to get on the stand and testify, I would blame that one on the company because we flew over there, eight or nine-hour flight, got off the plane, traveled about two and a half, three hours, got off the bus and wrestled.
After the matches, it was back on the bus, and we traveled another ten to twelve hours to get to where we were going. It was just ludicrous! I mean, they should have got us off the plane, wrestled, went to bed, and then skipped a day. Know what I’m saying? Skipped a day and stayed over there. We’re talking about there was beer, the food ran out, and everybody was drinking.
By the time we got off ten hours later, we’re talking after an eight-hour plane ride, a two-and-a-half-hour trip, fighting, and a ten-hour bus ride back. The guys were frazzled and worn."
"I’ll tell you exactly what happened. We were in a bar, and I was just waiting for food. We were all at a table drinking…"
VADER:
"I remember it was Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson, myself, and a couple of other guys sitting at this table. We were finishing up a beer while everyone else was checking in. I remember getting up and saying to the guys, ‘I’m going to bed.’ Apparently, Sid and Arn had squared off after I had left."
SID:
"Arn asked the question, ‘What’s wrong with our business? Why aren’t we drawing? The other company this and the other company that…’"
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"S*** started getting heated. Everybody was talking about, ‘This motherf****r making money, that motherf****r making money.’ Ric Flair and Arn Anderson started talking about, ‘Flair this, Flair that. He’s making this much money…’ and s*** started getting heated."
SID:
"So I said, ‘You want to know what’s wrong with our business? We have an old man in Ric Flair who needs to get the f*** out of the way!’"
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"The next thing you know, beer is flying across the table!"
SID:
"We then got into a verbal argument, and they were slinging beers in my face at the bar."
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"Sid then throws a f***ing beer. This sends the guys to their rooms. Everybody was like, ‘F*** it.’ Everybody goes to their rooms. I’m up there getting hashed out. S***, I was smoking big hash!"
Things Get Out of Hand
SID:
"As I was going to my room, [Arn Anderson] and a bunch of the other guys were in the hallway, and he broke a beer bottle and threatened to cut me.
My room was only just a few rooms down from him. I passed his room, took a left, and went into my room about four doors down. I got in there, and I wasn’t going to sleep real nice.
I wanted to go back to the bar, but I actually went into my room, ate a part of my sandwich, and said to myself, ‘Man, this motherf****r!’ I have a bad temper, too. I said, ‘This f***er threw a beer in my face, and now he’s threatening me with a f***ing beer bottle broken?’ You know, you have to draw a f***ing line!
There was a chair sitting right there, so I broke a f***ing leg off it, and I was going to go whack him in his f***ing head a couple of times."
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"I hear somebody, and I’m like, ‘What the f***? Somebody is fighting out there!’ I’m thinking it’s Vader. I’m like, ‘God****it!’ Vader obviously starting s*** with somebody again, man!"
VADER:
"Their hallway was down a different hallway, so I really didn’t hear it."
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"So I go over to Vader’s room, and s***, and I hear [snoring sounds]. I hear the motherf****r snoring through the door!"
SID:
"When I got back down there, there was nobody in the doorway or the hallway, and [Anderson’s] door was shut. So I knocked on his door and said, ‘Come on out here, motherf****r! Bring your beer bottle!’
Some words were exchanged. I couldn’t totally hear him, but I hear him falling down and stumbling around, and I think, ‘Ah, he’s f***ed up…’ I looked at my hand and thought to myself, ‘This is f***ing stupid.’ So I threw the f***ing thing.
You can look at the records the police had. The stick he said I hit him with never touched him. It was twenty feet the opposite way where the fight had happened, and that stick had not one drop of blood, not one dent in it like it had been hit or nothing.
So Arn comes out, and I had left, turned my back, see his door open, turn around, and he’s stood there with a pair of scissors in his hands. I just went just like this with him, and I said, ‘Hey man, this has gone too f***ing far.’ And he’s stood there coming after me!
I don’t remember getting stabbed in the beginning. There were two doors in the corridor there, and he backed me up there, and I had nowhere to f***ing run. When he came into me and got close to me, I think I hit him one time, and he fell down like at my feet.
When he did, I looked at him, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the scissors fall. They were falling out of my stomach. I have a scar right there. So when I saw the scissors falling out, I realized I had been stabbed. I didn’t feel it in my face or hands, but he launched back for them a second time, but my feet had got them first. And then, I don’t know; it happened so fast…"
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"I go down the steps, and I see blood galore. Blood on the left, blood on the right, blood all down the f***ing hallway and s***. I keep on walking, and I’m in the f***ing hallway with a god***n towel.
