Sting — page 17

You know Sting will debut on this Monday Night Raw now…

10th April 2014 by Scott Keith
Scott,

Warrior was a close friend of mine (I also had the pleasure of growing up in the same city Chris Benoit called home — Peachtree City, Ga — and used to talk to him at the gym all the time). 

Benoit's death hit me hard, because he was the nicest guy in the world and I always saw him walking around the golf cart paths of my home town with his son on his shoulders. 

Warrior's death is unbelievably tragic, because he was so happy to be back with the WWE and was poised to tell  new stories (though his last appearance on RAW was so prophetic). 

I met Warrior in 2003 at a conservative function in D.C. and thereafter we would talk three or four times a year on the phone for hours on end. 

He was incredibly passionate and the true man shown through at the HOF this past weekend, with his love for his wife and daughters the highlight of the show (and, by all the tweets from wrestlers, something they all noticed as well). 

Back in 2010, we were talking on the phone right before Wrestlemania 26 in Phoenix and he told me how close he was to going in the HOF then, but he couldn't do it until they told the right story (which they did on the new DVD). He told me at a meeting with WWE to go over the libel lawsuit surrounding the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, all of a sudden Vince came from behind and gave him a huge bear hug… as if nothing had happened between 1996 and 2010 in their relationship…. ha. 

Warrior was alpha, one of a kind. The media storm surrounding his horrific death is testament to this and the power sports-entertainers (wrestlers) have over the public imagination. 

That he was able to come back and end things ON HIS NOTE (with perhaps the most eerie final promo in the history of… promos)… isn't that the most poignant way to end an incredibly enigmatic and obviously inspiration life?

Anyways… if Sting has signed with the company (though they weren't that close after the Blade Runners broke up), it makes too much sense to have him debut this coming Monday Night at some point, especially to fill the role of ambassador Warrior was set to do. 

What say you?

See, I don't even know that Sting and Warrior were close past their initial association in the 80s.  Sting certainly gave no indications of being in touch with Warrior in any of the interviews he's done.  However, I think Sting's a pretty well-spoken and well-respected guy who would do fine as a goodwill ambassador for the company.  Or if nothing else he can hang out on Wall Street and point baseball bats at anyone trying to sell their WWE stock.  
I think they can disguise him pretty well in the ring if he's doing limited stuff, because I feel like the younger guys would respect him so much that they'd be lining up to sell his offense and would probably keep him from getting too exposed.  If he was to take on a role where he was, say, mentoring the Shield or teaming with John Cena against the Wyatts to even the odds (and you know Cena would mark out for that) he'd probably do fine.  
Rants →

Sting, seriously?

6th April 2014 by Scott Keith
Someone has probably brought this up before, but I can't be the only person confused by all the excitement over the idea of Sting coming to WWE, especially as a possible Undertaker WM opponent. Why does/would anyone give a shit about Sting in 2014? It's been a VERY long time since he did anything relevant in wrestling (TNA=lol) and I bet that if Vince thought he was anything close to a big deal he would have brought him in by 2003. Also, he is nowhere near good enough in the ring these days to handle a big Taker match. Am I crazy?
Well I guess we'll find out.  But Sting made the most money of his career sitting in the rafters and looking menacing, so why not try it again?  
Rants →

We Want Sting!

14th February 2014 by Scott Keith

With negotiations in place for Sting to work for WWE I felt
the need to reflect upon the storied career of The Man Called Sting.

I’ll save everyone the time that we’ll all spend watching
Sting’s biography on the new WWE Network by leaving that information alone.
After all we want to read about the wrestler Sting and not so much the person
Steve Borden, right?

Let’s turn the clock back to 1985 when Borden started wrestling
in the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) with a bleach blond flattop, rat
tail, and face paint and called himself Flash Borden. While in CWA he was
partnered with Jim Hellwig as The Freedom Fighters. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6pFj_dRiQY
) Since they were unable to get over as babyfaces they turned heel, changed
their team’s name to the Blade Runners, and changed their own characters to
Sting and Rock. Unfortunately, the Blade Runners fizzled in CWA so they moved
on to the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF).

When Rock ultimately left the UWF to debut in World Class
Championship Wrestling (WCCW), Sting remained and joined the Hotstuff and Hyatt
International stable captained by “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt.
Partnered with Gilbert, Sting won the UWF tag team titles twice in 1986 and once
with Rick Steiner in 1987.

Sting’s days as a heel ended when he was attacked by Gilbert
during his match against Terry Taylor. “Gentleman” Chris Adams rescued him then
questioned his loyalty. Sting chose to align himself with Adams and became a
babyface.

Upon the acquisition of the UWF by Jim Crockett Promotions Sting
was recognized as a rising star by booker “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. In
order to showcase Sting, Dusty partnered him in a six-man tag match with
Michael P.S. Hayes and Jimmy Garvin against Gilbert, Steiner, and Larry Zbyszko
at Starrcade ’87. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3u38c_sting-the-freebirds-vs-r-steiner-l_sport)

From there his star
shined brightly during his segments on World Championship Wrestling. Regularly
he would excite the crowd with what would become his trademark howl.
Additionally the Stinger Splash and Scorpion Deathlock (sharpshooter) became
his trademark moves. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmBFZqZ4d4Y)

During the first Clash of the Champions in March 1988 Sting
faced his toughest challenge to date—NWA World Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Their 45 minute match ended in a time-limit draw and is considered a ****1/2 to
***** classic. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeCECLyF8vs)

Throughout the rest of 1988 Sting was embroiled in feuds
with the Four Horsemen among others. At the Great American Bash he teamed with
“The Russian Nightmare” Nikita Koloff to wrestle against NWA World Tag Team
Champions Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson to a time-limit draw. At Starrcade
’88 Sting teamed with Rhodes to face the freshly heel-turned Road Warriors for
the World Tag titles but only won by disqualification (DQ). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npNaYbpnBig)

In 1989 Sting won his first singles title by beating Mike
Rotundo for the NWA World Television title. He would hold the title until the
Great American Bash in a fantastic match against the Great Muta. Due to a
controversial finish the title was held up. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2WfqXNwQ0U
)

During the main event Sting rescued former adversary Flair
from a post-match beating orchestrated by Terry Funk and Muta. Sting and Flair
would settle that feud with a victory in a Thunderdome cage match at Halloween
Havoc. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAMY_swXQHM)
Subsequently Sting joined Flair, Arn, and Ole Anderson as a member of the Four
Horsemen.

At Starrcade ’89 Sting participated in and won the singles
Iron Man tournament making him the #1 contender for Flair’s World title. Consequently
this did not sit well with the other Horsemen, and Sting was summarily booted
after a vicious beating during Clash of the Champions X. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2W63rYGcQI)

In the show’s main event Sting attempted to climb the cage
to get to Flair; however, he suffered a severe knee injury which not only knocked
him out of action for several weeks but also cost him his title shot at the
WrestleWar ’90 PPV. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN_yLrCvHYM)

At said PPV Sting appeared while on crutches during the main
event to show support for his friend Lex Luger. Nonetheless Ole Anderson
attacked him causing Luger to lose the match by countout. Sting would be
tormented again by the Four Horsemen at the Capitol Combat PPV although he
would astonishingly be rescued by RoboCop! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuAKfG9JOns)

Finally upon his recovery Sting defeated Flair for the NWA
World title at the Great American Bash. While the victory seemed predictable the
pop for Sting was tremendous. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI2fN_4s8YI)
At Halloween Havoc Sting defended the World title against Sid Vicious. In a
mysterious twist it appeared that Sting had been pinned; nevertheless, Sting
re-emerged from the back having been tied up and defeated Sid.( http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4of8m_halloween-havoc-1990-sting-vs-sid-v_sport)
 In addition to those shenanigans Sting also
dealt with an enigma called the Black Scorpion.

Regrettably WCW also experienced a dilemma regarding the
Black Scorpion in that they didn’t cast the character properly. Originally the
character was supposed to be played by Al Perez. In fact Perez challenged Sting
at Clash of the Champions XII under the Black Scorpion disguise; however, he
quit the promotion before the angle ran its course. Jeff Ellis and The Angel of
Death filled in as the Black Scorpion at house shows. But for Starrcade ’90
Flair stepped in to fill the shoes of the Black Scorpion and was unmasked after
the cage match with Sting to blow off this hokey feud. (http://www.wwe.com/videos/sting-vs-the-black-scorpion-starrcade-1990-nwa-world-heavyweight-championship-st-26025573)

Less than a month later Sting dropped the NWA World title to
Flair in East Rutherford, NJ, but the loss didn’t take anything away from his
shining stardom. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dGtW31X83s)
In fact at the inaugural SuperBrawl he teamed with Lex Luger to challenge the WCW
Tag Team Champion Steiner Brothers in what turned out to be one of the greatest
matches in wrestling history. (http://www.wwe.com/videos/the-steiner-brothers-vs-sting-and-lex-luger-26009312)

Following the match Sting feuded with Nikita Koloff but lost
in a Russian chain match at Great American Bash ‘91. In August he won the
vacant US title by beating “Stunning” Steve Austin in the tournament final (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x71bnf_sting-vs-steve-austin-u-s-title-cli_sport)
and would hold the title until Clash of the Champions XVII when he lost to
“Ravishing” Rick Rude. (http://www.wwe.com/videos/sting-vs-rick-rude-clash-of-the-champions-november-19-1991-26055937)

At Starrcade ’91 Sting won the Battlebowl battle royal and
the prize of the #1 contender’s spot to the WCW World title. He would face Lex
Luger at SuperBrawl II and win his first WCW World title. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ssoz_sting-vs-lex-luger-wcw-title_sport)
Interestingly the victory occurred while Sting was involved in a feud with Dangerous
Alliance managed by Paul E. Dangerously. The feud culminated in a WarGames match
at WrestleWar ’92 which was both a bloodbath and a classic. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz7btc_01-92-05-17-wargames-wrestlewar_sport)

As 1992 rolled on Sting encountered an opponent with whom he
would have legendary encounters—Big Van Vader. Sting would lose the WCW World
title to Vader at the Great American Bash. Rebounding quickly he defeated
Cactus Jack in a thrilling match at Beach Blast. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai0oOwQZ_XA)

Later that year at Halloween Havoc Sting would be included
in what some would call a “dream match” with Jake “The Snake” Roberts; however,
WCW supposedly didn’t gimmick the wheel. (http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x142i3_JustPosting_halloween-havoc-1992/1#video=x6pomq)
So they faced off in a Coal Miner’s Glove match, but the dream became a
nightmare in spite of Sting’s victory as the match felt flat. At Starrcade ’92
Sting would avenge his earlier loss to Vader in the final of the King of Cable
tournament.

