The man called Sting! Over his thirty-year career, Sting took on many looks. There was Blade Runner Flash which was spiky blonde hair with black face paint, then there was Surfer Sting which was blonde hair and neon face paint with neon wrestling tights, then Sting started going dark, gone was the blonde spiked look, instead Sting sported dark brown medium length hair and usually black wrestling tights with a colored Scorpion. Then came the biggest change, Sting died his hair black and began painting his face like The Crow. After this Sting would don the red and black Crow design before returning to the original Crow look in the late 90’s. From here, Sting would keep the traditional Crow look until turning into Joker Sting in 2011 which brought more of a colorful personality to the dark and brooding Sting. Once joining the WWE in 2014, Sting would return to the black and white Crow paint until his forced retirement due to an injury he suffered in a match against Seth Rollins. This article will talk about Sting’s career, but also the man as his transformation away from the ring is more important than what he’s done in the ring.
In the mid-eighties, Sting teamed with the Ultimate Warrior forming a tag-team known as the Blade Runners. While neither were great wrestlers at this point, they had the all important “look” promoters liked in mid-eighties, they were massive, jacked-up dudes and looked menacing. Despite their lack of skill, Sting and Warrior had a moderately successful run in Mid-South Wrestling before parting ways. Sting would go to Jim Crockett promotions and learn his craft under the guidance of people like Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Dusty Rhodes. With their teaching and Sting’s own amazing athletic ability, Sting’s star began to rise rapidly in the NWA. In 1990, Sting defeated Ric Flair at the Great American Bash, capturing his first of many world titles.
After defeating Flair and having some title defenses, Sting would lose the title to Flair in January of 1991. Despite this loss, the Stinger would not slow down, instead he would form a tag-team with good friend Lex Luger and the duo would face the Steiner Brothers at Superbrawl 1991 in one of the greatest tag-team matches off all time. At the end of the year, Sting would win the inaugural Battle Bowl, last eliminating Lex Luger, who had turned bad and joined manager and former eight-time World Champion, Harley Race. After this, Sting would enter a feud with Rick Rude and eventually, the entire Dangerous Alliance. The feud would culminate at WrestleWar 1992 in the brutal War Games match which was two rings, two cages, two teams of eight, in a no holds barred, anything goes match. Sting’s Squadron which was comprised of: Sting, Nikita Koloff, the Steiner Brothers and Rocky Steamboat, would get the win, thus ending Sting’s rivalry with the Dangerous Alliance and Rick Rude.
Shortly after this, Sting would defeat Lex Luger at Superbrawl 1992 to regain the WCW World heavyweight title. Sting’s next feud however, would be one of his toughest as he was now faced with the daunting task of squaring off against the 450-pound athletic monster known as Vader. Vader would injure Sting’s ribs in a match at the Omni, putting Sting out for several months. Upon his return, Sting would face Vader at the Great American Bash and surprisingly lose to the big man, giving Vader his first world championship. Sting and Vader would spend the better part of the next year battling one another, culminating in a brutal, bloody White Castle of Fear Strap Match at Superbrawl Three.
After his rivalry with Vader, Sting would then feud with the late, great Rick Rude one more time. Sting would defeat Vader for the International title at Slamboree in 1994. The match was originally scheduled to be Sting versus Rude, but due to a career ending back injury, Rick Rude was unable to compete and Sting refused to be handled the title. This made WCW make a match between Sting and Vader at their pay-per-view. Once Sting defeated Vader, he would then renew his rivalry with Ric Flair, this time culminating in title unification match at Clash of the Champions XXVII where Flair, with help from Sensational Sherri, would defeat Sting and unify the WCW World and International Championships.
1995 Would be a fairly good year for the Stinger, he would compete in and win the WCW United States Championship Tournament, defeating Meng in a classic match at the Great American Bash. Sting would also compete alongside, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Lex Luger to topple the challenge of the “dreaded” Dungeon of Doom, a host of over the top cartoon characters created with the sole purpose of getting Hulk Hogan cheered by the WCW faithful. After this victory Sting found himself in an awkward situation, long time enemy, Ric Flair had been feuding with his best friend and Horsemen comrade, Arn Anderson, who had enlisted the help of Brian Pillman now claiming to be the so-called “Loose Cannon” Flair would ask Sting to be his tag-team partner for a match against Anderson and Pillman on Nitro. Flair would practically beg Sting to join him, while reluctant, Sting agreed, but warned Flair if he stabbed him in the back in the slightest little way, he’d leave him for dead. but to the surprise of many, Sting did not show up until the closing moments of the match. True to his word Sting would leave Flair for “Dead” two weeks later when during a match, Sting refused to relinquish his finishing hold, the Scorpion Deathlock. Fellow wrestlers, referees and security tried to get Sting off Flair, but to avail; that was until friend, Lex Luger came out and talked Sting into letting Flair go.
1996 would be a monumental turning point for not only Sting, but for WCW as a whole. WCW would be invaded by former WWF wrestler, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash originally calling themselves The Outsiders. Sting would be the first person to stand up to Hall and Nash and rightfully so. WCW was Sting’s turf, he was the one of two guys who never left for the “Greener Pastures” of the WWF and now ex-WWF guys were trying to run WCW out? Sting wasn’t going to stand for that. The duo of Sting and Lex Luger were the first to push back against the Outsiders, they would then be joined by “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Unfortunately, despite these three Alpha males, Hall and Nash almost always got the edge, even when the Horsemen began backing Luger and Sting up, making the odds six against two. All this led to a gigantic six-man tag match at Bash at the Beach. Hall and Nash refused to let anyone know who their third man was. Going into the match it appeared as if it was going to be Scott Hall and Kevin Nash facing the team of Sting, Randy Savage and Lex Luger.
The match started off as a melee and Luger got taken out on a stretcher early, making the match a more traditional tag team match. Near the end, Savage and Sting looked defeated, exhausted and battered from a physical war with Hall and Nash when Hulk Hogan walked down to the ring. Hogan had not been seen in months due to the fact that despite being the “ultimate Good Guy” He was booed in almost every city WCW went to. As Hogan got in the ring, he ripped his shirt off and stared down Hall and Nash as they had scurried to the outside of the ring. In a move that would change the course of wrestling, Hulk Hogan dropped his big leg drop on Savage, allowing he, Hall and Nash to win the match, officially forming the New World Order. Sting and Luger would spend the next few months trying to get even with Nash and Hall, but The Outsiders were beginning to get a stranglehold on the tag team division and soon it was there’s all there’s.
Around August of 1996 Sting and Luger began trying to convince Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to join them as regardless of their previous issues, it wasn’t about the individuals anymore, it was about defending WCW from the New World Order. After some consideration, Flair and Anderson agreed and it looked like WCW had the advantage going into Fall Brawl and the War Games match itself. Again, going into a big match the N.W.O. refused to tell who the final member of their team was. (How many times can a company do a mystery partner angle?) On the Nitro before Fall Brawl the N.W.O. did reveal it’s fourth member as “Sting” when “Sting” attacked Lex Luger outside in the rain after coming out from the N.W.O. limousine. With this fourth man, it seemed like WCW was down a man leading many to ask, who was going to help team WCW now?
