With Sting fighting for the WWE World Heavyweight Title at Night of Champions, I wanted to discuss how Sting got to this point in his long, amazing career. Steve Borden Sr was born March 20th 1959 and is known as The Icon Sting. Sting began his career at Continental Wrestling Association, after originally not having an interest in Professional Wrestling he was taken to a then WWF event, which made him want to begin his career.
Sting originally wrestled under the ring name Flash and was part of the tag-team Freedom Fighters with Jim “Justice” Hellwig. The team started as faces but eventually turned heel after the crowd didn’t respond to them. The team eventually left the promotion in late 1986. The team soon resurfaced in Universal Wrestling Federation and changed their name to Blade Runners. This is when Steve Borden used the name Sting for the first time, whilst Hellwig actually went by the name Rock. What alot of people might not know is that Hellwig would eventually become The Ultimate Warrior.
By the end of 1987 Sting wanted a change so headed towards NWA. The company was a Jim Crockett promotion that would become WCW. This is when Sting had arguably one of the best matches in the history of Wrestling with Ric Flair. The match went 45 minutes and ended in a draw, being called as a match of the year contender. Sting would eventually lose to Flair in a rematch, but it set up Sting to a feud with the four horsemen which ran to July 1988.
Throughout the year Dusty Rhodes booked Sting in title matches against the US champion and the Television Title Champion. Sting was so over with the fans that Dusty Rhodes paired himself with Sting to face The Road Warriors who had just turned heel. The Road Warriors retained the tag titles but the heel turn was a huge risk due to the tag team being huge favourites. Sting would eventually go back to single competition in 1989, starting off the year by once again fighting Ric Flair. Sting won his first championship by beating Rotundo for the NWA Television Championship at a live event in March 1989.
Sting would eventually help his old rival Ric Flair after getting attacked by Terry Funks stable. The two became a tag team and faced Terry Funks stable in a Thunderdome Cage Match in Halloween Havoc ’89. Sting and Flair would win ending the feud and resulted in Sting joining the Four Horseman. Sting would be kicked from The Four Horsemen on February 6th 1990, after Sting refused to give up his title shot to Ric Flair. Sting would go on to legitimately injure himself that night which forced the bookers to remove Sting from the WrestleWar PPV. On June 7th 1990 Sting finally accomplished a dream and defeated Ric Flair to become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Sting’s first title run ended January 11th 1991, when Ric Flair defeated Sting at Starrcade. In the same month NWA pulled away and the promotion WCW was born.
Sting would continue to be the franchise for WCW until 1996 when his character began to show physical changes. Sting’s once blonde short hair was replaced by longer, darker hair and his tights replaced from the colourful ones we used to know to ones black with a white scorpion against. Sting was mostly evident in the creation of the NWO (New World Order), which resulted in The Outsiders Nash and Hall joining with Hogan to make the group. Sting would become a thorn in their side and continued to fight them throughout their existence.
Sting’s last feuds in a withering WCW took part in 1999-2001. Sting would win his fifth WCW title on April 26th on an edition of Nitro defeating DDP. Sting would later lose the title back to DDP in one of the shortest reigns in wrestling history lasting 90 mins. Over the next several months, Sting feuded with Goldberg, Rick Steiner, Vicious, and Savage. Sting teamed with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Nash at the Bash at the Beach in July to take on Vicious and Savage of Team Madness. Savage pinned Nash and won the World title as a result.
WCW officials Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff, in an attempt to save the fading company, rebooted the storylines on April 10, 2000, and declared all titles vacant. After a screw job over the US Title, this led to an intense feud between Sting and Vampiro. Sting pinned Vampiro at Slamboree 2000 in May, and Vampiro beat Sting in a Human Torch match at The Great American Bash the next month; for the climax of the match, Borden switched with a stuntman, who was set on fire and thrown off the top of the frame of the stage’s entrance video screen.
Sting would stay off WCW programming until the final episode of Nitro on March 26, 2001. WCW has been purchased by WWE, and the final match in WCW history pitted Sting against his longtime rival Flair; the two had also competed on the very first edition of Nitro on September 4, 1995. Sting defeated Flair and the two embraced at the end of the contest, ending WCW and the 13-year, on-again/off-again feud between the two men.
In 2003 Sting would make his TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) debut on June 18th joining Jeff Jarrett to feud with AJ Styles and Syxx Pac. Sting would spend the next 11 years in TNA Wrestling. Sting would go on to win the TNA title, create the Main Event Mafia, having amazing feuds with AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett and eventually becoming the Insane Icon, a red faced version of Sting who was insane. Stings last feuds would be with Aces and Eights ran by Bully Ray, and The Carters. This led to Sting leaving the promotion in 2014 after losing a match against Magnus.
At this point Sting was a free agent. The one place Sting had never wrestled or even appeared would be WWE. Veteran wrestling journalist Bill Apter wrote a piece for WWE.com that had Sting state “best days may still yet to come”. This resulted in the internet community losing its mind to the thought of Sting signing for the once rival company. Stings first WWE appearance was on a recorded segment of Sting discussing the recent passing of The Ultimate Warrior. Sting made his first public appearance at a WWE linked event at San Diego Comic Con dressed as the Icon Sting. On November 23rd during the main event of Survivor Series Sting made his WWE debut attacking Triple H. This led to the feud at Wrestlemania which Sting lost. Sting wouldn’t be seen on television until August 24th, when he was revealed during a supposed unveiling of a Seth Rollins statue. Sting would attack Rollins and later state his intent to take the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
So there we have the history of The Icon Sting, who has had a glittered and phenomenal career in the wrestling business. Not only will he be a future WWE HOF but he will be a legend in the industry overall. Sting deserves his WWE title shot, but will he come away with the gold or be forgotten like those before him who have taken on Seth Rollins? Let us know in the comments below.
Game Over.
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