I get down there, and Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson are down there just brawling. They were covered in f***ing blood.
Sid Vicious got the f***ing scissors and got Arn Anderson by the hair, and he’s booting him in the f***ing face, stabbing him with the scissors every which way. Arn Anderson got blood spitting out of him like a horror movie and s***, man. I see Sid kicking Arn Anderson’s nose, and it does a 180 turn straight the f*** up and s***. I’m like, ‘D***!’"
SID:
"At this point, I think I heard him say, ‘Man, you’re f***ing killing me!’ or something like that, and I had the scissors in my hand. And I look down, I saw him, and I’m like, ‘F***!’ He’s f***ed up…"
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"I jump in, boom, push them apart and s***, and Arn Anderson kind of falls against the wall from half drunk and half loss of blood and s***, and he just kind of stumbles against the wall. Sid kind of steps back, and he looks at me, and I step back in my stance, and I’m like, ‘D***, I don’t want to have to take you down!’ You know what I’m saying? But that s*** got stopped. Sid just looked at me [eyes wide open] freaked out."
SID:
"Blood came gushing out of my stomach, and I realized I’d been stabbed, so I’m scared to f***ing death. I had all white on. So I went down the f***ing hallway…"
VADER:
"Then I was in my room when I heard some yelling and screaming out in the lobby, so I literally came out in my underwear. Me and my underwear, 420 pounds. It was quite a sight. I have these huge legs, you know?
So the next thing I know is I saw Sid kind of doing this monster walk towards me and literally blood, it wasn’t dribbling down, it actually had a little power to it. It was coming out about an inch from his belly. It was pouring out of his belly. I remember I just grabbed his back, and I stuck my thumb in the hole. I didn’t know what else to do. I just stuck it in there, and it stopped the bleeding or drastically slowed it down."
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"Vader just tackles him, pulls him down. Sid is just spitting blood from his stomach and everything."
VADER:
"I yelled at someone to get a chair and told a lady to get me some towels. I did so, and I held a towel on him until the ambulance came, and I walked him over to the ambulance. Then the guy said, ‘Okay, I gotta help him.’ I was completely covered in blood. You know, I never really saw Arn because he was at a different part of the hotel."
2 COLD SCORPIO:
"They [ Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson ] fighting on the first floor, I mean right down by Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat’s room. And I mean, these guys are supposed to be their buddies, but not one of those chicken s*** motherf****rs got out of their god***n rooms! I’m up on the god***n second floor, and I gotta come down and break that s*** up? That’s bull***t.
Then, I’m not even office, but yet the ambulance and police came and broke that s*** up. It’s a d*** murder case; you know what I’m saying?
Next thing you know, these guys are going to the hospital and me, and one of the office guys are going to the hospital with them.
They ended up staying over there, filling out papers for Arn and filling out papers for Sid, real name, address, the whole nine yards. And I’m over there doing the same, filling out papers for Sid. I’m like, ‘D***!’ You know what I’m saying?
So Sid has to have this exploratory surgery, Arn’s gotta get patched up from head to toe, d*** near and s*** with all his d*** cuts."
SID:
"When I was in the hospital, the police, or whatever you call them, the law enforcement over there, they came into my room trying to get me to press charges against him.
I said, ‘No, man, I’m not going to press charges against him. We both made mistakes. I don’t know how bad he’s really hurt.’ I really didn’t. And they’re like, ‘You know your friend, he’s got not one scratch on him.’
Here I’m having exploratory surgery already; I’ve got stabs on my face, and I said, ‘He’s not got a scratch on him?’ I thought maybe- as I said, it happened so fast. I really don’t remember it happening.
I thought, ‘This motherf****r!’ So I was going to press charges on him.
Later that night, the nurse came over to my room and said, ‘Your friend is really messed up.’ So I dropped the charges."
VADER:
"I think everyone was kind of in shock. We were extremely tired, and we had a meeting at the next venue, which was the next night, and Turner was thinking about shutting down that tour and bringing us all home. He was going to make a decision about what he was going to do. I mean, I don’t know how much of that was a shoot or work to scare us. Dusty had asked me to speak to everyone, so I did."
SID:
"Of all the people in the world, Arn was the last person I would, and I wouldn’t want to do that to anybody, but he would be the last person in the world I would want to hurt. He had been good to me as a person. I don’t know what he might have said behind my back, but face-to-face, he was always a gentleman, but I can only assume he was like that at all times and felt like that.