As Fall Brawl began, Sting confronted Lex Luger and told him it wasn’t him who had assaulted him the Monday prior on Nitro. Lex Luger then looked his best friend in the eyes and said “I don’t believe you Sting” seemingly taking the word of Ric Flair and Arn Anderson over his best friend’s. As the four members of team N.W.O. were dominating the three members of WCW, Sting, the real Sting that is appeared and beat down Hall, Nash, Syxx and the N.W.O. Sting, proving for the first time there were indeed two Sting’s (Although to anyone watching it was fairly obvious that the N.W.O. Sting was an imposter) the next night on Nitro, Sting would come out and address the distrust that Wrestlers, fans and commentators had shown in him with the following promo, with his back turned to the camera:
“I want a chance to explain something that happened last Monday night at Nitro. Last Monday night I was on an airplane flying from L.A. to Atlanta. When I got to Atlanta, I tuned in the TV to Nitro. And I thought I was watching a rerun! It was a very convincing film. Often imitated, but never duplicated though! And what else did I see? I saw people, I saw wrestlers, I saw commentators, and I saw best friends DOUBT... the Stinger. That’s right doubted the Stinger! So, I heard Lex Luger say: 'I know where he lives, I know where he works out, I'm gonna go get him.' So, I said to myself, I'll just go into seclusion. I'll wait and see what happens on Saturday Night, and I tuned in Saturday night, and what'd I see? More of the same... more DOUBT. Which brings me to Fall Brawl. I knew I had to get to Fall Brawl and get face to face with the Total Package to let him know that it wasn't me. And what I got out of that was, 'No Sting... I DON'T BELIEVE YOU STING!' Well, all I got to say is I have been mediator, I have been babysitter for Lex Luger, and I've given him the benefit of the doubt about a thousand times in the last twelve months! And I've carried the WCW banner, and I have given my blood, my sweat, and my tears for WCW! So, for all of those fans out there and all those wrestlers and people that never doubted the Stinger, I'll stand by you if you stand by me! But for all of the people, all of the commentators, all of the wrestlers, and all of the best friends who did doubt me, you can stick it! From now on I consider myself a free agent.”
After this promo, Sting disappeared for a few months. When we next saw Sting, he was dressed in all black with white face paint with black marks around each eye, similar to The Crow markings. Sting appeared while the N.W.O. Sting was facing off against J.L. the real Sting then proceeded to deliver a new move for him to the imposter Sting, the Scorpion Death Drop. Sting wasn’t done yet however, he dragged the imposter up by the head and propped him in the corner, giving him a Stinger Splash then finally locking on the Scorpion Deathlock. The surprising thing about this was, Hall, Nash and Ted DiBiase all sat around and watched, never trying to help their version of Sting. Once the real Sting vanquished the fake Sting, real Sting let the N.W.O. know he was less than impressed with their impersonation of him. Sting reiterated he was still a free agent and left with a quote that would become his calling card: “The only thing that is for sure about Sting is, nothing’s for sure.” With that Sting dropped the microphone and casually walked away.
Over the next few weeks, Sting would initiate some bizarre loyalty tests to random WCW wrestlers. He would often interrupt a match or appear after a match and shove the wrestler with a bat two or three times before handing the bat to the wrestler and slowly turn his back to them, almost daring them to attack him. Among the wrestlers tested were Rick and Scott Steiner, Lex Luger and then Randy Savage. Unlike with the Steiner Brothers and Luger, Savage actually walked out with Sting as he had been black balled by WCW and then WCW President Eric Bischoff said Savage would never wrestle for WCW again. Sting and Savage formed a weird alliance as both guys would come out and do the loyalty tests, namely to Diamond Dallas Page which really went nowhere until much later on.
At Superbrawl VII Sting and Savage would play a role in the main event which was Roddy Piper versus “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan. Sting and Savage would stand ominously in the aisle as Hogan and Piper did battle in the ring, when Savage tried to get a closer look of the action, Sting stopped him, but Savage went anyways. Savage would then help Hogan defeat Piper, thus joining the New World Order. Sting was betrayed by yet another ally, only making Sting’s distrust in fellow wrestlers stronger. Sting became even more of a loner, now beginning to come down from the ceiling and usually attack N.W.O. members. While he did fight off the N.W.O. many still speculated it was a ploy and Sting was simply playing mind games with WCW.
In March of 1997, Sting would declare his loyalty once again to WCW by coming down from the ceiling at the end of Uncensored and standing firmly with team WCW and standing on the middle rope while slowly pointing his long, black bat at Hollywood Hogan. As the crowd went nuts and announcers seemingly leaped for joy, Sting had come home and was now a clear enemy of the N.W.O. Despite this declaration though, Sting remained silent, letting his actions speak louder than words and he still had not wrestled a match in months. Over the next few months, newly crowned WCW President, James J. Dillan would offer Sting various contracts against different N.W.O. members but each time, Sting either walked away or tore the contract up.
After a third attempt to sign Sting to a match against an N.W.O. member failed, James J. Dillan bluntly asked Sting: “What do you want?” As these words left his mouth, the crowd in unison began chanting “Hogan” Sting grabbed James J. by his tie and dragged him around the ring, pointing to the audience. Sting then left the ring and grabbed a sign that read: Sting Wants Hogan J.J. Finally getting the hint James J. Dillan said he would do his best to sign the match the world wanted to see. Over the next few months Sting and Hogan would engage in a game of one upsmanship, Sting would use fake Sting’s to walk out during N.W.O. member matches, Hogan countered the following week by having Sting dummies fall from the ceiling. When Buff Bagwell struck a dummy that had fallen through the ring, the “dummy” didn’t budge and was revealed to be the real Sting! A terrified Hogan stood on the outside being “held back” by other N.W.O members.
These battles of mind games came to a head at Starrcade 1997 it was the clash that WCW had built up for an entire year! Sting WCW’s hero facing the evil “Hollywood” Hogan who had been trying to take over WCW and by this time pretty much had, the two biggest names in WCW at the time were set to battle but who would win? Well that is an easy question to answer, Sting of course?! Not so fast, see Hulk Hogan had creative control over his matches, this meant the only way a finish was going to happen in a match with Hogan was if Hogan himself gave the okay. Now allegedly what was supposed to happen was referee Nick Patrick was going to give a fast count when Hogan had Sting pinned, this would in turn bring out WCW’s newest signee, Bret Hart who was coming off of one of the biggest screw jobs in wrestling history. WCW had planned to redo the “Montreal Screw Job” and have Bret Hart come to the aid of the wronged Sting, referee restarts the match, Sting wins! Unfortunately for Bret Hart and Sting things went awry for whatever reason, Nick Patrick gave a perfectly paced three, count when Hogan pinned Sting after his trademark big leg drop, thus giving Hogan a clean pinfall victory. As planned, Bret Hart still came out, hit Nick Patrick stating: “I’ve seen this happen before and I’m not going to let it happen again!” Bret then got in the ring and said Hogan gave up and gave the win to Sting.
