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Sting (wrestler)

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Steve Borden, better known by his stage name Sting (born March 20, 1959 in Omaha, Nebraska), is an American professional wrestler who has wrestled with several promotions including the National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling since the early 1980s. The longest — and most famous — of these three runs was with WCW, where he held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times.

Career

Early career

Sting started out as a part of a tag team with the wrestler later known as The Ultimate Warrior. Sting and the Warrior were called The Blade Runners (a probable reference to the movie of the same name) in the Universal Wrestling Federation. Warrior soon left the UWF, leaving Sting to turn face and win the tag titles with Rick Steiner.

Sting was one of the wrestlers who joined World Championship Wrestling when it purchased the UWF in late 1987. Sting's legendary feud with Ric Flair began when he and Flair fought to a 45-minute time limit draw at 1988 Clash of the Champions. However, when Sting later began a feud with Keiji Mutoh, Flair and Sting became friends and they stood together against Mutoh's stables. When Flair formed the Four Horsemen, Sting joined it, but was soon kicked out after he demanded a title shot from Flair, thus restarting their rivalry. That same night, Sting injured his knee in a cage match while making a run-in on the other Horsemen. This created booking problems for WCW, as Sting was slated to take Flair's title at the next Pay Per View, WrestleWar. Instead, Lex Luger took Sting's place for several epic matches with Flair, meant to keep the title on Flair using any means necessary (despite heavy backstage politicking to drop the title to Luger) while buying time for Sting's recuperation.

On his return, Sting focused on taking out the Four Horsemen and at The Great American Bash, he finally defeated Flair for the NWA Heavyweight Title. He went on to feud with Lex Luger, though later they would become good friends and a successful tag team.

World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001)

When WCW broke away from the NWA, Sting was recognized as the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion. However, he was knocked out of the top babyface position by Hulk Hogan, who joined WCW in 1994. The two would team up, this time to face off against the Dungeon of Doom. At this time, Ric Flair sought Sting's help in a match against Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman, but in the match, Flair turned against Sting, and along with Anderson and Pillman, reformed the Four Horsemen. Sting and Flair continued to feud, and when it appeared Sting was on the losing side, Lex Luger came to Sting's aid.

In 1996, Sting stood up against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) from WWF, and in an eventful match at Bash at the Beach 1996, Sting, Luger and "Macho Man" Randy Savage were fought to a draw by Nash, Hall, and their third ally, which turned out to be Hulk Hogan—these last three eventually formed the nWo.

The nWo soon introduced an imposter Sting (played by Jeff Farmer, and later by Chris Harris), which led the crowd to believe that Sting had turned his back on WCW. When the real Sting returned he was upset (in kayfabe) by the crowd's reaction and by the fact that many people believed that he had in fact betrayed WCW, and so he left WCW. However, at certain events, he appeared mysteriously in the rafters; his new persona was quite obviously inspired by The Crow. He also began using a baseball bat as his signature weapon.

During a Clash of the Champions event in 1997, during Sting's new entrance music, the following message was spoken to the nWo embedded in the music.

When a man's heart is full of deceit it burns up, dies, and a dark shadow falls over his soul.
From the ashes of a once great man has risen a curse, a wrong that must be righted.
We look to the skies for a vindicator, someone to strike fear into the black heart of the same man who created him.
The battle between good and evil has begun.
Against an army of shadows comes the Dark Warrior, the purveyor of good, with a voice of silence, and a mission of justice.
This is Sting.

He would shortly return to WCW, showing his true colours and helping to fend off the nWo with a title match against "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan at StarrCade 1997, winning controversially due to a decision by special guest referee Bret Hart. He later lost the title to Randy Savage in 1998, who was revealed to be a member of the nWo.

Later in 1998, nWo split up owing to differences between Hogan and Nash. Nash formed the nWo Wolfpac, which Sting joined two months later. Sting would go on to win the tag titles and the U.S. Title as part of Nash's stable.

Sting unsuccessfully tried to turn heel in 1999 when he defeated Hogan to win the World Title, but this heel turn was poorly received by fans and he was soon turned face once again. He then went on to defeat Lex Luger. In 2000, Sting had an intense feud with the rookie Vampiro, which sparked Vampiro's popularity. He was "injured" by Scott Steiner in 2000, leaving WCW TV for good. However, he would return for the last episode of WCW Monday Nitro, to defeat Flair.