So I later asked, ‘What does Arn say?’ They said Arn said he was so f***ed up he can’t remember anything!"
From the Perspective of the WCW Official on Tour
Richard Steinberg, the WCW Official who was directly involved with the Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson incident in Blackburn, England, reached out to us after reading this article. Below, he shared with us his experience from this fateful evening.
“Hi, I just read your article on Facebook.
I was the WCW Official on this tour. I was directly involved in the incident. At the time, I was the Director of Marketing Services for WCW and was on the entire tour.
“I received a phone call in my room about 2:30 am that there was a major incident and I was needed in the lobby ASAP. I told them to call the Tour Director or the Head of Security (Doug Dellinger), but I was told he could not be found!
“I got dressed and grabbed the elevator down to the first floor.
“Blood was everywhere… all over the hotel walls leading down the corridor to the lobby. I passed Sid and Arn’s rooms which were across the hall from each other. Both doors were open—lots of blood and smashed furniture everywhere.
“I get to the lobby, and the entire front glass window of the lobby is smashed out with plate glass broken everywhere all over the place.
“At this point, I know nothing except what I see!
“Sid is lying on the floor and bleeding from several wounds. I immediately cover two of Sid’s wounds with my hands to try and stop the bleeding. I ask for an ambulance, and I am told it’s on its way! At this point, I know nothing about Arn.
“I get in the ambulance with Sid. He is crying all along the way to the hospital that he doesn’t want to die! Alternatively, he is telling me that he ‘f***ed up’ his big chance to be WCW World Champion, but mostly moaning that he didn’t want to die! Here is this huge guy crying like a baby!
“I entered the emergency room with Sid while the doctor treated him. He is crying and still moaning, ‘I don’t want to die!’ The doctor takes a look at his wounds and tells me to leave while he treats him.
“I walk outside the treatment room and encounter Too Cold Scorpio. He tells me the full story of what happened and that he stayed with Arn during his ambulance ride into the emergency room with him.
“I made the decision to contact WCW back in Atlanta immediately. I grabbed a payphone, but, of course, it’s the middle of the night back in Atlanta, and nobody answers the phone. I leave a message for Bischoff and return to Scorpio.
“Scorpio and I remained in charge of the two guys. Scorpio finally left, and I stayed at the hospital for several more hours. I got back to the hotel and netted the police there and Doug Dellinger, the WCW Security guy. I grabbed a couple of hours of sleep.
“In the morning, I received a call from Atlanta telling me to remain in Blackburn with Sid and Arn while the tour continued to the next cities. So I remained behind the tour to deal with potential police charges and extensive damage at the hotel.
“I had the hotel calculate the entire amount of damages and faxed the information back to Atlanta. WCW then increased the limit on my company Visa card, and I paid the bill at the hotel.
“It should be noted that after my return to Atlanta, it is discovered that a hotel employee had stolen my credit card number and made additional unauthorized charges on my account. So much fun!
A day or two later, when the guys were stable enough to travel, WCW told me to take the guys on different days to different airports to get them back to the United States. I ultimately put Sid in a taxi and sent him on his way to the airport.
“The next day I did the same with Arn but taxied to a different airport.
“On the third day, I grabbed two trains and caught up with the tour in Birmingham, England. I walked into the lobby of the hotel and promptly sat down to breakfast with Rick Rude!
“My truly lasting memory of the event is being in the ambulance trying to stop Sid from bleeding. Here I was with this amazing huge man and all he was doing was crying like a baby! Weird, isn’t it?”
Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson – The Aftermath
Arn Anderson suffered twenty stab wounds to the chest and stomach while Sid Vicious was stabbed four times.
Both Sid and Arn ended up spending the night in the hospital and were deported back to America the next day. No police charges were ever filed.
WCW President Eric Bischoff fired Sid after several wrestlers threatened to walk out if he was not terminated. Anderson only got off with a suspension. Sid has since apologized to Anderson for the incident, and the pair are on good terms today.
Was this judgment justified, or should more have been done? Share your thoughts on the socials!
These stories may also interest you:
- The Legendary Sid Vicious Squeegee Incident
- Sid Vicious: The Self-Proclaimed "Hardest Worker Ever" in Wrestling
- Paul Orndorff and Vader | The Messy Fight That Led to WCW Departure
Sources used in this article: highspots.tv and RF Video, via YouTube.
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