After this disastrous finish, basically all of Sting’s momentum they had built for the last year was gone. The finish of the match was awful, but the match itself also failed to deliver. After a year of running scared of the Stinger, Hogan came out at Starrcade and took the without exaggeration 90% of the match. Instead of looking like a conquering hero standing tall against evil, Sting was made to look like an over matched chump who’d bitten off more than he could chew. This was at this point, the biggest pay-per-view match WCW had ever assembled, the story was excellent, the anticipation was at a fever pitch and even the match should have been the easiest thing in the world to book: Sting beats Hogan no questions asked. Yet, the politics backstage in WCW were so toxic that they botched the biggest match they ever had. Now to be fair, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff have both claimed they felt Sting wasn’t ready to run with the ball, they state a lack of commitment on Sting’s end was why they did the finish they did. In fairness, yes Sting was battling personal issues away from the ring, his personal life was a mess. Sting was trying to be the Stinger on TV every week, but he would wear multiple hats when with various people outside the ring. Despite these issues however, Sting himself has said he was all in when it came to WCW and being the World Champion and seeing his appearances and effort he’d put forth it’s hard to dispute his dedication. Whatever the reasons were, the finish of this match in my opinion was really the first time we began to see just how toxic the political climate was in WCW.
With the Starrcade 1997 debacle behind them, WCW now tried putting a band-aid on it. The next night they did a rematch between Sting and Hogan, hoping to determine a clean winner, now why would you do a rematch of the match that gained you your biggest pay-per-view buy rate ever on free television? Anyways, this match too was marred by controversy as Nitro went off the air before the match ended. With two lackluster matches and not a definitive winner, WCW vacated the World Title, effectively stripping Sting of the title. But have no fear, we’ll have ANOTHER rematch at Superbrawl! And a rematch they did have and again, Hogan took most of the match and the rest of the N.W.O. got involved with Randy Savage hitting Hogan with a spray paint can and helping Sting get the win. Two big time World Title Matches and WCW’s hero, Sting was looking like he couldn’t do the job alone (To no fault of his own of course) While Sting was putting in the effort and was clearly on board with being the champion, he and Hogan never seemed to click in the ring and sometimes in wrestling that just happens, some guys’ styles don’t mesh together seamlessly.
Sting’s title reign as you could probably guess was not a very successful one, while yes he was the champion it was very obvious he still took a backseat to Hogan and the N.W.O. Sting’s reign would come to an end at Spring Stampede 1998 when with help from Kevin Nash, Randy Savage would defeat Sting and the focus of every show going forward turned to the N.W.O issues between Hogan and Savage. After this, Sting would find himself at a cross roads in his career, the N.W.O. would split into two groups, you had N.W.O. Hollywood lead by Hogan then you had N.W.O. Wolf-Pac lead by Kevin Nash. Sting’s best friend, Lex Luger had joined the Wolf-Pac and shortly thereafter, Sting joined the group as well. Now there were many issues with this logic, first off, Why would Sting join a faction he’d just spent a year fending off? Worse yet, this was never really explained other than “Hey Luger joined so Sting followed.” While the move was suspect, it did allow Sting to show the charisma he had back in the early 90’s so from that aspect the move to the Wolf-Pac rejuvenated the silent Sting, he also began painting his face red and black as oppose to white and black, giving him a fresh look as well.
In late 1998, Sting began a feud with new N.W.O. member Bret Hart, well he wasn’t officially an N.W.O. member, he was just a friend of Hollywood Hogan’s and helped him out from time to time. On an edition of WCW Nitro, Sting reunited with Blade Runners partner The Ultimate Warrior as they squared off against Hogan and Hart. While the match itself was nothing of note, seeing Sting team with Warrior after so many years apart was cool. Sting and Bret also had one of the great backstage brawls in history during this time as a main event of Monday Nitro. Sting and Hart brawled throughout the arena using anything they could to destroy each other, Bret even tried to run Sting over with a golf cart at one point. Sting was able to lock Bret in his Scorpion Deathlock, a move that was similar to Bret Hart’s finisher, the Sharpshooter which was the basis of their rivalry.
Despite being two tremendous talents, Sting and Hart were never given the opportunity to properly show what they could do. The brawl previously mentioned was probably their best showing ironically for two guys who were known as technicians. Their United States Title match at Halloween Havoc 1998 was good but again damaged by bad booking as the end saw Bret, while the referee was knocked out grab Sting’s bat and hit Sting three times with it before locking in his sharpshooter as the referee staggered to his feet and with Sting unconscious, declared Bret Hart the winner. Sting and Bret would not meet in a ring again until mid-1999 and both would be in different places in their careers.
While Sting wasn’t showing any rust or lack of interest in the ring at this time, the truth was outside the ring, Sting’s life was out of control. Drinking heavily, and multiple affairs as well as drug issues, Steve Borden needed help and there was nothing in wrestling that was going to be able to cure the chaos his life had become. In his “Moment of Truth” Sting was confronted by his then wife and in that moment, Steve Borden could no longer lie or hide what was going on with him. After this confession for lack of a better term, Sting turned his life to God telling God, “My way isn’t working, I give all things to you.” After this, Steve Borden’s drug and alcohol issues were washed away! Steve Borden became the man he’d always wanted to be. Sting like most people with any type of fame or notoriety fell into the many traps those responsibilities can create for you. He had plenty of hangers-on that were there for the handouts and Sting was happy to oblige them, after all he is by nature a generous human being. After his confession and taking the time he needed to get his personal life straightened out, Sting returned to professional wrestling, but unfortunately, he returned to a company that was quickly going down and there was no stopping it.
Sting made his come back to pro wrestling and WCW in March of 1999 and the landscape was completely different than when he had left. The N.W.O. storyline had ended, and Sting was not aligned with any of their factions. Sting also returned to the “classic” Crow look and was doing more promos than previously. Sting also returned to the main event scene at Spring Stampede 1999 competing in a fatal four-way match which also involved, Diamond Dallas Page, Hollywood Hogan Ric Flair and Randy Savage was the guest referee. While Sting came up short in this attempt, there was no doubt the Stinger was back and back in black! Sting would regain the WCW Championship a couple of weeks later on the April 26, 1999 edition of Monday Nitro where he and the champion Diamond Dallas Page had what many would say is the greatest match in the history of Nitro. After twenty-three intense minutes, Sting was able to defeat Dallas with is Scorpion Deathdrop and capture another world title.
Sting’s next big angle would be a flop as he would begin to question Hulk Hogan’s trust worthiness going into their match at Fall Brawl 1999. Hogan had recently returned to the red and yellow brother! And WCW fans were supposed to forget about all the awful things he’d done over the last three years. As it turned out, Sting was the one who couldn’t be trusted, and he turned bad on Hogan, as friend Lex Luger handed him the bat in the match and Sting used it it to gain the victory. It sure seems like any time Sting and Hogan wrestled even when Sting won, Hogan looked like the wronged party didn’t it? This was WCW’s lame attempt at generating buzz, having one of their most beloved wrestlers become a villain. The trouble was nobody wanted to boo Sting, and if I’m being totally objective, Sting really didn’t wrestle like a bad guy, his style didn’t change, he just used his bat a little more often as a weapon as oppose to a means of intimidation.
