As I was watching wrestling this week, I was trying not to write about the main company. Though I saw some very intriguing things happening this week. I feel like I always write about them, and I do not want to make this my personal blog to them. This is about pro wrestling, all of it (at least everything I see on TV), so I would love to talk about something more than them.
Anyway, as I was watching TNA, I saw someone who has been in wrestling for years. Someone who is a living legend. Someone who I don’t think gets his due as far as what he has done for this business that we all love so much. He may be the biggest star in the modern era (the era of wrestling with a few big companies, and not a number of small territories) to have never worked in WWE, and still be a big star. They call him the icon in TNA; yes I am talking about Sting.
Sting started wrestling in 1985 in the Continental Wrestling Association. He was in a tag team with the Ultimate Warrior. They were not in that promotion for long, until they moved to the Universal Wrestling Federation. They wrestled under the tag team name the “Blade Runners”. Soon after they got there the Warrior left to go to the WWE, leaving Sting alone in UWF. Sting did find another tag team partner, and would win the UWF tag team titles. In 1987, the UWF was in the process of being bought out by the NWA. So Sting was moving to the big stage of Jim Crockett Promotions, later known as WCW.
In WCW (I know it was still the NWA at the time, but since it is the one company Sting was with the most, I didn’t see a reason not to just do it that way) Sting became a big star right away. At the very first “Clash of the Champions” (the Clash was pretty much a Pay per View style of show that came on once a month on TBS), Sting was in the main event for the World Heavyweight Championship against Ric Flair. Though Sting did not win the match, it ended in a 45 minute draw(which was just what Flair did back then; he was the king of the time limit draw), Sting had earned the respect of the fans and more importantly the other wrestlers, including Flair.
In 1989 Sting tasted his 1st piece of championship gold. He defeated Mike Rotunda (IRS) in March of that year to win the World TV title. He had a pretty decent run with the title, before losing it to the Great Muta. Later that same year Sting would come to the aid of his former rival, Ric Flair. The 2 men formed a tag team to fight Terry Funk and Muta at Halloween Havoc ’89. After they were successful at that event, Sting was officially asked to join the 4 horsemen.
In Starrcade of ’89 there was an Iron Man tournament held. In the finals of that tournament Sting defeated Flair, making him the #1 contender. At the “Clash? In Feb of 1990, Sting was asked by the horsemen to give up his shot at the title. Sting refused, and was beat up by, and kicked out of the horsemen’s faction. Sting suffered a knee injury during (or shortly after) this attack, and was forced to sit out while his friend Lex Luger challenged Flair for the World title. At the next 2 pay per views, Flair and Luger were in the main event, and at the end of both, Flair was still the champ.
After Sting was finally healed from his knee injury, he came back and had his match verse Flair, and at the “Great American Bash” ’90 Sting pinned Flair to win his 1st World Heavyweight Title. His 1st title reign lasted about 6 months, with Sting defending his title verse any and all comers. But in Jan. of ’91, he lost the title to Flair in their return match. In ‘91 Sting went on to win the US title and the 1st ever “Battlebowl”. Sting would go on to win the World title again, and he would enter into a feud with one of his biggest competitors, Big Van Vader.
Vader and Sting would go back and forth with the World Title for much of 1993. Sting lost the title to Vader in July after months of successful defenses. In a European tour, Sting defeated Vade for the title in London, only to lose it back to Vader 6 days later in Dublin. At this point Ric Flair had returned to WCW, and he and Sting renewed their rivalry. They would fight for the world title with Sting just coming up short. At this time, Hulk Hogan had joined WCW, with the Macho Man soon to come. So for the next 2 years Sting was pretty much being over looked for all of the new influx of talent. Also this was the beginning of WCW Monday Nitro. Then Kevin Nash and Scott Hall joined the company, and with the help of Hogan formed the NWO. As the NWO got bigger and more and more wrestlers were jumping ship from WCW to join NWO. At this time Luger, Flair, Arn Anderson and a number of WCW guys were wondering where Sting’s loyalty lied. This upset Sting so much that he left the WCW and did not wrestler for more than a year.
As the NWO was running wild in the WCW, Sting would appear in the rafters at WCW event. He had a new persona. He did not have the blond spiked haired and multi colored face paint. He was dressed like the lead character in the movie “The Crow”. He let his hair grow really long, and he stopped dying it, and he painted his face white and black (similar to the NWO). He would not say anything, and he would not wrestle. Sting would not be in the ring again until December of 1997 at Starrcade. Sting would defeat Hogan, and win the WCW title, a big victory for WCW.
In the 4 remaining years of WCW, Sting would go on to win the world title 3 more times. Then after WCW closed Sting would wrestle for the World Wrestling All-Stars for a little while, even winning their world title, before that company went out of business. Finally in 2003 Sting Joined TNA. It took Sting a long time to work his way up the ranks in TNA. He spent most of his first few years feuding with Jeff Jarrett, and trying to find his way in the company, until in 2006 when he captured the TNA title. Since then he has been a fixture atop the TNA ladder, winning their title 4 other times, as recently as July of 2011. Sting’s character now is the boss of the everyday operations of TNA.
Sting is one of the biggest stars to ever wrestle. He is a man who has been at the top of the world of pro wrestling for the last 23 years, minus the year he spent becoming the crow. Not bad for a man in his 50s. I know there are plenty of guys who would say this, but Sting has been a big influence on all of us fans who grew up in the 80s, watched in the beginning of the 90s, and became addicts during the “Monday Night Wars”. Although I would love to see what his career would be like (and how famous he would be) if he had ever gone to the WWE. Vince McMahon has a way of making stars (i.e.: Steve Austin, Mick Foley), and keeping stars shining bright (i.e.: Ric Flair), but Sting has made it his way, and there is nothing bad about that.
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