Sting was one of the few high profile wrestlers in WCW who did not work for the WWF at any point throughout the 1990s, and who remained with WCW in the late 1990s when dozens of other wrestlers "jumped ship" to the WWF.

World Wrestling All-Stars (2002-2003)

Sting returned to professional wrestling in late-2002, touring Europe with the World Wrestling All-Stars throughout November and December. His first match with the WWA was on November 28, 2002 in Dublin, Ireland, and saw Sting team with Lex Luger to defeated Buff Bagwell and Malice. On December 6, 2002 in Glasgow, Scotland, Luger defeated Sting in a match for the vacant WWA World Heavyweight Championship following interference from Jeff Jarrett. On December 13, 2002 in Zürich, Switzerland, Sting defeated Luger to become the WWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Sting toured Australasia with the WWA in May 2003. On May 21, 2003 he successfully defended the WWA World Heavyweight Championship against Rick Steiner and Shane Douglas in Sydney, Australia, and on May 23, 2003 in Melbourne, Australia he retained the title in a match with Disco Inferno, despite interference from Chris Sabin and Konnan. On the last ever WWA show, on May 25, 2003 in Auckland, New Zealand, Sting lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett in a championship unification bout following interference on Jarrett's behalf by Rick Steiner. This last show aired on pay-per-view in the United States on June 8, 2003.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003, 2005-)

In 2003, Sting signed a four appearance contract with the Nashville, Tennessee-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion. He debuted in TNA on the June 18, 2003 one year anniversary show, teaming with Jeff Jarrett to defeate A.J. Styles and the returning Syxx Pac. Throughout July 2003, Sting engaged in a comprehensive series of sitdown interviews, discussing his career and his faith.

Sting returned to TNA on November 5, 2003, defeating Jarrett by disqualification in a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship after Jarrett hit him with a chair. On November 12, 2003, Sting teamed with A.J. Styles to defeat Jarrett and Lex Luger. He made his final TNA appearance of 2003 on December 17, defeating Jarrett in a non-title match.

On March 24, 2004, Sting was interviewed once again by Mike Tenay as part of the promotion for his direct-to-video biographical film, "Sting: Moment of Truth".

At TNA Turning Point 2005 on December 11, 2005, Jeff Jarrett defeated Rhino to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship following copious interference and cheating. As Jarrett stood in the ring celebrating his victory, the lights in the arena went out. Images of a scorpion - Sting's symbol - then appeared on the arena screens, along with the date "January 15, 2006" (the scheduled date of TNA Final Resolution 2006). Spotlights then illuminated the ring, revealing that a chair bearing Sting's signature trench coat, boots and black baseball bat had been placed in the centre of the ring.

Wrestling facts

Finishing and signature moves

Managers

Quotes

  • "It's showtime, folks!"
  • "Wooo!"
  • "Owww!"
  • "This - is - Sting!"
  • "Riddle me this, riddle me that...who's afraid of the big - black - bat?"
  • "I'm back, and I'm back in black!"
  • "The only thing that's for sure about Sting...is nothing's for sure!"

Championships and Accomplishments

  • PWI ranked him # 15 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
  • PWI ranked him # 52 of the best tag teams of the PWI Years with Lex Luger in 2003.
  • PWI Most Improved Wrestler (1988)
  • PWI Wrestler of the Year (1990)
  • PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler (1990)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1991)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1992)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1994)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1997)
  • PWI Match of the Year (1991) = Sting and Lex Luger versus Rick and Scott Steiner

Outside of wrestling

Borden is married to Sue, with whom he has two sons, Garrett and Steven, and a daughter, Gracie. He has been a born-again Christian since August 1998, and is a church deacon. He occasionally appears at religious wrestling shows hosted by fellow born-again Christians Ted DiBiase and Nikita Koloff.

Sting appeared in the 1998 film The Real Reason (Men Commit Crimes), the 2000 film Shutterspeed and the 2000 film Ready To Rumble. He has also made guest appearances in several television series, including Thunder in Paradise, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Nightmare Room and MADtv. In 2004, a biographical film entitled Sting: Moment of Truth about Sting's life was released direct-to-video . The film featured numerous wrestling personalities, with Sting depicting himself as an adult and Donnie Fallgatter depicting Sting as a child.

Books

  • Bonham, Chad (2001) Wrestling With God, ISBN: 1589199359
  • Sting and King, George (2004) Sting: The Moment of Truth, ISBN: 1404102116

References

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