At Halloween Havoc 1999 it was supposed to be Sting versus Hulk Hogan in a rematch from Fall Brawl but instead, Hogan walked out in his street clothes and simply let Sting pin him. This was a move that confused fans as nobody really understood what was going on. Sting grabbed the microphone and told his disdain for what had just happened and made an open challenge for anyone to wrestle him for his world title. Goldberg would eventually accept the challenge and defeat Sting in a non-sanctioned match. Sting would lose the match to Goldberg and attack the referee, a move that got him stripped of the WCW Championship. Sting would then enter a 32-man tournament for the vacated world championship and defeat, Brian Knobbs, Meng and old ally, Lex Luger en route to the semi-finals where he would lose to Bret Hart who would go on to win the entire tournament.
By this time WCW was well beyond repair, years of bad contracts, political agendas and a toxic work environment had caught up to WCW and fans were fed up with the same old people being at the top. In 2001 Time Warner and AOL announced a merger and WCW’s fate was sealed, AOL did not want “Wrestling” in its portfolio and the decision was made to cut it once the merger happened. Eric Bischoff desperately tried getting Television networks to pick up WCW, but after a failed negotiation and WCW being millions of dollars in debt Bischoff sold WCW to Vince McMahon thus killing the brand and business in one fell swoop. With his main competitor going down, Vince and his staff became complacent and lazy, if you don’t believe me try watching a Raw in 2018 if you make it past thirty minutes you’re a better person than me. Sting would wrestle Ric Flair in the last WCW match held on TNT after the match Sting and Flair embraced celebrating what WCW had been and reflecting on what it had become.
After watching a wrestling promotion, he had poured his heart and soul into crumble and with wrestling fans becoming more blood thirsty, Sting decided it was time to walk away. Sting put his energy and efforts into his faith joining a Church and sharing his testimony around the country in hopes of guiding others to the right path and showing even a might warrior like Sting needed the help of God to get his life straight. It wouldn’t take long though for Sting to get the itch to wrestle and he soon joined World Wrestling All-Stars in a short run. After this Sting made sporadic appearances for Jeff Jarrett’s Total Non-Stop Action company from 2003 to 2004.
In 2005 Sting would sign with TNA for good and become a member of it’s roster. While Sting was older, he was still more than capable of having good to great matches. Sting would feud with stars like. Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christian Cage, and Abyss throughout the next 5 years. In 2010 Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff would become the on-screen owners of TNA and would wield a tremendous amount of power behind the scenes as well. Sting and cohort Kevin Nash walked away from TNA citing “We’re not going through this again.” An acknowledgement of past mistakes made in WCW. However, Sting would return just a month later, this time wearing his red and black face paint and again being portrayed as a heel. Just as in WCW, the Sting heel turn was a flop as fans still did not want to boo Sting. Eventually it would turn out that Sting and Nash were right all along, and Hogan and Bischoff were in TNA to Sabotage it. Hogan and Bischoff would form a group called Immortal, an obvious rip off of the old N.W.O. faction.
This would cause another turn for the Sting character as he would adapt a Heath Ledger Joker like mentality as he battled Immortal. This change refreshed Sting and brought out more personality than he had, had since the Wolf-Pac in 1999. The character was met with mixed feelings as some loved the new, insane icon and others preferred the brooding Sting of before. Personally, Joker Sting is one of my favorite incarnations of Sting, except the face paint, the smeared clown paint look, annoyed me, more because the paint was smeared as oppose to neatly put on. This run would be short lived as once he was able to get the TNA world title from Immortal he would go back to traditional Sting. By 2012 the damage done by signing Hogan and Bischoff to lucrative contracts and having nothing by way of merchandise sales, attendance or pay-per-view buy rates to show for it had been done. In my opinion the lowest point of Sting’s run in TNA came when he main evented a house show in a high school gym that was mostly empty. Shortly Sting’s last match for TNA happened on the January 23, 2014 episode of Impact where Sting would face TNA champion, Magnus in a title versus career match. Sting put his career on the line against the title of Magnus and Sting lost. After this Sting announced he was leaving TNA and as had been the case for the last ten years many speculated that he was on his way to WWE.
Many people believed it was just time for Sting to make a jump and have the dream match against Undertaker at WrestleMania. Even though both Sting and Undertaker were both north of forty by this point, both were still able to put on decent performances and plus with two personas like Sting and Undertaker there’d be a lot to play with as far as mind games go. Sting has always said his biggest reluctance in going to WWE was Vince wanted him to simply undermine WCW as oppose to wanting Sting based on his incredible talents and charisma. Sting would boost the talks of him joining WWE when he would make a very special appearance at Comic Con to announce his first ever WWE figure. Shortly after this in a trailer for WWE 2K14 Sting was revealed as a special-pre-order bonus, again creating a buzz that he was all but in WWE. Unfortunately, in April of 2014 Ultimate Warrior passed away and in honor of his legacy, WWE did an amazing tribute to Warrior exclusive (at the time) for the WWE Network, Sting also made a few appearances here as well, adding more fuel to the fire of a WWE run.
Finally, at Survivor Series 2014 in a moment that set the wrestling world on its ear, Sting made his very first official WWE appearance, attacking Triple H and helping Dolph Ziggler become the lone survivor of his team, thus in theory, vanquishing the Authority (lol) The next night’s Raw saw a huge rise in ratings as the world was talking about Sting finally joining WWE. Although Sting would not appear again for many months. Sting would not appear again until WWE Fastlane on February 22 where he had a face-to-face confrontation with Triple H. After getting a cheap shot on Sting, Triple H went to attack the downed icon, but Sting pulled his black bat from the sleeve of his black coat and held it to the throat of Triple H, backing him into the corner. Sting then slowly used his bat to point at the huge WrestleMania sign, indicating a challenge for a match at the “grandest stage of all” Triple H readily accepted. Sting again would disappear until March 16th where he would help Randy Orton fend off an attack from the Authority.
Sting would go on to WrestleMania and lose to Triple H for reasons? In a match that was hindered by Vince McMahon’s inability to get over the fact that WCW with huge help from Sting kicked his rear end for 86 weeks straight on Monday Nights. It wasn’t enough that Vince’s son-in-law beat a guy who was seen as the face of WCW, he had to make it all about WWE versus WCW and trot out a balding D-Generation X and a limped N.W.O. to showcase Another so-called dream match of DX versus the N.W.O. DX and a balding Shawn Michaels would help Triple H gain the victory in a match that was good up until the smoke and mirrors came along. After this, Sting would disappear again until he would appear at a coronation ceremony honoring Seth Rollins with a statue, accept Sting was where the statue was supposed to be. This led to a match between Seth Rollins and Sting at Night of Champions for the WWE Title.
