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CLG WRESTLING LEGENDS REVIEW EDITION 1: THE ICON STING

By Charlie Greenfield on 1/18/2015 11:47 AM

CLG Wrestling Legends Review Edition 1: “The Icon” Sting

In professional wrestling many wrestling legends have been produced. The industry has produced many great legends like Bruno Sammartino, Buddy Rogers, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan who all peaked at different times in the 20th century. These are wrestling legends from the old school era and in the last 20 years others have been produced from the likes of The Undertaker, Sting, Steve Austin and The Rock. They all made a name for themselves for their respective promotions, setting a high standard, producing great matches, moments that will always be remembered and creating a legacy that made them legends in the wrestling business.

This is new weekly column will look at wrestlers that made a difference to the industry and will look into the reasons why they are legends in the wrestling business. In this first edition, I will look at one of the most iconic wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling, he made his name as the franchise of WCW, changing from the surfer gimmick to the black and white crow, to becoming one of the biggest draws in the Monday Night Wars, returning to wrestling in 2006 for TNA after a 5 year absence and to making his debut for WWE in November 2014, making him the last big former WCW star to have not moved to the WWE since WCW closure in 2001.  

He is known as “The Icon” Sting, having been in the wrestling industry for 30 years, he made his name by becoming the face of WCW for more than a decade and becoming their most loyal servant throughout the time he was there until it closed in 2001. He became one of the biggest draws for them in the Monday Night Wars, setting some of the biggest pay per view buy rates and TV audiences during the hottest period in wrestling for WCW in the mid and late 1990s. Sting’s most notable finisher moves are the Stinger Splash, Scorpion Death Lock and Scorpion Death Drop. In this column we will look at reasons why he is a wrestling legend, by looking back at his career and the impact he has made on the industry as a whole. We will look at his time in WCW, TNA and his latest, possibly last career move to WWE.

Sting aka Steve Borden made his debut in the 1980s working as a tag team with Jim Hellwig (Ultimate Warrior), known as the Blade Runners, initially his career did not start off very quickly working as a tag team, and development was quite slow. It was not until they split up, where he went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions, which would end up being called WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and Jim Hellwig went to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).

In WCW Sting was to become one of the rising stars for the company. He represented a new era at the time, by having a gimmick that related to a younger audience who wanted to see someone they could care about. His gimmick was different from others in the 1980s and represented a change, WCW had lots of old school style gimmicks, but nothing that could relate to a younger audience and Sting’s gimmick allowed for a new following in WCW. His bleached blond hair, bright colour face paint and glam rock jackets were a completely different look from the old school wrestlers like Ric Flair.

He was a star in the making and main evented some of the big shows very early on. Ric Flair handpicked Sting as someone he could make a star that could carry WCW in the 1990s. Ric Flair was one of the biggest, most respected wrestlers in the 1980s and wanted to help make him a star. He was a natural at making new stars, and he was the natural bad guy who did everything he could to make the good guy look better than him. The reason for this is because when you are a bad guy, you need a good guy that is equal at the same level, without this there is no way a storyline will get over.

Sting and Ric Flair had some classic matches in his early career in WCW, having a 45 minute time limit draw at Clash of Champions in 1988, to having another time limit draw in 1989. It was not until the Great American Bash show, where he would win the world championship against Ric Flair in another great match, setting him up as the franchise for the WCW promotion. Ric Flair had put Sting on the map!

During the early 1990s Sting would have noticeable feuds with Big Van Vader, Cactus Jack, Lex Luger and Rick Rude having good matches, and continue to represent WCW as the main good guy. But in 1994, Hulk Hogan joined WCW making him the top good guy for the company, pushing him down the pecking order. Eric Bischoff, who controlled WCW wanted to hire the biggest name in the industry to represent WCW and Sting was pushed down. But because he had represented WCW for 7 years, wrestling fans saw him as a character created from WCW and still valued him highly, even though he was not the top good guy anymore.

But it would not be long until he would be the top franchise player for WCW again, because one of the biggest moments in wrestling history happened in 1996, when Hulk Hogan would become a heel and join a faction group called the New World Order (NWO). Hulk Hogan had never become a bad guy in wrestling and because he had been a good guy for so long, wrestling fans were in real life turning their backs on him and when Hulk Hogan turned heel, this left the door open for Sting to be the top baby face again.  