But that would not end their war as Vader had won the WCW
World title from Ron Simmons and challenged Sting to a strap match at
SuperBrawl III. Although the title was not on the line Vader defeated Sting. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihwAbLHpMRw)
Later that summer Sting was associated with Davey Boy Smith in a banal mini-movie
to hype their match against Vader and Vicious. (http://www.frequency.com/video/wcw-beach-blast-1993-countdown-show/108371839/-/5-885)

At SuperBrawl IV Sting was intertwined in a six-man
Thundercage match with “Flyin’” Brian Pillman and “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes
against “Stunning” Steve Austin, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, and “Mr. Wonderful”
Paul Orndorff. Sting’s team won; however, Rude slammed the cage door on Sting’s
face and gave him a Rude Awakening. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUPUwUGeJDU)

This led to a series of matches that centered on the WCW
International World title. Sting beat Rude for said title in April, but “lost”
in May in a match that ended up costing Rude his career. In lieu of being
handed the title, Sting defeated Vader at Slamboree to fill its vacancy.  (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5mduq_slamboree-1994-sting-vs-vader_sport)

For Clash of the Champions XXVII WCW wanted to unify their
World titles and pitted Sting against WCW World Champion Flair. Using excellent
psychology on the part of Sherri Martel, Flair defeated Sting. (http://www.wwe.com/videos/ric-flair-vs-sting-clash-of-the-champion-xxvii-wcw-world-and-international-champ-26009634)

After an extensive feud with Kevin Sullivan’s Dungeon of
Doom (which included another US title reign) Sting met Flair again on the very
first Monday Nitro but lost by DQ due to interference by Arn Anderson. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fk7Dr3Qfsw)
As a result of the interference Flair asked Sting to assist him in a tag team
match against Pillman and Anderson at Halloween Havoc.

Considering the history of bad blood Sting had with Flair
since ’88 he remained skeptical. Surprisingly he gave Flair one last chance
being the nice guy that he is. However nobody ever accused Sting of being smart
allegedly. So, in an angle considered old school even for 1995, Sting tagged
with Flair, but Flair turned on him recreating the Four Horsemen with Brian Pillman,
Arn Anderson, and Chris Benoit.  Definitely
check this out: (http://www.wwe.com/videos/ric-flair-sting-vs-arn-anderson-brian-pillman-halloween-havoc-1995-26009446)

Although Sting would get his revenge against Flair at World
War 3 the bad blood continued to flow until Starrcade where Sting would meet
Flair and Luger in a great triangle match to determine the #1 contender to the
WCW World title. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a488r_sting-vs-ric-flair-vs-lex-luger-wcw-starrcade-1995_sport)

By 1996 Sting began altering his appearance by growing his
hair longer and darker but maintained the face paint. While tagging with Luger
they traded the WCW World Tag Team titles with Harlem Heat. But the best was
yet to come.

In June the Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) invaded
WCW and wanted Sting, Luger, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage in a tag match at
Bash at the Beach. In a match that changed wrestling history Hulk Hogan who
seemed to be rescuing the WCW wrestlers turned heel and became the leader of
the nWo. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO9zxsRzN-M)

Following the formation of the nWo Sting was being courted to
become a member. In fact, the nWo orchestrated a ploy to con WCW wrestlers into
thinking Sting had become a member and attacked Luger; however, Sting was being
impersonated by Jeff Farmer. Since Sting felt he had been besmirched by fellow
WCW wrestlers he walked out in the middle of the WarGames match against the nWo
at Fall Brawl. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74rxa_wargames-fall-brawl-1996-part-2_sport)

The next night on Nitro Sting turned his back on WCW and
became a “free agent.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dit0sfMCYpI)
Sting would not reappear to the WCW audience until October 21 when he attacked
nWo Sting with his new move The Scorpion Death Drop—an inverted DDT and turned
down the offer to join the nWo. Sting’s appearance changed further in this
episode as he donned a black trench coat and wore white face paint with black
markings.

As 1997 began Sting joined “blackballed” Randy Savage in the
ring on Nitro to oppose the nWo. On subsequent Nitros Sting and Savage would be
seen in the rafters leading up to SuperBrawl. At the event Savage turned his
back on Sting and joined the nWo. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15yu25_hollywood-hulk-hogan-vs-rowdy-roddy-piper-wcw-heavyweight-title_sport)

At WCW Uncensored Sting repelled from the rafters to attack
the nWo. In an epic moment his allegiance to WCW had been cemented. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcMHSvnbS28)
With the exception of the buffoonery played by Commissioner JJ Dillon everyone,
including the audience, knew Sting wanted to face Hogan. Knowing it had quite
the marquee matchup WCW did everything in their power to keep the two goliaths
from meeting until Starrcade.

Meanwhile Sting periodically repelled from the ceiling to
assist WCW in their war against the nWo. Most times he succeeded; however,
other times they got the best of him. Sting became so popular that WCW decided
to create a mask for Sting fans. These masks would prove to be extremely
popular insomuch as the nWo masqueraded as Sting in high-profile matches. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1nz3s_hogan-vs-piper-hh-97-prt2_sport)

When Hogan and Sting eventually fought at Starrcade WCW
faced a conundrum. Eric Bischoff, President of WCW at the time, was known for
creating controversial storylines. By December of 1997 WCW’s main competitor, the
World Wrestling Federation (WWF), had unceremoniously turfed Bret Hart out of
the promotion weeks prior to Starrcade creating a tremendous amount of
controversy for themselves in an attempt to garner attention as well as ratings
and away from WCW.

A clean finish by Sting over Hogan was the logical choice
but not the proper choice in order to create controversy in order to keep the
paying customer around longer. In theory this makes sense while in practice the
controversy contained mixed signals. Let’s go over the particulars:

First, instead of Sting repelling from the ceiling, kicking
Hogan’s butt for 10 minutes, and winning the WCW World title in dominant
fashion, Sting simply walked through the entrance, received the brunt of the punishment
of the match, and was pinned due to a “fast count.” Second, referee Nick
Patrick allegedly “forgot” to make it a fast count; therefore, it looked like
the match was over.

Third, Bret Hart debuted for WCW as a special guest referee
for the Bischoff-Zbyszko match. Upon seeing the “injustice” of the questionable
pin Hart decked Patrick, restarted the match, and counted Hogan’s submission to
give the WCW World title to Sting. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZbjpZQ4S8)

Fourth Dillon decided to hold a rematch on the following Nitro.
To make matters worse WCW purposely “ran outta time” (tm Tony
Schiavone) keeping the audience watching at home in suspense for the debut
episode of WCW Thunder. Lastly, due to the controversial finish in this match
Dillon vacated the WCW title until SuperBrawl VIII. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4nnx9_nitro-29-12-1997-sting-vs-hulk-hoga_sport)
All in all an 18-month storyline that should have concluded with Sting looking
strong and triumphant instead made his character really weak because of all of
the extra-curricular activity spun within.

Regardless, at SuperBrawl Sting successfully regained the
WCW World title but again did not dominate Hogan. In a unique twist Savage, who
had been a major player in the nWo, interfered on his behalf tainting Sting’s
win. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CKeFvwA4zU)

Within the same timeframe while Sting became WCW World
champion by questionable means the WWF crowned a new World champion at
WrestleMania XIV clean as a whistle further destroying the credibility of
Sting’s title reign.

In an effort to improve said credibility and maintain strong
ratings, Sting repelled from a helicopter at WCW Spring Break Out ’98 in
Panama, City Beach, FL. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwa4kQI3nZ4)
But the following month at Spring Stampede Sting lost the title to Savage due
to interference by Kevin Nash. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF2hvZgcMYE)

After Nash and Savage decided to split from the original nWo
Sting joined their group alongside Luger and Konnan comprising the nWo
Wolfpack. To better suit his Wolfpack affiliation Sting wore red face paint
instead of white. Meanwhile Bret Hart joined the nWo Hollywood faction and
attempted to psyche out Sting by first associating with him and then double-crossing
him. Their differences would be settled at Halloween Havoc. Sadly Sting lost in
another disappointing dream match where Bret put Sting on the shelf for the foreseeable
future. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xakn9b_bret-hart-vs-sting_sport)

Sting would not return to WCW until March 1999 once again in
white and black face paint. The next month at Spring Stampede he wrestled in a
four corners match for the WCW World title against Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page
(DDP), and champion Flair. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc2YtxTB27U)
Fifteen days later on Nitro in a great match and ratings ploy Sting would
defeat DDP for the title (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl9443_sting-vs-diamond-dallas-page_sport)
only to lose it back to him in a four-way match that included Goldberg and
Nash. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkGjL0hYogM)

Another notable feud for Sting in 1999 was against Hogan.
Previously in the year Hogan turned babyface and won the WCW World title, but
Sting questioned his integrity. The two squared off at Fall Brawl where Sting
turned heel for the first time since 1985 and won his last WCW World title. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnctxo_sting-vs-hulk-hogan_sport)

In spite of his heel turn the WCW fans didn’t want to
support Hogan in their feud thus making Sting’s turn a flop. Exit Eric Bischoff
and enter Vince Russo. What would transpire for Sting would be storyline over
substance as the rematch for Halloween Havoc became Russo’s first worked shoot
in WCW. Hogan came out in street clothes and laid down for Sting rather than
wrestle him. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21p1y_hogan-vs-sting-hh-99_sport)

Later that night Sting fought Goldberg in an unsanctioned
match and lost. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBUey17ES1o)
Remarkably, the title would be vacated on Nitro and a tournament to crown a new
champion was announced. Expectedly Sting would enter the tournament and defeat
Brian Knobs, Meng, and Luger to reach the semi-finals at Mayhem.