This would end up being Sting’s last match as a Buckle Bomb from Rollins would injure Sting, while Sting gutted it out with a serious spinal injury, it was clear Sting wasn’t well after he crumbled while trying to duck a clothesline from Rollins. After this Sting would officially announce his retirement from wrestling as he was inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame and to date we have not seen Sting on WWE television since Night of Champions, despite the fact he is still more than capable of walking and talking just fine.
Now I bet you’re wondering: What about that match with Undertaker? Well that match is never going to happen as the Undertaker chose to wrestle Bray Wyatt in an uneventful match, his boss’ son Shane in a match that will only be remembered because Shane jumped from the top of a twenty-foot cell and a horrible match with Roman Reign which I advise anyone to AVOID watching. Undertaker had little to no interest in wrestling Sting despite the desire from fans to see the match. What’s next for Steve “Sting” Borden? I don’t know, after all the only thing that is for sure about Sting, is nothing’s for sure!
After defeating Flair and having some title defenses, Sting would lose the title to Flair in January of 1991. Despite this loss, the Stinger would not slow down, instead he would form a tag-team with good friend Lex Luger and the duo would face the Steiner Brothers at Superbrawl 1991 in one of the greatest tag-team matches off all time. At the end of the year, Sting would win the inaugural Battle Bowl, last eliminating Lex Luger, who had turned bad and joined manager and former eight-time World Champion, Harley Race. After this, Sting would enter a feud with Rick Rude and eventually, the entire Dangerous Alliance. The feud would culminate at WrestleWar 1992 in the brutal War Games match which was two rings, two cages, two teams of eight, in a no holds barred, anything goes match. Sting’s Squadron which was comprised of: Sting, Nikita Koloff, the Steiner Brothers and Rocky Steamboat, would get the win, thus ending Sting’s rivalry with the Dangerous Alliance and Rick Rude.
Shortly after this, Sting would defeat Lex Luger at Superbrawl 1992 to regain the WCW World heavyweight title. Sting’s next feud however, would be one of his toughest as he was now faced with the daunting task of squaring off against the 450-pound athletic monster known as Vader. Vader would injure Sting’s ribs in a match at the Omni, putting Sting out for several months. Upon his return, Sting would face Vader at the Great American Bash and surprisingly lose to the big man, giving Vader his first world championship. Sting and Vader would spend the better part of the next year battling one another, culminating in a brutal, bloody White Castle of Fear Strap Match at Superbrawl Three.
After his rivalry with Vader, Sting would then feud with the late, great Rick Rude one more time. Sting would defeat Vader for the International title at Slamboree in 1994. The match was originally scheduled to be Sting versus Rude, but due to a career ending back injury, Rick Rude was unable to compete and Sting refused to be handled the title. This made WCW make a match between Sting and Vader at their pay-per-view. Once Sting defeated Vader, he would then renew his rivalry with Ric Flair, this time culminating in title unification match at Clash of the Champions XXVII where Flair, with help from Sensational Sherri, would defeat Sting and unify the WCW World and International Championships.
1995 Would be a fairly good year for the Stinger, he would compete in and win the WCW United States Championship Tournament, defeating Meng in a classic match at the Great American Bash. Sting would also compete alongside, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Lex Luger to topple the challenge of the “dreaded” Dungeon of Doom, a host of over the top cartoon characters created with the sole purpose of getting Hulk Hogan cheered by the WCW faithful. After this victory Sting found himself in an awkward situation, long time enemy, Ric Flair had been feuding with his best friend and Horsemen comrade, Arn Anderson, who had enlisted the help of Brian Pillman now claiming to be the so-called “Loose Cannon” Flair would ask Sting to be his tag-team partner for a match against Anderson and Pillman on Nitro. Flair would practically beg Sting to join him, while reluctant, Sting agreed, but warned Flair if he stabbed him in the back in the slightest little way, he’d leave him for dead. but to the surprise of many, Sting did not show up until the closing moments of the match. True to his word Sting would leave Flair for “Dead” two weeks later when during a match, Sting refused to relinquish his finishing hold, the Scorpion Deathlock. Fellow wrestlers, referees and security tried to get Sting off Flair, but to avail; that was until friend, Lex Luger came out and talked Sting into letting Flair go.
1996 would be a monumental turning point for not only Sting, but for WCW as a whole. WCW would be invaded by former WWF wrestler, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash originally calling themselves The Outsiders. Sting would be the first person to stand up to Hall and Nash and rightfully so. WCW was Sting’s turf, he was the one of two guys who never left for the “Greener Pastures” of the WWF and now ex-WWF guys were trying to run WCW out? Sting wasn’t going to stand for that. The duo of Sting and Lex Luger were the first to push back against the Outsiders, they would then be joined by “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Unfortunately, despite these three Alpha males, Hall and Nash almost always got the edge, even when the Horsemen began backing Luger and Sting up, making the odds six against two. All this led to a gigantic six-man tag match at Bash at the Beach. Hall and Nash refused to let anyone know who their third man was. Going into the match it appeared as if it was going to be Scott Hall and Kevin Nash facing the team of Sting, Randy Savage and Lex Luger.
The match started off as a melee and Luger got taken out on a stretcher early, making the match a more traditional tag team match. Near the end, Savage and Sting looked defeated, exhausted and battered from a physical war with Hall and Nash when Hulk Hogan walked down to the ring. Hogan had not been seen in months due to the fact that despite being the “ultimate Good Guy” He was booed in almost every city WCW went to. As Hogan got in the ring, he ripped his shirt off and stared down Hall and Nash as they had scurried to the outside of the ring. In a move that would change the course of wrestling, Hulk Hogan dropped his big leg drop on Savage, allowing he, Hall and Nash to win the match, officially forming the New World Order. Sting and Luger would spend the next few months trying to get even with Nash and Hall, but The Outsiders were beginning to get a stranglehold on the tag team division and soon it was there’s all there’s.
Around August of 1996 Sting and Luger began trying to convince Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to join them as regardless of their previous issues, it wasn’t about the individuals anymore, it was about defending WCW from the New World Order. After some consideration, Flair and Anderson agreed and it looked like WCW had the advantage going into Fall Brawl and the War Games match itself. Again, going into a big match the N.W.O. refused to tell who the final member of their team was. (How many times can a company do a mystery partner angle?) On the Nitro before Fall Brawl the N.W.O. did reveal it’s fourth member as “Sting” when “Sting” attacked Lex Luger outside in the rain after coming out from the N.W.O. limousine. With this fourth man, it seemed like WCW was down a man leading many to ask, who was going to help team WCW now?
