| The Skyscrapers | |
|---|---|
| Tag team | |
| Members | "Psycho" Sid Vicious "Dangerous" Dan Spivey "Mean" Mark Callous "Masked Sky Scraper" |
| Heights | Vicious: 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) Spivey: 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) Callous: 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) Masked Skyscraper: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Debut | 1989 |
| Disbanded | 1990 |
| Promotions | NWA WCW |
The Skyscrapers were a professional wrestling tag team in World Championship Wrestling in 1989 and 1990 in six distinct forms with members ”Psycho” Sid Vicious, ”Dangerous” Dan Spivey, "Mean" Mark Callous with The Masked Skyscraper making a one night appearance.
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In early 1989 Teddy Long was a referee for the National Wrestling Alliance but due to a series of questionable calls, including one that cost the Road Warriors their world tag-team titles[1] Teddy Long was fired and took up managing instead. Long paired Dan Spivey with Sid Vicious, two people who had recently signed with the federation and gave them the name “The Skyscrapers” – mainly because both men were so tall.
The Skyscrapers’ first taste of success came at the 1989 Great American Bash PPV where they first co-won a Two-Ring King of the Hill Battle Royal with Sid being the survivor in one ring and Dan surviving in the other. The rules called for the two to fight each other but manager Teddy Long convinced them to shake hands and share the prize money.[2] Later in the night the Skyscrapers defeated The Dynamic Dudes due to their overwhelming size and power.[2]
The Skyscrapers quickly became involved in a feud with the Road Warriors, sparked by Teddy Long’s actions while still a referee. The two teams were very evenly matched in power and intensity creating a series of matches that did not favor one team over the other. Spivey and Vicious were disqualified against the Road Warriors at Halloween Havoc 1989 but did not look like losers on the night.[3] Shortly after Halloween Havoc the Skyscrapers faced the Steiner Brothers at Clash of the Champions IX in a hard hitting match.[4] A match that was so hard hitting in fact that Sid Vicious suffered a punctured lung due to a broken rib.
With Vicious out of action Teddy Long brought in another tall newcomer in the same mold as Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey and dubbed him ”Mean” Mark Callous. The New Skyscrapers immediately picked up the feud with the Road Warriors and kept on having inconclusive matches with them. At Clash of the Champions X the Skyscrapers finally got the better of the Road Warriors, not in the match but afterwards when they beat the Road Warriors down.[5] At this point in time no one had ever been able to physically dominate the Road Warriors, something that pointed that big things had been planned for the Skyscrapers. But big things never happened, in the days before the scheduled Chicago Street Fight at WrestleWar 1990[6] Dan Spivey suddenly left WCW leaving the bookers to scramble for a replacement. Exactly why he left the federation so suddenly has never been stated. Instead of cancelling the announced match the booking committee decided to bring in a masked man called “The Masked Skyscraper” (in reality he was half of AWA World Tag Team Champions The Destruction Crew : Mike Enos). The Road Warriors made short work of Callous and the Masked Skyscraper ending the feud and ending the Skyscrapers run of domination. Callous decided to go on his own for a while but failed in a challenge to WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger. He then quit and joined the WWF.
By the end of 1990 Dan Spivey and the WCW worked out whatever differences that caused Spivey leave in the spring and Spivey returned to WCW television. The Skyscrapers briefly reunited at Starrcade 1990 as he and Sid Vicious took on and beat The Big Cat and the Motor City Madman.[7] Nevertheless, Vicious would go on to join Ric Flair's Four Horsemen stable and then follow Callous into the WWF as well.
The Skyscrapers would use "China White" by the Scorpions as their entrance theme.
Sid Vicious and Mean Mark Callous would wrestle each other at WrestleMania 13 for the WWE Championship, with Sid Vicious as the WWE Champion Sycho Sid and Mean Mark Callous as The Undertaker, where The Undertaker won the match and the Championship.[8] Spivey returned to the WWF in 1995 under the name Waylon Mercy, but was used as a jobber-to-the-stars and ended up retiring later in the year.