In the semi-final Sting lost to Hart due to Luger’s
interference. After the match he shook Hart’s hand to become a babyface again.
(http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3kqgp_wcw-mayhem-1999-sting-vs-bret-hart_sport)
At Starrcade he would face Luger, and despite losing, in a shocking swerve he
showed some intelligence. Sensing Elizabeth’s disloyalty Sting gave her a can,
supposedly of spray paint, but when she turned on him she sprayed silly string
at him instead. (http://www.ddtdigest.com/updates/pictures/1999123p018.jpg)

Sting’s main feud in 2000 was against Vampiro. At Slamboree
Sting beat Vampiro. However, at the Great American Bash Sting lost in a Human
Torch match as a stuntman played Sting and was set on fire. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkn5ua_sting-vs-vampiro-human-torch-match_sport)
To say 2000 was a bad year for WCW storylines is like saying the people who
flew on the Hindenburg had a bad day.

On March 26, 2001 the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro aired.
In the main event Sting faced his long-time nemesis Flair in a lackluster match
with a predictable finish. In spite of that it was a nice nod to WCW history
and the two legends that made WCW great. (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x555nb_ric-flair-vs-sting-last-nitro-ever_sport)

In lieu of working for the WWF Sting sat out the remainder
of his contract with AOL/Time-Warner. In 2002 and 2003 Sting spent time in
Australia working for WWA. He would claim the WWA World title on December 13,
2002 but lost in a unification bout to NWA World Champion Jeff Jarrett on May
25, 2003.

From there Sting would sign with TNA. Although his initial
stay was brief, he would return in early 2006 to wrest the NWA World title from
Jarrett. At Hard Justice Christian Cage turned heel and cost Sting the title. However,
at Bound for Glory, Sting successfully defeated Jarrett to win his second NWA
World title. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeY7XSQg2c)
Only 24 days later he would lose the title to Abyss.

In 2007 TNA parted
ways with the NWA. Later that year at Bound for Glory Sting met Kurt Angle for
the TNA World title. Despite interference from both Karen Angle and Kevin Nash Sting
pinned Kurt Angle and became champion. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOnBYWHpFpk)
Again Sting’s title reign was short due to a loss to Kurt Angle at the next TNA
taping. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGclwfRBVL4)

In 2008 “The Icon” Sting won the TNA World title from Samoa
Joe with the help of Kevin Nash at Bound for Glory. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfN7RPvuxO4)
Amazingly Sting would hold the title for 189 days until he lost to Mick Foley
at Lockdown 2009 in a “Six Sides of Steel” match. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4becmaXrvM)

At No Surrender 2009 Sting fought in a five-way match for
the TNA World title but lost when AJ Styles pinned Angle. Thereafter Styles
offered Sting a title match at Bound for Glory and won in a well-worked match.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvVijzazQ_A)

On January 4, 2010 during a live edition of Impact Sting was
shown in the rafters in the same fashion as his 1997 stint in WCW. On August 5
Sting donned the nWo Wolfpack red face paint in support of Kevin Nash. On March
3, 2011 Sting defeated Jeff Hardy to win the TNA World title for a third time. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apMyZXAMsQY)

On March 13 Sting would defend the TNA World title at
Victory Road against Jeff Hardy. Disastrously Hardy was in no condition to
wrestle that night. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V6ulxTRSDc)
At times Hardy looked lost and confused especially after he suffered the pin. Sting
would hold the title until he lost to Mr. Anderson at Slammiversary in June. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK0VGinSEe8)

By this time Sting adopted a more menacing persona similar
to the Joker from The Dark Knight.
His surname would be adjusted to “The Insane Icon.” In fact Styles, James Storm,
Frankie Kazarian, and Robert Roode (dubbed Fortune) along with Angle dressed as
clowns to assist Sting in winning the TNA World title from Mr. Anderson on July
14. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3YWfB4_KeU)

Sting would hold the title until the next PPV when he faced
Angle at Hardcore Justice. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw2rhNCBmcI)
On June 10, 2012 Sting was announced as the first member of the TNA Hall of
Fame and enshrined on October 6 at Slammiversary. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eh5IY-_ONc)

For over 25 years Sting entertained fans all over the world
whether it was in the NWA, WCW, WWA, or TNA. While he may not have been the
most technically gifted performer Sting’s charisma and high-impact style carried
him to legendary status. I certainly hope that upon his introduction to WWE
fans that they realize just who “The Icon” truly is.

Thank you, Sting, and welcome to WWE.

For more information on me please visit http://rockstargary.com.

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Sting Booking?

7th February 2014 by Scott Keith
Ok, so Sting coming back is pretty much a given at this point? And everyones talking about how to book, so heres my idea:
I think WWE needs to move FORWARD with Stings character, not just play off nostalgia so heres my idea. After the Wrestlemania match, Undertaker beats Brock and everyone is going nuts, he kneels down as his iconic music plays and when the lights come back on Undertaker grabs his neck in surprise Announcers are like “what is going on?” “I think I just seen a bee?” Then over the coming weeks Undertaker keeps getting stung by bees but no one knows who is doing it until Vince Mcmahon comes in and is like “Oh so you got STUNG huh? That must really STING” And then Undertaker puts two and two together and becomes detective Undertaker and figures out that Sting is controlling the bees and is sending a message Could easily stretch this out throughout the whole year, with Undertaker appearing at RAW every week and grabbing his arm, or putting sting ointment on it etc going on wikipedia and researching bees Then at Wrestlemania Undertaker turns the tides and pours the urn on sting, which was actually full of honey all along and all the Bees sting Sting and Undertaker wins.
Buyrate?

Two billion network subscriptions!

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WWE Undertaker vs Sting poster accidentally leaked

23rd January 2014 by Scott Keith

This poster was accidentally leaked. It looks like WWE is pretty confident that they can pull off Undertaker vs Sting for Wrestlemania 30.

I KNEW they were keeping things close to their vest for a reason!  And now I'll just click on that picture and…hey…I see what you did there.
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Hogan v Sting

30th July 2013 by Scott Keith

Hello Scott. Since nobody’s sent in any videos lately I thought I’d
 send this along: http://youtu.be/lSA4oKXGMz8  It’s more of a curiosity
 than anything. This was during Hogan’s “dark side” period when he was
 wearing all black and the fan apathy to him is particularly noticeable
 here.
He’s ripping up the dirt sheets, brother!  He was just kayfabbing the Dungeon all along, Mean Gene!
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1993 WCW Disney tapings

27th July 2013 by Scott Keith
As you may already know Eric Bischoff prides himself more as
a television producer than a wrestling promoter. The seeds of such thought were
planted back in the summer of 1993 during his first year as Executive Producer/Vice-President
of WCW.