As Fall Brawl began, Sting confronted Lex Luger and told him it wasn’t him who had assaulted him the Monday prior on Nitro. Lex Luger then looked his best friend in the eyes and said “I don’t believe you Sting” seemingly taking the word of Ric Flair and Arn Anderson over his best friend’s. As the four members of team N.W.O. were dominating the three members of WCW, Sting, the real Sting that is appeared and beat down Hall, Nash, Syxx and the N.W.O. Sting, proving for the first time there were indeed two Sting’s (Although to anyone watching it was fairly obvious that the N.W.O. Sting was an imposter) the next night on Nitro, Sting would come out and address the distrust that Wrestlers, fans and commentators had shown in him with the following promo, with his back turned to the camera:
“I want a chance to explain something that happened last Monday night at Nitro. Last Monday night I was on an airplane flying from L.A. to Atlanta. When I got to Atlanta, I tuned in the TV to Nitro. And I thought I was watching a rerun! It was a very convincing film. Often imitated, but never duplicated though! And what else did I see? I saw people, I saw wrestlers, I saw commentators, and I saw best friends DOUBT... the Stinger. That’s right doubted the Stinger! So, I heard Lex Luger say: 'I know where he lives, I know where he works out, I'm gonna go get him.' So, I said to myself, I'll just go into seclusion. I'll wait and see what happens on Saturday Night, and I tuned in Saturday night, and what'd I see? More of the same... more DOUBT. Which brings me to Fall Brawl. I knew I had to get to Fall Brawl and get face to face with the Total Package to let him know that it wasn't me. And what I got out of that was, 'No Sting... I DON'T BELIEVE YOU STING!' Well, all I got to say is I have been mediator, I have been babysitter for Lex Luger, and I've given him the benefit of the doubt about a thousand times in the last twelve months! And I've carried the WCW banner, and I have given my blood, my sweat, and my tears for WCW! So, for all of those fans out there and all those wrestlers and people that never doubted the Stinger, I'll stand by you if you stand by me! But for all of the people, all of the commentators, all of the wrestlers, and all of the best friends who did doubt me, you can stick it! From now on I consider myself a free agent.”
After this promo, Sting disappeared for a few months. When we next saw Sting, he was dressed in all black with white face paint with black marks around each eye, similar to The Crow markings. Sting appeared while the N.W.O. Sting was facing off against J.L. the real Sting then proceeded to deliver a new move for him to the imposter Sting, the Scorpion Death Drop. Sting wasn’t done yet however, he dragged the imposter up by the head and propped him in the corner, giving him a Stinger Splash then finally locking on the Scorpion Deathlock. The surprising thing about this was, Hall, Nash and Ted DiBiase all sat around and watched, never trying to help their version of Sting. Once the real Sting vanquished the fake Sting, real Sting let the N.W.O. know he was less than impressed with their impersonation of him. Sting reiterated he was still a free agent and left with a quote that would become his calling card: “The only thing that is for sure about Sting is, nothing’s for sure.” With that Sting dropped the microphone and casually walked away.
Over the next few weeks, Sting would initiate some bizarre loyalty tests to random WCW wrestlers. He would often interrupt a match or appear after a match and shove the wrestler with a bat two or three times before handing the bat to the wrestler and slowly turn his back to them, almost daring them to attack him. Among the wrestlers tested were Rick and Scott Steiner, Lex Luger and then Randy Savage. Unlike with the Steiner Brothers and Luger, Savage actually walked out with Sting as he had been black balled by WCW and then WCW President Eric Bischoff said Savage would never wrestle for WCW again. Sting and Savage formed a weird alliance as both guys would come out and do the loyalty tests, namely to Diamond Dallas Page which really went nowhere until much later on.
At Superbrawl VII Sting and Savage would play a role in the main event which was Roddy Piper versus “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan. Sting and Savage would stand ominously in the aisle as Hogan and Piper did battle in the ring, when Savage tried to get a closer look of the action, Sting stopped him, but Savage went anyways. Savage would then help Hogan defeat Piper, thus joining the New World Order. Sting was betrayed by yet another ally, only making Sting’s distrust in fellow wrestlers stronger. Sting became even more of a loner, now beginning to come down from the ceiling and usually attack N.W.O. members. While he did fight off the N.W.O. many still speculated it was a ploy and Sting was simply playing mind games with WCW.
In March of 1997, Sting would declare his loyalty once again to WCW by coming down from the ceiling at the end of Uncensored and standing firmly with team WCW and standing on the middle rope while slowly pointing his long, black bat at Hollywood Hogan. As the crowd went nuts and announcers seemingly leaped for joy, Sting had come home and was now a clear enemy of the N.W.O. Despite this declaration though, Sting remained silent, letting his actions speak louder than words and he still had not wrestled a match in months. Over the next few months, newly crowned WCW President, James J. Dillan would offer Sting various contracts against different N.W.O. members but each time, Sting either walked away or tore the contract up.
After a third attempt to sign Sting to a match against an N.W.O. member failed, James J. Dillan bluntly asked Sting: “What do you want?” As these words left his mouth, the crowd in unison began chanting “Hogan” Sting grabbed James J. by his tie and dragged him around the ring, pointing to the audience. Sting then left the ring and grabbed a sign that read: Sting Wants Hogan J.J. Finally getting the hint James J. Dillan said he would do his best to sign the match the world wanted to see. Over the next few months Sting and Hogan would engage in a game of one upsmanship, Sting would use fake Sting’s to walk out during N.W.O. member matches, Hogan countered the following week by having Sting dummies fall from the ceiling. When Buff Bagwell struck a dummy that had fallen through the ring, the “dummy” didn’t budge and was revealed to be the real Sting! A terrified Hogan stood on the outside being “held back” by other N.W.O members.
These battles of mind games came to a head at Starrcade 1997 it was the clash that WCW had built up for an entire year! Sting WCW’s hero facing the evil “Hollywood” Hogan who had been trying to take over WCW and by this time pretty much had, the two biggest names in WCW at the time were set to battle but who would win? Well that is an easy question to answer, Sting of course?! Not so fast, see Hulk Hogan had creative control over his matches, this meant the only way a finish was going to happen in a match with Hogan was if Hogan himself gave the okay. Now allegedly what was supposed to happen was referee Nick Patrick was going to give a fast count when Hogan had Sting pinned, this would in turn bring out WCW’s newest signee, Bret Hart who was coming off of one of the biggest screw jobs in wrestling history. WCW had planned to redo the “Montreal Screw Job” and have Bret Hart come to the aid of the wronged Sting, referee restarts the match, Sting wins! Unfortunately for Bret Hart and Sting things went awry for whatever reason, Nick Patrick gave a perfectly paced three, count when Hogan pinned Sting after his trademark big leg drop, thus giving Hogan a clean pinfall victory. As planned, Bret Hart still came out, hit Nick Patrick stating: “I’ve seen this happen before and I’m not going to let it happen again!” Bret then got in the ring and said Hogan gave up and gave the win to Sting.
After this disastrous finish, basically all of Sting’s momentum they had built for the last year was gone. The finish of the match was awful, but the match itself also failed to deliver. After a year of running scared of the Stinger, Hogan came out at Starrcade and took the without exaggeration 90% of the match. Instead of looking like a conquering hero standing tall against evil, Sting was made to look like an over matched chump who’d bitten off more than he could chew. This was at this point, the biggest pay-per-view match WCW had ever assembled, the story was excellent, the anticipation was at a fever pitch and even the match should have been the easiest thing in the world to book: Sting beats Hogan no questions asked. Yet, the politics backstage in WCW were so toxic that they botched the biggest match they ever had. Now to be fair, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff have both claimed they felt Sting wasn’t ready to run with the ball, they state a lack of commitment on Sting’s end was why they did the finish they did. In fairness, yes Sting was battling personal issues away from the ring, his personal life was a mess. Sting was trying to be the Stinger on TV every week, but he would wear multiple hats when with various people outside the ring. Despite these issues however, Sting himself has said he was all in when it came to WCW and being the World Champion and seeing his appearances and effort he’d put forth it’s hard to dispute his dedication. Whatever the reasons were, the finish of this match in my opinion was really the first time we began to see just how toxic the political climate was in WCW.