With Hulk Hogan becoming the main heel, this would allow Sting to feud with him in the main events. But for this to happen, Sting would need to change his gimmick also. After having the same surfer gimmick for 9 years, it was time for change, as the character had gone stale and needed to represent a different character direction. It was a change that would see a different side and in 1996, he no longer had the bleached blond hair, colourful face paint and glam rock jackets, in its place was a dark look, black and white face paint and a black baseball bat.

He would become known as the Crow Sting, as his gimmick was designed, where he would stalk Hulk Hogan and his group the New World Order for a whole year, from the rafters and making occasionally appearances beating the crap out of them. The feud between Hulk Hogan and Sting, would last throughout the whole year of 1997, where he would not wrestle in that time and Hulk Hogan would become the biggest heel in wrestling. The year long feud would set huge TV audiences for WCW in 1997 and become one of the biggest storylines in wrestling at that time. Sting and Hulk Hogan would face each other in the big match at Starcade in 1997, where he would win the world title, setting one of the biggest pay per view buy rates in the history of WCW. This made him the face of WCW again and becoming the hero of the company, after the New World Order and Hulk Hogan had taken over for the best part of 18 months.

After his feud with Hulk Hogan, he would continue to feud with the NWO having more matches with Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Randy Savage, but by this point WCW was now becoming a bit of a joke and ended up all over the place from 1998 to 2001, when WCW closed its doors. Sting was always loyal continuing to do the best he could, no matter how bad the storylines were. He was always a company player, but ultimately due to the bad booking no one cared for the product or Sting. When the last WCW show was produced in 2001, it was an end of an era for Sting and no one knew where he whether he would join WWE after the closure.

Sting disappeared from the radar of wrestling in 2001 to 2005, only making a handful of wrestling appearances for World Wrestling All Stars and TNA. He was approached quite a few times to join WWE, but ultimately could not agree to a contract with the company. It was not until 2006, when he would make his return to wrestling at the age of 45 and try to make an impact on the industry once again.

Sting would join TNA (Total Nonstop Action) and make his full time return to the ring. He wanted to return to wrestling because he had missed it and wanted to help establish TNA, as an alternative to the WWE product. During his time helped TNA become a promotion that allowed new stars to be created. He wanted to help the new generation come in and develop them as the next top stars, like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Abyss. But the problem was that it was now 2006, and a lot of the wrestling fans that watched him in the 1990s, did not watch wrestling anymore and his drawing power for TV and pay per views was not there.

He was one of the main players for TNA, being in the main event for some of the biggest shows and winning the world title a number of times, but during his 8 years with the company and as time went on it was clear that Sting had just become another wrestler on the card each week. He was involved in some big feuds with Kurt Angle and turned heel joining a faction called the Main Event Mafia, but he was never good as being a bad guy and ultimately turned back as a baby face. He would wrestle his old rivals again in TNA against Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Mick Foley, but the matches were not like they were in the past, as they had now all aged into their 50's.

Sting left TNA in January 2014, at the age of 54. It was a sign that his career was coming to an end, but he knew he wanted to wrestle at least one match in the WWE. He was the last wrestler from the WCW era to have not appeared on WWE television, but in November 2014 at Survivor Series he made his first ever LIVE appearance for them. One of the biggest debuts in 2014 and ultimately caught everyone off guard, when he appeared on the show and it was confirmed he had signed a contract with them. Vince McMahon the Chairman of the WWE, said that Sting would be part of Wrestlemania 31.

Rumours have been going around that Sting is likely to either face either Triple H or The Undertaker. If I was to pick an opponent, it would The Undertaker, because he was the most loyal wrestler for the WWE and Sting was the most loyal for WCW. They both have gimmicks that could work well together and the visuals graphics effects they could do, can be off the charts. It is really the last dream match out there that no one has ever seen and for the chance for Sting to retire at Wrestlemania in front of a full capacity crowd in the tens of thousands will be the right way for him to go out. He will also need to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, due to his efforts he has put into the business to end his legacy.

Sting has been in the business for 30 years and will go down as a legend in this business winning multiple world titles in WCW and TNA, having some great matches with Ric Flair, drawing some of the biggest buy rates in WCW history, he really was the franchise player for them and became a loyal servant for both WCW and TNA, even though WWE wanted him. He is making the move now, but he has done it because he knows that it is now or never and will be the best way to cap of a great career. He is one of my favourite wrestlers of all time and rank him up there in the top 20 of all time. Sting is truly an “Icon” and a legend in this business.

Thanks for reading, in my next column I will look at arguably one the greatest in ring performers of all time Kurt Angle.

Charlie Liam Greenfield