Instead of the darker, papered crowd atmosphere in Macon, GA
or Dothan, AL Bischoff wanted to put bright lights, glitz, and glamour on WCW’s
television programming. For instance, from January to April of 1993 WCW
Worldwide was taped 9 times in seven different locations. The programs, while
entertaining, looked bland and boring compared to the higher production values
of WCW’s competitor, the World Wrestling Federation.
From July 7-10, WCW taped FOUR months of WCW Worldwide in
front of a papered (mostly tourist) crowd at the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando,
FL.
Here is a list of the current champions heading into the
Disney tapings:
WCW World Heavyweight champion: Big Van Vader
NWA Champion: Barry Windham
US Heavyweight champion: held up after a controversial match
between “Ravishing” Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes
World TV champion: “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff
WCW World tag team champions: The Hollywood Blonds
(“Stunning” Steve Austin and “Flyin’” Brian Pillman)
Let’s break down the highlights day by day:
Day 1 (7/7/1993):
For the August 28th episode Arn Anderson and Paul
Roma were taped as WCW World Tag Team champions in spite of the fact they had
not yet won the titles. Their title victory would take place on August 18 at
the Clash of the Champions as Lord Steven Regal had to be substituted for Pillman
due to an ankle injury.
Additionally, for the September 4th episode “Nature
Boy” Ric Flair was involved in a match as the NWA champion against Big Sky. In
actuality, he won the belt at the Beach Blast PPV over Windham on July 18.  This would not sit well with the NWA.
For the September 11th episode Ricky “The Dragon”
Steamboat was featured as the World TV champion against Denny Brown although he
was not yet the champion. He won the belt at the August 18 Clash.
Day 2 (7/8/1993):
During the September 18th episode Dustin Rhodes
was featured as the US Heavyweight champion in a tag match with Sting against Orndorff
and Chris Benoit. Rhodes actually won the belt against Rude on August 30 in
Atlanta, GA.
On the September 25th episode Regal defended the
World TV title against Keith Cole.  He defeated
Steamboat for the belt on September 19 in Houston, TX.
Also featured on that show were the WCW World tag team
champions the Nasty Boys. They won the titles from Anderson and Roma on
September 19 in Houston, TX.
On the October 2nd episode the Hollywood Blonds
were featured in a tag match but did not bring their title belts to the ring.
On the October 9th episode Rude was featured as
the new World Heavyweight Champion (formerly NWA champion) in a match against
David Dee.
The importance of this match derives from the withdrawal of
WCW from the NWA in September. The NWA felt that these tapings were a breach of
kayfabe. WCW withdrew their affiliation from the NWA making the belt worthless
in the process.
Day 3 (7/9/1993):
However, in an attempt to legitimize Rude’s championship,
WCW renamed the title the International World champion on its October 30th
episode. Rude would defeat Brady Boone on this show.
For the November 6th show Regal successfully
defended his not-yet-his TV title against Johnny B. Badd.
Day 4 (7/10/1993):
Also on the November 6th episode Rude won a
non-title match against Frankie Rose. While describing the match Tony Schiavone
recognized Rude’s title as a World title rather than just a “Gold Belt.”
On the November 13th episode despite being the
current TV champion Orndorff won a match while not showcasing the title since
Regal would be champion by this point. Furthermore Steamboat won a match but
did not possess a belt in spite of winning and losing the belt between the times
this match took place and when it would finally air.
For the November 20th episode the Nasty Boys were
featured again as WCW World tag team champions.
So, in spite of three PPV and two Clash of the Champions
broadcasts, WCW gave away months of booking plans within this 4-day span.
Although I cannot locate the specific instance, it has been documented that Sid
Vicious was taped as WCW World Heavyweight Champion. This video was supposed to
air after Starrcade ’93; however, on September 19 Sid and Arn Anderson were
involved in an infamous late night brawl overseas involving safety scissors.
Subsequently Sid was fired after several wrestlers threatened to quit. Flair
was inserted in Sid’s place.
While money was saved in the process of filming these shows WCW
had two problems on their hands. The first problem was fulfilling the title
changes. The Regal substitution on August 18 stands out as a glaring example of
what can go wrong. The second problem was the wrestlers’ attitudes after the
tapings. Since title plans were already put into place during the tapings, the wrestlers
who would not hold titles held grudges instead and their work ethic in matches
suffered. At the very least WCW would learn from this mistake and not tape wrestlers with titles for Worldwide in the future.
WCW lost $23 million in 1993 not because of the Disney
tapings but due to overestimated revenue. Having seen the extremely low
attendance figures for the house shows I can safely say that WCW lost money
whenever they stepped into a gym or an arena.  Amazingly, they even cancelled a show at the
Omni on July 3 dubbed “The Great American Bash.”
Wrestling in 1993 was no longer a mainstream product. The
positive mainstream attention wouldn’t resurface until 1996; however, the
negative stigma was due to the WWF steroid trials. With such a black mark on
the industry it was difficult for WCW to make a profit. The Disney tapings only
served to facilitate further losses. 
Be sure to visit http://www.rockstargary.com to check out more info on me!
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Sting to WWE?

15th June 2013 by Scott Keith
Why has Sting never gone to WWE? Did WCW have him locked into a long contract? Was he just too loyal to jump ship? Does he like playing for the underdog (hence the TNA move)? Was Vince not really impressed with Sting? Was he too expensive? Was he ever close to going to WWE? What's the story?
Basically yes, he was too loyal to jump ship, and had a much better deal in WCW than he would have received with the WWF anyway.  He has long stated that he didn't agree with the product presented by Vince and didn't want to participate in it, although the last time his contract was up with TNA there was some pretty serious negotiations to bring him in for Wrestlemania as Undertaker's opponent.  I believe that was either the second Shawn match or the "first" HHH match that was supposed to be Sting.  There wasn't much in the way of details at the time, it was just one of those "Oh, by the way, this almost happened" things that came out later on.  
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What if Sting wins the title tonight?

2nd June 2013 by Scott Keith
Scott,

I came up with a pretty cool idea. What if Sting won the title from Bully Ray tonight? Sting then announces on the next Impact that he wants to vacate the title and not compete for it anymore because he did what he needed to do and got the power away from the Aces and Eights. Hogan then makes the Bound For Glory Series for the vacant TNA title. Bully Ray uses his rematch clause and Hogan puts him in the BFG series. Guys in the BFG series would be all TNA guys including: Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, James Storm, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Christopher Daniels, Matt Morgan, Abyss, Jay Bradley (via winning tonight @ Slammiversary), and then Bully Ray from Aces and Eights. Gradually over the summer, the Aces and Eights members start leaving + turning on Bully Ray potentially costing him matches eventually leading into the evaporation of Aces and Eights. The BFG series would have stellar matches with that lineup plus it would make every match very important which could help sell tickets to house show events. 

I think this is a much better plan than the Bully Ray vs. Hulk Hogan potential bout. The TNA title would be vacated for the second time going into Bound For Glory with my plan, but can you imagine if Hogan were to win the title, who would he lose it to? He'd probably vacate it anyways and make a tournament.
I don't mind the concept of the BFG series being for the vacated title, but the problem is that stuff is decompressed enough as it is on this show, and that would mean no champion from now until Bound for Glory.  That's a REALLY long time to go with no one holding the title.  
Plus I think where they're going is Bully holding the belt until BFG, building up to defending against Hogan (who would be inducted into the Hall of Fame that night) and Brooke screws Hulk over for the big swerve, to REALLY kick that Aces angle into a higher gear.  This time, for REAL, yo.  That's just the vibe I get.  But we'll see tonight which tiny steps forward the storylines take, I guess. 
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Could “AJ as ’97 Sting” backfire?

11th May 2013 by Scott Keith
Hi Scott,

Do you think that the angle with AJ could eventually backfire and people will just get sick of his indecisiveness and start booing him?  They boo-urns'd this evening b/c he didn't accept the 3rd spot on the face team, but I could imagine the boos steadily increasing b/c the crowd is thinking "Jeebus, just do something already."From what I can tell, Sting only got more popular when he did it (in other words, no noticeable backlash), but it was a different landscape then, and I'm not so sure AJ can keep up the support, especially since he's being featured in this role every week.  Even Sting didn't show up every week during the height of his popularity in '97.

I think that's kind of supposed to be the reaction he's getting.  Really, until he chooses a side it doesn't matter how people react to him anyway.  They obviously know where they're going with him and they're doing it very deliberately, so I'm fine with it.  

And Sting absolutely got backlash in the early part of the character, before they established once and for all that he was a babyface.  It wasn't until, I'd say, Starrcade 96 where he helped Luger beat the Giant, that the crowd really bought into him as a bigtime babyface.  Before that, crowds seemed pretty lukewarm to the idea of him cowering in the rafters and doing nothing, or randomly assisting someone like Jeff Jarrett (and what WAS up with that?)
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Sting question for the blog.

16th March 2013 by Scott Keith
Do think Sting's crow act pre-Starrcade 97 would have worked post-Starrcade 97? I think one of the reasons he didn't catch fire after the title win(botching it is the main reason but still…) is because he went back to being regular old Sting but still kept the emo crow face paint. It was jarring. Would fans have accepted the World Champion just sitting in the rafters and maybe not appearing at all for shows? For example, let's say crazy Macho Man is out of control for a few weeks on Nitro and all of the sudden, Sting rappels down and points his bat, signaling shit is about to go down and Sting vs Savage happens at the PPV. Next month it happens with Nash or whatever heel is hot that month. Kinda like a babyface version of what the Shield is now, never talking, just showing up and dealing out justice to whoever deserves it. And feel free to use your answer to bury the Fuj. Thanks.
Yeah, but now he'll know it's coming.
So yeah, I totally think that Crow Sting would have worked, although in a sense probably not because his whole success was predicated on never actually wrestling, and as noted once he got into the ring again it was just plain old Sting.  At the very least, keeping him in the rafters with the belt would have increased the prestige and specialness of the title. Say what you will about Hogan never defending the damn thing, but at least it was a Big Deal when he finally did give someone a title match.  Kind of like how The Fuj would be more special if he didn't post 100 times in every thread.  
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World War 3 1996

12th April 2012 by Scott Keith

World War 3 1996
Date: November 24, 1996
Location: Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, Virginia
Attendance: 10,314
Commentators: Dusty Rhodes, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

Once again we’re going to do the three ring battle royal with the winner getting the title shot just after Starrcade. The entire roster is in that pretty much plus a ton of guys that are never on TV at all. We also have a man vs. woman match and Jericho vs. a referee. Yeah you can really tell how much thought there is in this show. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is just a basic rundown of what’s on the card tonight. The announcers wonder why Bischoff is trying to slow down the contract signing between Hogan and Piper. Something tells me this is going to dominate the conversation tonight.

J-Crown: Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio

The J-Crown was a collection of 8 cruiserweight titles from around the world, one of which being the WWF Light Heavyweight Title which was active since the 80s and only defended in Japan and Mexico. Therefore, a WWF Title id being defended here on a WCW PPV. It also gave us this:

Seriously, how sweet does that look? There’s just a pile of championships in the corner. How awesome is that? He has so many belts he just piles them up. Ah apparently Bischoff has already joined the NWO. Good to know. We start off in a mat based match which is kind of odd but it can work. How weird is it to think that Rey would become a two time world champion?

Now they crank it up and get a nice ovation for it. WCW fans could always appreciate good wrestling and this was no exception. Dragon is dominating here which makes sense as he was pushed as a really different kind of cruiserweight that could mix it up incredibly well. Heenan sounds like he’s on speed here as he’s talking so fast. Dragon hits a powerbomb but picks Rey up again and throws him backwards into a hot shot. NICE.

We go WAY old school with a giant swing. Someone really needs to look at Bobby’s monitors. They’re always on the blink. The crowd loves Rey here. Pay no attention to that though. He’s a small guy of Mexican descent. He can’t ever mean anything. This is basically Dragon does a big move and Rey gets up every time. Rey could sell like few others so this is certainly good.