With the Starrcade 1997 debacle behind them, WCW now tried putting a band-aid on it. The next night they did a rematch between Sting and Hogan, hoping to determine a clean winner, now why would you do a rematch of the match that gained you your biggest pay-per-view buy rate ever on free television? Anyways, this match too was marred by controversy as Nitro went off the air before the match ended. With two lackluster matches and not a definitive winner, WCW vacated the World Title, effectively stripping Sting of the title. But have no fear, we’ll have ANOTHER rematch at Superbrawl! And a rematch they did have and again, Hogan took most of the match and the rest of the N.W.O. got involved with Randy Savage hitting Hogan with a spray paint can and helping Sting get the win. Two big time World Title Matches and WCW’s hero, Sting was looking like he couldn’t do the job alone (To no fault of his own of course) While Sting was putting in the effort and was clearly on board with being the champion, he and Hogan never seemed to click in the ring and sometimes in wrestling that just happens, some guys’ styles don’t mesh together seamlessly.
Sting’s title reign as you could probably guess was not a very successful one, while yes he was the champion it was very obvious he still took a backseat to Hogan and the N.W.O. Sting’s reign would come to an end at Spring Stampede 1998 when with help from Kevin Nash, Randy Savage would defeat Sting and the focus of every show going forward turned to the N.W.O issues between Hogan and Savage. After this, Sting would find himself at a cross roads in his career, the N.W.O. would split into two groups, you had N.W.O. Hollywood lead by Hogan then you had N.W.O. Wolf-Pac lead by Kevin Nash. Sting’s best friend, Lex Luger had joined the Wolf-Pac and shortly thereafter, Sting joined the group as well. Now there were many issues with this logic, first off, Why would Sting join a faction he’d just spent a year fending off? Worse yet, this was never really explained other than “Hey Luger joined so Sting followed.” While the move was suspect, it did allow Sting to show the charisma he had back in the early 90’s so from that aspect the move to the Wolf-Pac rejuvenated the silent Sting, he also began painting his face red and black as oppose to white and black, giving him a fresh look as well.
In late 1998, Sting began a feud with new N.W.O. member Bret Hart, well he wasn’t officially an N.W.O. member, he was just a friend of Hollywood Hogan’s and helped him out from time to time. On an edition of WCW Nitro, Sting reunited with Blade Runners partner The Ultimate Warrior as they squared off against Hogan and Hart. While the match itself was nothing of note, seeing Sting team with Warrior after so many years apart was cool. Sting and Bret also had one of the great backstage brawls in history during this time as a main event of Monday Nitro. Sting and Hart brawled throughout the arena using anything they could to destroy each other, Bret even tried to run Sting over with a golf cart at one point. Sting was able to lock Bret in his Scorpion Deathlock, a move that was similar to Bret Hart’s finisher, the Sharpshooter which was the basis of their rivalry.
Despite being two tremendous talents, Sting and Hart were never given the opportunity to properly show what they could do. The brawl previously mentioned was probably their best showing ironically for two guys who were known as technicians. Their United States Title match at Halloween Havoc 1998 was good but again damaged by bad booking as the end saw Bret, while the referee was knocked out grab Sting’s bat and hit Sting three times with it before locking in his sharpshooter as the referee staggered to his feet and with Sting unconscious, declared Bret Hart the winner. Sting and Bret would not meet in a ring again until mid-1999 and both would be in different places in their careers.
While Sting wasn’t showing any rust or lack of interest in the ring at this time, the truth was outside the ring, Sting’s life was out of control. Drinking heavily, and multiple affairs as well as drug issues, Steve Borden needed help and there was nothing in wrestling that was going to be able to cure the chaos his life had become. In his “Moment of Truth” Sting was confronted by his then wife and in that moment, Steve Borden could no longer lie or hide what was going on with him. After this confession for lack of a better term, Sting turned his life to God telling God, “My way isn’t working, I give all things to you.” After this, Steve Borden’s drug and alcohol issues were washed away! Steve Borden became the man he’d always wanted to be. Sting like most people with any type of fame or notoriety fell into the many traps those responsibilities can create for you. He had plenty of hangers-on that were there for the handouts and Sting was happy to oblige them, after all he is by nature a generous human being. After his confession and taking the time he needed to get his personal life straightened out, Sting returned to professional wrestling, but unfortunately, he returned to a company that was quickly going down and there was no stopping it.
Sting made his come back to pro wrestling and WCW in March of 1999 and the landscape was completely different than when he had left. The N.W.O. storyline had ended, and Sting was not aligned with any of their factions. Sting also returned to the “classic” Crow look and was doing more promos than previously. Sting also returned to the main event scene at Spring Stampede 1999 competing in a fatal four-way match which also involved, Diamond Dallas Page, Hollywood Hogan Ric Flair and Randy Savage was the guest referee. While Sting came up short in this attempt, there was no doubt the Stinger was back and back in black! Sting would regain the WCW Championship a couple of weeks later on the April 26, 1999 edition of Monday Nitro where he and the champion Diamond Dallas Page had what many would say is the greatest match in the history of Nitro. After twenty-three intense minutes, Sting was able to defeat Dallas with is Scorpion Deathdrop and capture another world title.
Sting’s next big angle would be a flop as he would begin to question Hulk Hogan’s trust worthiness going into their match at Fall Brawl 1999. Hogan had recently returned to the red and yellow brother! And WCW fans were supposed to forget about all the awful things he’d done over the last three years. As it turned out, Sting was the one who couldn’t be trusted, and he turned bad on Hogan, as friend Lex Luger handed him the bat in the match and Sting used it it to gain the victory. It sure seems like any time Sting and Hogan wrestled even when Sting won, Hogan looked like the wronged party didn’t it? This was WCW’s lame attempt at generating buzz, having one of their most beloved wrestlers become a villain. The trouble was nobody wanted to boo Sting, and if I’m being totally objective, Sting really didn’t wrestle like a bad guy, his style didn’t change, he just used his bat a little more often as a weapon as oppose to a means of intimidation.
At Halloween Havoc 1999 it was supposed to be Sting versus Hulk Hogan in a rematch from Fall Brawl but instead, Hogan walked out in his street clothes and simply let Sting pin him. This was a move that confused fans as nobody really understood what was going on. Sting grabbed the microphone and told his disdain for what had just happened and made an open challenge for anyone to wrestle him for his world title. Goldberg would eventually accept the challenge and defeat Sting in a non-sanctioned match. Sting would lose the match to Goldberg and attack the referee, a move that got him stripped of the WCW Championship. Sting would then enter a 32-man tournament for the vacated world championship and defeat, Brian Knobbs, Meng and old ally, Lex Luger en route to the semi-finals where he would lose to Bret Hart who would go on to win the entire tournament.