I’ve never gotten the order of the rings at these shows. It seems like they have this obsession with how many rings there are here and there and it never works. There’s no Mike Tenay for this either, which makes the commentary more annoying than helpful. Rey kind of botches some stuff but nothing too bad. A springboard sunset flip gets two for Rey. Good freaking night that man could move back in the day. After they crank it up again, Rey goes for the West Coast Pop but Dragon counters into a slingshot powerbomb to retain the pile of belts. They say Malenko is next.

Rating: B. This was solid again and one more time the cruiserweights set the table for what could be a promising show. Dragon was definitely a different kind of cruiserweight back then as he used more power and leverage stuff rather than high flying and it worked very well. He and Malenko had some very good stuff coming up that we’ll get to soon enough. Quite good match.

There’s a new WCW.com. Remember that this is in 1996 so I wouldn’t expect much. Mark Madden is the commentator person there.

DDP, looking like he more traditionally would, is being recruited by the NWO. Him never saying yes is what made him one of the few heroes in WCW fans’ eyes. He denies being associated with Bischoff other than being his neighbor and says he’ll win the battle royal with a BANG.

Chris Jericho vs. Nick Patrick

Patrick has been an evil referee that has screwed Jericho over a few times and this is revenge time. Jericho has Teddy Long as his manager which didn’t last long. He also has to have one arm behind his back. We hear about Nick Patrick’s wrestling career which also didn’t last long. It’s the left arm here so this should be dominance. Patrick cuts a short promo and we find out why he’s a referee.

Patrick is in a sleeveless shirt and is in the NWO here. He also has a neckbrace. With one arm, Patrick wants a test of strength. That whole wrestling background falls apart pretty quickly here as it’s all Jericho who puts on a clinic with one arm. It’s all Jericho as we go to the floor. Jericho misses a clothesline into the post though and Patrick takes over for a bit. Since his offense does nothing though, we’re kind of just wasting time here. Jericho channels his inner Shawn Michaels for a superkick to end it. This was the first pinfall loss for the NWO on PPV, four months after they debuted.

Rating: D+. Pretty boring but they came up with some fairly creative spots to let Patrick get some offense in. This was just kind of pointless though as there was no challenge at all for Jericho and it just kind of fell flat. It could have been FAR worse though.

Flair comes out for an interview. He’s hurt here so he’s off the card. Even with his arm in a sling the guy looks like a million bucks. On the radio a few months ago one of the hosts said they ran into him in Florida and that Flair could not have looked better, smelled better or have been a nicer guy. That’s always good to hear about guys like Flair who comes off as a prick at times. He talks about a ton of guys and how this is about WCW and not the NWO. He guarantees the NWO will lose and stops to dance in between. That was awesome. Old guys can talk.

Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett

This was supposed to be Flair last month but since he was hurt then too they brought Jarrett in but he couldn’t do a damn thing with Giant. Giant stole the US Title belt from Flair who was champion but had it stripped from him for lack of defenses in 30 days. Jarrett is booed out of the building despite being Flair’s pick to fight Giant. Jarrett has been bragging that he didn’t get chokeslammed last month. Yeah that’s his big claim to fame at the moment.

The crowd is all over Jarrett here and loudly cheering for Giant. We hear about how Hogan got Giant into the NWO by promising him movie parts etc and sure enough Giant was in the movie Jingle All The Way which was in theaters the weekend of this show. Sting is up in the rafters and the show pretty much stops dead because of it. He comes down the steps and it’s hard to tell if he’s the real one or not. Giant misses a Vader Bomb and Jarrett takes him down with a cross body.

That might be the real Sting. He takes Jarrett out while Giant is on the floor. A chokeslam ends it. We’re of course told that Sting is clearly in the NWO now, which wouldn’t be officially answered until about March.

Rating: C-. Much better than their match last month as Jarrett didn’t try to come straight at him here and it looked like he was thinking more. Also Giant sold more of his stuff and it looked a lot better on that front too. This was just a pawn in the huge Sting chess game and on that worked very well, so definitely did its job.

Piper comes out with a contract in his hand. Bobby suggests that Piper is a bigger movie star than Hogan. I’ll leave that for you guys. Bischoff, Vincent and DiBiase come out sans Hogan. The next night Bischoff would say either join us or have your contracts voided which went nowhere but it got Bagwell to join.

Bischoff has power of attorney for Hogan so he can sign for Hogan. In a great bit of continuity, Piper shoves Vincent aside and tells him that he taught Vincent how to fight. Piper trained Vincent (Virgil in case that doesn’t ring a bell) to fight for his first match back in 1991. Piper says he can wear a leather jacket because he’s tough enough to unlike Bischoff. Piper really does come off as a badass here and this really did feel big. The problem was he actually had to wrestle.

Piper more or less says he doesn’t care about a count out or a DQ but just winning and here’s Hogan, Liz, Hall, Nash, Syxx and Giant. Bobby thinks Piper is outnumbered. I wonder if it was the 9-1 odds that made him think that. Hogan gets on the mic and lifts Piper’s skirt, showing the scar Piper has from a hip replacement. Why not just hold a big sign above their heads saying OLD GUYS?

Hogan signs the contract which Piper brought with him. For no apparent reason the match was NON title and when Piper won with a sleeper, he didn’t win the title. To say the fans were pissed would be an understatement. Piper jumps Hogan but gets caught. Hogan gets a chair and hits the weakest chair shot ever to the scar. Good to see the NWO is only taking ten minutes on this segment.

The Amazing French Canadians vs. Harlem Heat

The Canadians are more commonly known as the Quebecers from WWF. They’re managed by Colonel Parker and the Heat by Sherri. If the heat win there’s a match between the managers. Something tells me this isn’t going to be that good. Jacques, who was on New Blood Rising, sings the national anthem of Canada. I say sing loosely. He and Booker start. Please let this go fast.

To my great shock, we talk about Piper and Hogan for the opening of the match. Parker is dressed up as a French Legionnaire now and somehow looks even stupider. He stomps on Booker and the comedy is completely unintentional. This match isn’t particularly terrible bit it’s just boring as hell. It’s been about five minutes since the last thing I typed. There just hasn’t been anything to talk about.

The Canadians get the steps and put them in a corner then get a table and lay it across the top rope. They put more steps on top of that and the non-Mountie Canadian does a front flip off. He completely misses and a Harlem Hangover ends him.

Rating: D-. This didn’t get me interested at all. Why am I watching the Quebecers when it’s almost 1997? This was just garbage and boring as hell on all levels. No one cared about Parker vs. Sherri so they went with it for over a year. At least this is over now.

Sherri beats up Parker for like a minute in their “match.” Parker runs away after a cross body. Not even worth an actual introduction.

WCW needs to stop having their production guys on TV so clearly. It just takes something away from the show. Not sure why but it bothers me.

Piper vs. Hogan is called the match of the century and we get a really bad promo for Starrcade.

Someone else might be coming to WCW. I’m not sure who that was but it likely wasn’t anyone special.

Luger comes in and talks about Sting handing him a baseball bat. Luger thinks he’s NWO but doesn’t want to believe it. He had been getting the semi-Superman push lately so he was one of the favorites in the battle royal but there really wasn’t anyone that was clearly going to win.

Cruiserweight Title: Psicosis vs. Dean Malenko

Malenko was just about perfect at this point and would somehow get better the next year, actually winning best technical wrestler both in 96 and 97 from Meltzer as well as winning the PWI 500 which is fan voted I believe. They were building to Malenko vs. Dragon next month in what would more or less be a throwaway match. We start with a lot of technical stuff as you would expect us to.

Bobby picks Malenko to win the battle royal tonight. I’ll set the over under on him changing at 8.5. They’re doing the three broadcast teams tonight. That’s just going to make my head hurt. Malenko has a leglock on and the fans look at something in the audience. After more decent stuff, Psicosis falls off the top rope and slams his head into the railing. Since he isn’t dead, we can continue.

Dean goes into his finishing sequence but the ropes break the Cloverleaf. He destroys the knee and is completely dominating here. We ignore the over the top thing again and Psicosis hits a top rope flip from the top and hits his head again. Good thing he wears that mask or he’d need to get one to cover up the ugly. Then again I’ve seen him sans mask so maybe he needed it all along.

Dean takes a rana from the top for two as this is kind of pedestrian and the crowd isn’t into it at all really. He gets a SWEET reversal out of a suplex into a small package. That looked great. A tombostone gets two for the champion and then he rolls him up for the pin.

Rating: B-. Decent match but they just felt a bit bored out there. They were kind of off by a step or so and it showed badly. It’s definitely good but there was something holding it back from being really good. The crowd didn’t care at all for some reason which is odd as Malenko was usually very popular. Weird but good.

Tag Titles: Nasty Boys vs. Outsiders vs. Faces of Fear

This is the next to last match on the card so at least we’re almost done. Hall and Nash have the belts and come out first for some reason. The Faces of Fear were good for placeholders and jobbers in this division as they were legit tough so it was completely believable. The Nasty Boys continue to not be much at all. The more famous teams brawl to start before the Faces of Fear are here. Ah here they are.

The Outsiders are both jumped by a tag team and it breaks down into a brawl. Knobbs and Barbarian start us off officially and I already don’t like this match. They keep the Outsiders out as long as they can which is about a minute and a half. Hall comes in and beats up Barbarian. Barbarian needs to get up because THIS IS WCW! The problem is that no one cares about Barbarian so they cheer Hall.

We’re six minutes into this so Dusty says it’s been 15. Basically it’s just a bunch of brawling with no particular rhyme or reason. When I get bored I think in song lyrics. So sue me. I love Nash’s side slam. That this is just downright elegant. Something tells me this is going to go on for a LONG time. No one has any particular advantage but Meng gets a suplex on Hall for two and Jimmy FREAKS. It’s absolutely hilarious how much he yells and screams over it. How much caffeine do you think he has in one day?

The Nasty Boys are ordained as the masters of the Clubber. They just stand back and watch the other four fight which is smart when you think about it. This has been like ten minutes of just random brawling. There’s no flow to this match at all and no one has been in any kind of extended trouble. Meng and Knobbs tag in Hall and Nash at the same time so they have to fight. Hall lays down for Nash but the save is made, extending this torture a bit longer. A Megaphone shot and powerbomb on Knobbs end it.

Rating: F+. This was AWFUL. It runs over 15 minutes, nothing of note happens, there’s no story at all and the ending comes from nowhere. When the Faces of Fear have the best performance in a match, that’s not a good sign in the slightest. And now we get the battle royal. Oh yay.

The teams of announcers are Tenay and Dusty, Larry and Lee Marshall and Tony and Bobby. They all give their take and none of them mean a thing. Dusty picks Luger or Konnan.

World War 3

Arn Anderson, Marcus Bagwell, The Barbarian, Chris Benoit, Big Bubba, Jack Boot, Bunkhouse Buck, Ciclope, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Bobby Eaton, Mike Enos, Galaxy, Joe Gomez, Jimmy Graffiti, Johnny Grunge, Juventud Guerrera, Eddy Guerrero, Scott Hall, Prince Iaukea, Ice Train, Mr. JL, Jeff Jarrett, Chris Jericho, Kenny Kaos, Konnan, Lex Luger, Dean Malenko, Steve McMichael, Meng, Rey Misterio, Jr., Hugh Morrus, Kevin Nash, Scott Norton, Pierre Ouelette, Diamond Dallas Page, La Parka, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Jim Powers, Robbie Rage, Stevie Ray, Lord Steven Regal, The Renegade, Scotty Riggs, Roadblock, Jacques Rougeau, Tony Rumble, Mark Starr, Rick Steiner, Ron Studd, Kevin Sullivan, Syxx, Booker T, David Taylor, the Último Dragón, Villaño IV, Michael Wallstreet, Pez Whatley and Alex Wright.

The list is from Wikipedia so blame them for anything weird in there.

The intros take a few minutes since 60 guys have to come out. While they’re coming out, a few notes: Jimmy Graffiti is Jimmy Del Ray of the Heavenly Bodies, Galaxy is a luchador, Jack Bruce is Buddy Lee Parker and Pez Whatley was a medium deal in 86. Benoit is all beaten up and has black eyes and cuts all over his face. The NWO are all in the same ring. Benoit and Sullivan fight before the match officially starts. The Dungeon and the Horsemen jump in and here we go.

I’m not going to even try to list off everyone eliminated here so if I leave someone out don’t be surprised in the slightest. The camera stays on Benoit and Sullivan for about a minute and a half. Oh great we’re doing the triple screen again and you can’t see anything. I think the Dungeon of Doom and the Horsemen are gone. We’ve looked at the three rings maybe 15 seconds combined and almost three minutes at Benoit vs. Sullivan. The NWO is just standing in the corner and Benoit is slammed on Marshall and Larry’s table.

No one of note is out yet. All of the Dungeon and the Horsemen are out, which is about 9 people. Marshall gets knocked out in the big fight so something has gone right tonight at least. Look up BIG ASS CLUSTERFUCK in the dictionary and you have this match. Tony Rumble, a career jobber, is gone. Once we get down to ten in each ring they’ll break up that ring. La Parka is gone as is Ciclope. Norton is gone and Pez Whatley is too. Expect a lot of that in this match.

The eliminations start picking up a bit as three no names go out in a row. We get rid of the jobbers for the most part here which is good. Joe Gomez is out. All of the announce teams run down the remaining guys and I don’t even bother paying attention. Every big name is still in it. Giant and Roadblock, an incredibly fat guy go at it. Guess who wins. JL is out. We really need to get this down to one ring for the sake of sanity.

Everybody goes after Big Ron Studd with about a dozen splashes but no one actually tries to put him out. Everyone piles on him but we’re told he has to be thrown out of course. Both Canadians and Duggan are out. Eddie eliminates himself with a plancha to Regal. Bagwell is out as we’re getting some bigger names gone. He and Riggs fight on the floor and they would split tomorrow.

Dave Taylor and Wallstreet are gone. There are 9 left in ring 3 so that ring should be broken up. Scott Steiner is out. There are 8 in ring 1 and 9 in ring 2. Juvy is out. We’re merging into ring 2 thank goodness. Wait is Eddie out or not? Yeah he is for no apparent reason. Everyone is in the same ring so they keep it with three cameras. Damn it go to one camera! Jack Boot is out. You can’t see shit and it’s really complicated because getting more than one angle of the same guys is just really confusing.

Luger tries to get Giant out but the power of fat stops him. Malenko is out and so is Craig Pittman and Booker. We’re still on three cameras because WCW is stupid. Disco is finally out. Bunkhouse Buck is gone. I’d love to see how many people are left. Boy what a basic camera shot would do to help that. A bunch of people go out quickly including Dragon. Tony says there are 13 left. Jericho going out gets us to 12 I think. Just to further the stupidity, the bottom camera goes to a single shot.

Ice Train is out. Ok, everyone is in a damn circle and FINALLY we go to one camera, 20 minutes into the damn match. We have Syxx, Hall, Nash, Giant, DDP, Jarrett, Luger, Rey Regal and Eddie left. Eddie was in the final ten last year too I think. Eddie is out and Rey goes after Nash. Giant literally throws Rey out with one hand. Jarrett goes out and we have 7 left. DDP takes us to 6. Regal, Luger, four NWO guys. Make that Luger vs. the NWO.

Giant misses a charge and winds up on the ropes so Luger racks him. Hall goes out. There goes Syxx. Like an idiot he racks Nash and Giant dumps them both to win. Bobby and Tony say it’s the best battle royal ever. Giant would get thrown out of the NWO for asking for a title shot. He would get it at Souled Out, the first NWO PPV. The heels pose to end the show.

Rating: D. This wasn’t very good. The camera work KILLED it in the end. For at least five minutes we were on one ring and you couldn’t see a damn thing at all. These matches were never really very good at all and this was no exception. They’re just big messes the entire time and nothing ever really came of them. When you have so many jobbers it makes you wonder what the point is in having this many. Cut the damn thing down to like 45 or even 40 and this is WAY better. Still though, the NWO winning was just stupid but then again this is WCW so there you go.

Overall Rating: D. This wasn’t very good. There’s some ok stuff on it, but that’s as good as it gets. SO much stuff on here is just boring as hell as the majority of the roster was in the battle royal. Things would pick up a lot in the coming year, but the end of 96 was really pretty week. These shows always sucked though and this was absolutely no exception. Don’t watch this one.

Rants →

Kyle Fitta’s WCW SuperBrawl II Review

30th March 2012 by Scott Keith
SuperBrawl II
February 29, 1992
Your Hosts: Jim Ross and Jessie Ventura
WCW Light-Heavyweight Title: Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman.

This match was an alternative to the American wrestling style in 1992 because its fast-pace and creative spots, so you can imagine how hard fans marked for  this. Since this is the Ted Turner version, I decided to go out and find this match’s full version. Out of all the matches on this card they could’ve clipped, they picked the best one. After a quick start, Pillman slows down the pace by working on Liger’s arm. Liger goes to the outside to take a breather, but a baseball slide from Pillman puts Liger into the guardrail. Pillman heads up top rope, but Liger gets out-of-the-way before Pillman can jump. Might as well jump! Back in, Liger takes Pillman to the mat and puts him in a leg bar. Pillman fights out of it and throws Liger into the corner, but Liger drills Pillman with a moonsault press. ONE-TWO-NO. Liger dropkicks Pillman to the floor.