By this time WCW was well beyond repair, years of bad contracts, political agendas and a toxic work environment had caught up to WCW and fans were fed up with the same old people being at the top. In 2001 Time Warner and AOL announced a merger and WCW’s fate was sealed, AOL did not want “Wrestling” in its portfolio and the decision was made to cut it once the merger happened. Eric Bischoff desperately tried getting Television networks to pick up WCW, but after a failed negotiation and WCW being millions of dollars in debt Bischoff sold WCW to Vince McMahon thus killing the brand and business in one fell swoop. With his main competitor going down, Vince and his staff became complacent and lazy, if you don’t believe me try watching a Raw in 2018 if you make it past thirty minutes you’re a better person than me. Sting would wrestle Ric Flair in the last WCW match held on TNT after the match Sting and Flair embraced celebrating what WCW had been and reflecting on what it had become.
After watching a wrestling promotion, he had poured his heart and soul into crumble and with wrestling fans becoming more blood thirsty, Sting decided it was time to walk away. Sting put his energy and efforts into his faith joining a Church and sharing his testimony around the country in hopes of guiding others to the right path and showing even a might warrior like Sting needed the help of God to get his life straight. It wouldn’t take long though for Sting to get the itch to wrestle and he soon joined World Wrestling All-Stars in a short run. After this Sting made sporadic appearances for Jeff Jarrett’s Total Non-Stop Action company from 2003 to 2004.
In 2005 Sting would sign with TNA for good and become a member of it’s roster. While Sting was older, he was still more than capable of having good to great matches. Sting would feud with stars like. Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christian Cage, and Abyss throughout the next 5 years. In 2010 Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff would become the on-screen owners of TNA and would wield a tremendous amount of power behind the scenes as well. Sting and cohort Kevin Nash walked away from TNA citing “We’re not going through this again.” An acknowledgement of past mistakes made in WCW. However, Sting would return just a month later, this time wearing his red and black face paint and again being portrayed as a heel. Just as in WCW, the Sting heel turn was a flop as fans still did not want to boo Sting. Eventually it would turn out that Sting and Nash were right all along, and Hogan and Bischoff were in TNA to Sabotage it. Hogan and Bischoff would form a group called Immortal, an obvious rip off of the old N.W.O. faction.
This would cause another turn for the Sting character as he would adapt a Heath Ledger Joker like mentality as he battled Immortal. This change refreshed Sting and brought out more personality than he had, had since the Wolf-Pac in 1999. The character was met with mixed feelings as some loved the new, insane icon and others preferred the brooding Sting of before. Personally, Joker Sting is one of my favorite incarnations of Sting, except the face paint, the smeared clown paint look, annoyed me, more because the paint was smeared as oppose to neatly put on. This run would be short lived as once he was able to get the TNA world title from Immortal he would go back to traditional Sting. By 2012 the damage done by signing Hogan and Bischoff to lucrative contracts and having nothing by way of merchandise sales, attendance or pay-per-view buy rates to show for it had been done. In my opinion the lowest point of Sting’s run in TNA came when he main evented a house show in a high school gym that was mostly empty. Shortly Sting’s last match for TNA happened on the January 23, 2014 episode of Impact where Sting would face TNA champion, Magnus in a title versus career match. Sting put his career on the line against the title of Magnus and Sting lost. After this Sting announced he was leaving TNA and as had been the case for the last ten years many speculated that he was on his way to WWE.
Many people believed it was just time for Sting to make a jump and have the dream match against Undertaker at WrestleMania. Even though both Sting and Undertaker were both north of forty by this point, both were still able to put on decent performances and plus with two personas like Sting and Undertaker there’d be a lot to play with as far as mind games go. Sting has always said his biggest reluctance in going to WWE was Vince wanted him to simply undermine WCW as oppose to wanting Sting based on his incredible talents and charisma. Sting would boost the talks of him joining WWE when he would make a very special appearance at Comic Con to announce his first ever WWE figure. Shortly after this in a trailer for WWE 2K14 Sting was revealed as a special-pre-order bonus, again creating a buzz that he was all but in WWE. Unfortunately, in April of 2014 Ultimate Warrior passed away and in honor of his legacy, WWE did an amazing tribute to Warrior exclusive (at the time) for the WWE Network, Sting also made a few appearances here as well, adding more fuel to the fire of a WWE run.
Finally, at Survivor Series 2014 in a moment that set the wrestling world on its ear, Sting made his very first official WWE appearance, attacking Triple H and helping Dolph Ziggler become the lone survivor of his team, thus in theory, vanquishing the Authority (lol) The next night’s Raw saw a huge rise in ratings as the world was talking about Sting finally joining WWE. Although Sting would not appear again for many months. Sting would not appear again until WWE Fastlane on February 22 where he had a face-to-face confrontation with Triple H. After getting a cheap shot on Sting, Triple H went to attack the downed icon, but Sting pulled his black bat from the sleeve of his black coat and held it to the throat of Triple H, backing him into the corner. Sting then slowly used his bat to point at the huge WrestleMania sign, indicating a challenge for a match at the “grandest stage of all” Triple H readily accepted. Sting again would disappear until March 16th where he would help Randy Orton fend off an attack from the Authority.
Sting would go on to WrestleMania and lose to Triple H for reasons? In a match that was hindered by Vince McMahon’s inability to get over the fact that WCW with huge help from Sting kicked his rear end for 86 weeks straight on Monday Nights. It wasn’t enough that Vince’s son-in-law beat a guy who was seen as the face of WCW, he had to make it all about WWE versus WCW and trot out a balding D-Generation X and a limped N.W.O. to showcase Another so-called dream match of DX versus the N.W.O. DX and a balding Shawn Michaels would help Triple H gain the victory in a match that was good up until the smoke and mirrors came along. After this, Sting would disappear again until he would appear at a coronation ceremony honoring Seth Rollins with a statue, accept Sting was where the statue was supposed to be. This led to a match between Seth Rollins and Sting at Night of Champions for the WWE Title.
This would end up being Sting’s last match as a Buckle Bomb from Rollins would injure Sting, while Sting gutted it out with a serious spinal injury, it was clear Sting wasn’t well after he crumbled while trying to duck a clothesline from Rollins. After this Sting would officially announce his retirement from wrestling as he was inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame and to date we have not seen Sting on WWE television since Night of Champions, despite the fact he is still more than capable of walking and talking just fine.
Now I bet you’re wondering: What about that match with Undertaker? Well that match is never going to happen as the Undertaker chose to wrestle Bray Wyatt in an uneventful match, his boss’ son Shane in a match that will only be remembered because Shane jumped from the top of a twenty-foot cell and a horrible match with Roman Reign which I advise anyone to AVOID watching. Undertaker had little to no interest in wrestling Sting despite the desire from fans to see the match. What’s next for Steve “Sting” Borden? I don’t know, after all the only thing that is for sure about Sting, is nothing’s for sure!