Back in, Liger brings Pillman to the center of the ring for a headlock, but Pillman manages to fight out. Liger distributes several shoulder blocks in the corner and then Liger nails a running dropkick. Pillman comes back with a crucifix pin. ONE-TWO-THRE-NO!. Wait, Liger almost rolls Pillman. ONE-TWO-THR-NO!!. Trying to slow down the match, Liger puts in a headlock, but Pillman reverses it with a back suplex. ONE-TWO-THR-NO!!!!. Pillman tosses Liger in the corner and charges, but Liger moves out-of-the-way!!!!! Liger delivers a shin breaker and puts in a Figure Four. WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!. Pillman gets out, though, and both get back to their feet where THEY TRADE BITCH SLAPS!!!!! Pillman CHARGES at Liger, but Pillman gets backdrop to the floor!!!!!!!!! Liger heads up top. What’s he gonna do brothers? Oh my gawd, he NAILS A SENTON! Liger goes for a suplex but gives up because he can’t and then tries a turnbuckle collision, but Pillman blocks the move and follows up with AIR PILLMAN . He gloats to the crowd. PIN HIM INSTEAD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
He carries Liger out to the floor and comes off the top with a cross body block. He puts Liger up beside the guard rail and dives off the apron, but Liger moves out-of-the-way and Pillman crushes his chin on to STEEL more pure than Jake Robert’s crack. Back in, Liger tries a move off the top, but Pillman has other plans and drills him a dropkick. Pillman attempts a missile dropkick off the top, but Liger nails him on the way down WITH A DROPKICK OF HIS OWN!!!!. They both go for spinning heel kicks but both miss. Liger fights back but falls into a power slam. ONE-TWO-THREE! IT’S OVER. WAIT, THAT WAS 2!!!!!!!!
 Pillman goes for a German suplex, but Liger blocks it and turns into a Friggen German Suplex…. WITH A BRIDGE. ONE-TWO-THRE-NO!!!!!! Liger tries a superplex off the top, but Pillman pushes him off and then hits a FLYING BRYAN BODY DROP. ONE-TWO-THRRRRRRRRR-NO! Pillman throws Liger into the ropes but gets drilled with a power bomb. ONE-TWO-THRRRRRRRR-NO! Liger goes for ANOTHER power bomb, but Pillman reverses into a FRANKEN STEINER. ONE-TWO-THRRRRRRR-NO!!!!! Pillman climbs up top only for Liger to hit a superplex. It’s over. ONE-TWO-THRRRRRRRR-NO. HE KICKED OUT!!!!! YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! WAIT, PELE OUT OF NOWHERE!!!!!!! Okay, I made that last bit up.Liger fights back and goes for a HEADBUTT, but Pillman has six senses and rolls Liger up ONE-TWO-THREE!!!!!!!!!!! @ 16:59. After the match, Pillman gets a standing ovation. Liger and Pillman shake hands. THE RESPECT WAS EARNED! 
That match right there my friends was one highly competitive match. The spots don’t age great over time, but their ability to read the crowd certainly does. They did a compelling job of bringing the match’s paced up and down to get the crowd on the edge of their seat biting their finger nails. The difference between this match and most spotty matches is they inserted the high spots into the story they were telling instead of trying to out do the last spot with a bigger one. As a result, it made it feel like an athletic contest than a contrived stunt show. **** 1/2
Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Larry Zbyszko & Steve Austin (w/Madusa).
Windham is looking for retribution for Zbyszko slamming his hand in a car door at Halloween Havoc. Windham and Rhodes attack on the heels off the bat. Windham takes Zbyszko off the entranceway and throws him face-first to the guardrail below. Austin comes off the top rope, but Rhodes nails him with a lariat for two. Austin runs away, so Rhodes tags in Windham and Dustin goes outside the ring to throw Austin back in. Windham throws Austin into Zbyzsko. Zbyszko gets in and throws Windham out to the ramp way. 
He tries a pile driver, but Windham backdrops him. Back in, Windham hits a DDT and then tags in Rhodes where they deliver a double-team backdrop. Rhodes goes after Larry’s hand and then tags Windham for a gut wrench suplex that gets two. Barry attempts a pile driver, but Austin creeps in and delivers a CLOSELINE FROM HELL! Rhodes comes in to dispute with the ref, allowing Austin to throw Windham out to the floor. Austin goes outside with him and then Larry smashes Windham’s crotch on the guardrail. Back in the ring, Austin hits a clothesline followed by a suplex. ONE-TWO-NO!
Windham fights back and goes for another lariat, but Austin gets out-of-the-way and Windham goes airborne out to the floor. Back in the ring, Zbyszko tags in and then hits a swinging neck breaker. ONE-TWO-THR-NO! Austin tags in and nails a back suplex. Windham comes back with a back suplex, but Austin manages to make the tag to Zbyszko. Zbysko wretches in a sleeper hold. Windham breaks out and then makes a hot tag to Rhodes. Rhodes comes in and hits an inverted atomic drop, dropkick, and an elbow drop. ONE-TWO-THRRE-NO!!! Windham and Zbyszko start brawling up the ramp. Meanwhile, in the ring, Austin drills Rhodes with CLOTHESLINE THAT ALMOST TOOK HIS HEAD OFF!!!!. ONE-TWO-THRRRE-NO!! Windham and Zbyszko cool down from THEIR HEATED BRAWL and head back to their corners. Zbyszko tags in and BLASTS Rhodes with the swinging neck breaker. ONE-TWO-TH-NO! Rhodes tries to make a comeback, but don’t call it one because he gets nailed with a DDT.
Larry tags in and nails a backbreaker but gets his suplex countered. RHODES IS TRYING TO MAKE THE TAG…..but Austin cuts it off. Austin gets heat on Rhodes until Rhodes counters with an inside cradle, but the ref is stopping Windham from getting inside the ring. Austin puts in a chin lock but Dustin punches out and then nails Austin with a stun gun.  Move stealing mean anything to you son of a son’s plummer?Larry gets a tag……annnnddddd so does Windham!!! He DRILLS Zbyszko with lariats while Rhodes and Austin fight outside. Windham tries to finish Zbyszko with the superplex, but Larry pushes him off the top rope and says not today. Zbyszko wants to come off the top but Rhodes shoves Larry down to the floor. BIG BUMP! Windham goes up on the other side and then flies down on Zbyszko with a lariat. ONE-TWO-THREE @ 18:30. 
They told a nice  story with Windham wanting to inflict pain on just Larry Zbyszko, but the issues with the match were (a) it was too stretched out, (b) it lacked heat because of the long segments and (c) it was too formulaic. If they cut this match down to about 12 minutes, it would’ve been more packed and had less filler. All and all though, the match did its job and was entertaining in the essential parts. It just could’ve been better, especially with the heat and talent involved. *** 1/4
Missy Hyatt attempts to get an interview with Ricky Steamboat, but Ricky’s NINJA turns her away. Madusa tries to sneak in but he runs after her NINJA-STYLE!
WCW World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton with Madusa vs. Rick & Scott Steiner
This was the Steiner Brothers’ first tag titles ever since they were stripped of the belts back in July because of Scott’s injury. Kip Frey bans Paul E. Security escorts him out of the ring area. Scott and Eaton start things off and Scott tries to take it to the mat, but Eaton grabs the ropes. Eaton hits a swinging neckbreaker and then heads to the top rope, but Scott catches Eaton coming down with an overhead belly to belly suplex. Rick ends up lying down beside Arn, which freaks Arn the hell out. Rick rapidly snaps off a power slam. Scott tags in and battles with Arn over an over-the-head wristlocks. Bobby comes in to help but Scott back flips out of it. Rick dashes in and double clotheslines the DA out to the floor. Back in the ring, Arn low blows Scott and then dumps him out but the Steiners nail them both with Steiner-lines.
Back in, Scott puts in a chin lock. Rick gets a tag and that leads to the Doomsday Device on Eaton. Arn gets in, but Rick nails him with a Steiner Bulldog for two. Arn recovers, makes a tags but Bobby tags back in and puts in a hammerlock. Rick elbows out, but Arn gets a blind tag and drills Rick with a back elbow for a two. Scott saves Rick from a double-suplex. Arn comes off the middle-rope, but Rick drills him. They start trading off punches, but Arn rams Scott’s skull into Bobby’s skull. Bobby tags in and hits a flying knee drop karate style. ONE-TWO-NO! Arn comes back in and nails a DDT for another near-fall. He tries several pin attempts but doesn’t get them so goes for a splash, but Scott reverses with a leg scissors. Arn turns it over into a Boston crab and drags him over to tag in Eaton. He puts in a camel clutch, but Scott drags Eaton over to Rick.Eaton nails Rick and then both give him the Rocket Launcher outside. Bobby drills Scott’s face into the railing but Scott stops the second try and then pays him back. 
Back in the ring, Eaton manages cuts off the tag and then tags in Arn. He tries to drill Scott’s face into Bobby’s knee, but Scott counters by throwing Arn into it. Scott makes the hot tag to Rick and attempts a belly-to-belly superplex on Eaton, but Arn lifts Rick up on his shoulders for a Doomsday Device. Eaton flies on Rick, but he catches Eaton in mid-air. Steiner Bulldog on Arn, but Eaton breaks it up. Madusa hands Arn some powder to throw in Rick’s face. Rick Steiner by accident gives the ref a suplex and then backdrops Arn to the outside. A new ref runs down. Scott hits the tiger driver and the Franken Steiner on Eaton for 1-2-3! @ 22:07.The crowd goes wild for the Steiners. It doesn’t last long because Randy Anderson, the original ref, is now conscious and notifies the new ref that Rick gave him a suplex, this the winners are by DQ The Dangerous Alliance.
 The Steiners were awesome around this time. I loved the dynamic of their team: Scott was the technician that wrestled most of the match and then would make the hot-tag to Rick who the psychotic untamed individual that just went bat shit crazy during his comeback. The finish was had too many shenanigans, but did its job by making the Dangerous Alliance look like lucky bastards and created anticipation for the rematch. The match was a good southern-style tag match. *** 1/2
WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat with Ninja
Rude cuts a promo and the crowd shits all over it with A LOT of boos. Steamboat chops, arm drags, choke-lifts, and face-slams Rude for two. Steamboat hooks on an arm bar, but Rude kicks Steamboat and drops him on the railing. He gives Steamboat a suplex. Rude nails a clothesline with his bad arm. Rude slows the pace of the match down with a chin lock, but Steamboat fights out only to get clotheslined by Rude. Rude takes a second for some disco fever dancing and drops an elbow on Steamboat. He hits a swinging neck breaker and delivers a pile driver. ONE-TWO-THR!? NO!!!! 
Steamboat grabs a headlock but Rude pushes that off and hits a back suplex for two. Rude puts in a headlock, but Steamboat answers with a shin-breaker and goes for the Figure-Four. WOOOO!!! Rude makes it to the ropes. Steamboat tries again, but Rude kicks him and nails him with a clothesline. Rude goes up top and comes down on Steamboat with a hard forearm. Rude tries to do his dancing moves, but his arm is in too much pain so does it with one arm. Great characterization shown there. He goes up top and flies down on Steamboat with forearm for two.
Rude puts in a chin lock and sits on Steamboat’s rear for more force, but Steamboat gets up and hits an electric chair drop. They both get on their feet punching away and then both knock their heads together. Steamboat puts in sleepers, but Rude gets out with a jawbreaker. Rude goes to the top, but Steamboat nails him a superplex for a near-fall. Steamboat nails Rude with a pair of clotheslines and then an enziguri. A backdrop and a seated clothesline get a two. Steamboat heads up for the flying chop and connects. He goes for another one, but then the ninja nails him with a phone. The ninja sprints to the back. ONE-TWO-THREE @ 20:23.
 The match was good from a technically sound standpoint and had rational psychology in it, but unlike their other matches, this one was lacking in the “on the edge of your seat” feeling. The structure of the match was all fastballs without many curve balls. They’d go on and have way better matches. ***
Missy Hyatt goes in Rude’s locker room to get some scoop but sees Paul E in a Ninja suit. Paul E entertainingly overreacts as if no one expected it was him and then gets a bj from Hyatt and at that very second,  Al Snow’s gimmick was made once  Heyman got an idea after he moaned everyone needs head.
WCW Heavyweight Title: Lex Luger with Harley Race vs. Sting

There is some trash talking in the start. Jessie thinks they are saying, “Lets go home and forget about it.” This match blows so I agree with Jessie: let’s just go home. Both men start shoving and then Sting delivers the Stinger Splash, but Luger no-sells and comes running out of the corner with a clothesline. Luger hits a power slam and goes for the T-Rack, but Sting flips out and gives Lex a German suplex. Sting has Luger up in the Rack and Luger escapes, but Sting nails a jumping DDT, which makes Luger roll to the floor. Sting is pulled to the outside, but Sting sends Luger into the rail. Back in the ring, Sting applies the Scorpion Death lock. Luger makes to the ropes.
Luger takes over and pounds Sting on the mat until Sting starts to choke Luger in the corner but Luger nails a low blow followed up by an inverted atomic drop.Luger hits a press-slam followed by a bad-looking pile driver. Sting comes back and puts Luger’s face into the mat, but Sting misses a dive and flies out of the ring. Luger nails Sting’s face into the railing and heads back in the ring. Race goes for a pile driver on the floor but Sting backdrops him. Sting goes up top and surprises Luger with a flying body press. ONE-TWO-THREE! @ 13:09.
Luger’s title run didn’t work out because he started becoming an afterthought because he was being overshadowed by the nuclear heat Dangerous Alliance were receiving and  because he started dogging his matches; therefore, it was a good business decision to put the belt back on Sting. The matchwasn’t great because Luger was half-assin’ it and Sting is only as good as his opponent. **


Final Verdict: Aside from the main-event, the lowest match on the card was *** and the highest was **** 1/2. This was good effort by the boys (except Luger) and another well-booked show by WCW’s committee . I didn’t love the show as much as others, but it was still a good show to say in the least. 
If anything, this show shows how important it is to finish strong. If Liger-Pillman closed the show, it would’ve been A LOT better. Of course, they wouldn’t end the show with an exhibition match over a title match, but it’s just the principle that’s it great to go out with a bang. Anyway, this is a very fun time in WCW history and there’s more great stuff to come.
Rants →

Sting Stuff

30th January 2012 by Scott Keith

So I was watching Sting’s segment in “Greatest Stars of the 90s” and seeing his “surfer” gimmick again made me wonder: how do you think his career would’ve gone if he started with Vince first in the 80s? Question,
Was there ever a point pre-Monday Night Wars and possibly even pre-nWo
that Vince McMahon (or someone else in the WWF) talked to Sting about
possibly jumping ship? Otherwise, was there ever talk about Sting
contacting WWF (even if it was solely for contract leverage) about
jumping ship? One missed opportunity seems to be when the Ultimate
Warrior won the WWF Title. They broke in together and had some history
that could have been played up. And Vince could have had the added
benefit of burying an NWA/JCP star in the process.

As to the first question, I think he would have become a gigantic star and made shitloads of money, but not been anywhere near as good a worker.  Since there wasn’t a Ric Flair around at that point to really elevate him, it probably would have left him stuck in the midcard for a long while before the descent of Hogan in 92 opened up a slot.  Then with them needing a new guy to carry the belt in 92, he could have filled the Bret Hart role of the smaller non-roided guy and probably would have ended up being one of the biggest stars in the business anyway.  And yes, Vince tried to get Sting to jump ship several times, but he always refused.  And really, once Hulk came into WCW in 94, that was where Sting should have seen the writing on the wall and escaped if he was going to.  I guess he was just always faithful to JCP/WCW for some strange reason. 

Rants →

Sting Stuff

30th January 2012 by Scott Keith

So I was watching Sting’s segment in “Greatest Stars of the 90s” and seeing his “surfer” gimmick again made me wonder: how do you think his career would’ve gone if he started with Vince first in the 80s? Question,
Was there ever a point pre-Monday Night Wars and possibly even pre-nWo
that Vince McMahon (or someone else in the WWF) talked to Sting about
possibly jumping ship? Otherwise, was there ever talk about Sting
contacting WWF (even if it was solely for contract leverage) about
jumping ship? One missed opportunity seems to be when the Ultimate
Warrior won the WWF Title. They broke in together and had some history
that could have been played up. And Vince could have had the added
benefit of burying an NWA/JCP star in the process.

As to the first question, I think he would have become a gigantic star and made shitloads of money, but not been anywhere near as good a worker.  Since there wasn’t a Ric Flair around at that point to really elevate him, it probably would have left him stuck in the midcard for a long while before the descent of Hogan in 92 opened up a slot.  Then with them needing a new guy to carry the belt in 92, he could have filled the Bret Hart role of the smaller non-roided guy and probably would have ended up being one of the biggest stars in the business anyway.  And yes, Vince tried to get Sting to jump ship several times, but he always refused.  And really, once Hulk came into WCW in 94, that was where Sting should have seen the writing on the wall and escaped if he was going to.  I guess he was just always faithful to JCP/WCW for some strange reason. 

Rants →

Sting Stuff

30th January 2012 by Scott Keith

So I was watching Sting’s segment in “Greatest Stars of the 90s” and seeing his “surfer” gimmick again made me wonder: how do you think his career would’ve gone if he started with Vince first in the 80s? Question,
Was there ever a point pre-Monday Night Wars and possibly even pre-nWo
that Vince McMahon (or someone else in the WWF) talked to Sting about
possibly jumping ship? Otherwise, was there ever talk about Sting
contacting WWF (even if it was solely for contract leverage) about
jumping ship? One missed opportunity seems to be when the Ultimate
Warrior won the WWF Title. They broke in together and had some history
that could have been played up. And Vince could have had the added
benefit of burying an NWA/JCP star in the process.

As to the first question, I think he would have become a gigantic star and made shitloads of money, but not been anywhere near as good a worker.  Since there wasn’t a Ric Flair around at that point to really elevate him, it probably would have left him stuck in the midcard for a long while before the descent of Hogan in 92 opened up a slot.  Then with them needing a new guy to carry the belt in 92, he could have filled the Bret Hart role of the smaller non-roided guy and probably would have ended up being one of the biggest stars in the business anyway.  And yes, Vince tried to get Sting to jump ship several times, but he always refused.  And really, once Hulk came into WCW in 94, that was where Sting should have seen the writing on the wall and escaped if he was going to.  I guess he was just always faithful to JCP/WCW for some strange reason. 

Rants →

Sting Stuff

30th January 2012 by Scott Keith

So I was watching Sting’s segment in “Greatest Stars of the 90s” and seeing his “surfer” gimmick again made me wonder: how do you think his career would’ve gone if he started with Vince first in the 80s? Question,
Was there ever a point pre-Monday Night Wars and possibly even pre-nWo
that Vince McMahon (or someone else in the WWF) talked to Sting about
possibly jumping ship? Otherwise, was there ever talk about Sting
contacting WWF (even if it was solely for contract leverage) about
jumping ship? One missed opportunity seems to be when the Ultimate
Warrior won the WWF Title. They broke in together and had some history
that could have been played up. And Vince could have had the added
benefit of burying an NWA/JCP star in the process.

As to the first question, I think he would have become a gigantic star and made shitloads of money, but not been anywhere near as good a worker.  Since there wasn’t a Ric Flair around at that point to really elevate him, it probably would have left him stuck in the midcard for a long while before the descent of Hogan in 92 opened up a slot.  Then with them needing a new guy to carry the belt in 92, he could have filled the Bret Hart role of the smaller non-roided guy and probably would have ended up being one of the biggest stars in the business anyway.  And yes, Vince tried to get Sting to jump ship several times, but he always refused.  And really, once Hulk came into WCW in 94, that was where Sting should have seen the writing on the wall and escaped if he was going to.  I guess he was just always faithful to JCP/WCW for some strange reason. 

Rants →

Sting Stuff

30th January 2012 by Scott Keith

So I was watching Sting’s segment in “Greatest Stars of the 90s” and seeing his “surfer” gimmick again made me wonder: how do you think his career would’ve gone if he started with Vince first in the 80s? Question,
Was there ever a point pre-Monday Night Wars and possibly even pre-nWo
that Vince McMahon (or someone else in the WWF) talked to Sting about
possibly jumping ship? Otherwise, was there ever talk about Sting
contacting WWF (even if it was solely for contract leverage) about
jumping ship? One missed opportunity seems to be when the Ultimate
Warrior won the WWF Title. They broke in together and had some history
that could have been played up. And Vince could have had the added
benefit of burying an NWA/JCP star in the process.

As to the first question, I think he would have become a gigantic star and made shitloads of money, but not been anywhere near as good a worker.  Since there wasn’t a Ric Flair around at that point to really elevate him, it probably would have left him stuck in the midcard for a long while before the descent of Hogan in 92 opened up a slot.  Then with them needing a new guy to carry the belt in 92, he could have filled the Bret Hart role of the smaller non-roided guy and probably would have ended up being one of the biggest stars in the business anyway.  And yes, Vince tried to get Sting to jump ship several times, but he always refused.  And really, once Hulk came into WCW in 94, that was where Sting should have seen the writing on the wall and escaped if he was going to.  I guess he was just always faithful to JCP/WCW for some strange reason. 

Rants →