By the spring of 2000, World Championship Wrestling was in some serious danger and needed to create new stars. They seemingly stumbled upon one with Vampiro, who had a big run in Mexico and was getting some good babyface reactions in WCW. However, once Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff did a reboot for the company, Vampiro was turned heel and began a feud with arguably the most popular wrestler in WCW, Sting.
Vampiro and Sting were initially dubbed “brothers in paint” and formed an alliance in the early months of 2000. It would be assumed that Vampiro was in line to be a top babyface after aligning himself with the Stinger. That all changed on April 10th when Vampiro decided to associate himself with Russo and Bischoff. Vampiro cost Sting a match against Diamond Dallas Page that night by hitting Sting with his finisher, “the Nail in the Coffin”.
The two former friends would meet at Spring Stampede 2000 in a US Championship Tournament Semifinal match, which saw Sting win the match cleanly. Vampiro wouldn’t settle for the loss. Instead, Vampiro would cost Sting a chance to win the WCW United States Championship, as during the Finals of the tournament Vampiro pulled Sting under the ring and bloodied him. This ultimately led to Sting losing to Scott Steiner. Vampiro’s complete heel turn had effectively taken place.
On the April 24th edition of Nitro, Sting challenged Vampiro to a first blood match. No one would bleed, but a red liquid came from the ceiling and landed on Sting. Vampiro would also hang Sting from a cable to embarrass him.
The following week on Nitro, Vampiro invited Sting to come to a graveyard, shown on TV live via satellite. While there in the graveyard, Vampiro told Sting that he was the monster that Sting should have been. Vampiro would attack Sting by breaking a tombstone over his head and tossing Sting into an empty grave. But, since Sting is super natural, he would quickly recover. Literally, later on in the show, Sting would attack Vampiro in the ring with a baseball bat. That pretty much damaged Vampiro as a threat to Sting.
At Slamboree 2000, Sting would once again beat Vampiro clean. You would think that this would be the end of the angle. After all, Vampiro had lost two straight pay per view matches cleanly. If you were to think that, you’d be wrong. It must continue!
The following night after Slamboree on Nitro, Sting had a chance to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Jeff Jarrett. Everything was looking good for the Stinger until Vampiro popped up from under the ring once again and pulled Sting under the ring… again. Vampiro covered Sting in blood and Jarrett retained.
On the May 15th edition of Nitro, Vampiro lost to Sting in a ‘House of Pain’ match. Sting won the match by shackling Vampiro to the steel cage. That would make it the third major loss for Vampiro against Sting in one month. Two days later on Thunder, Vampiro challenged Sting to a ‘Human Torch’ Match, where you have to set your opponent on fire in order to win the match. The match would be slated to take place at the Great American Bash in June.
Heading into the Bash, Vampiro earned a major win on May 22nd when he pinned Hulk Hogan after help from Billy Kidman. Afterward, Vampiro tried to lite Hogan on fire, but Sting made the save. That’s one major win for Vampiro, even though it wasn’t clean. Two days later on Thunder, Sting was interviewed by Mike Tenay. The set ended up being set on fire while Vampiro continued to play mind games. Vampiro would try to lite Sting on fire once again on the May 29th edition of Nitro when he brought a gasoline truck to the show. However, security prevented that from happening. Later on in the show, Vampiro nearly put Sting’s head into a trash can on fire, but Kronik saved the Stinger.
Vampiro finally got some decent momentum going against Sting on the June 7th edition of Thunder. Vampiro would attack Sting while Sting was competing against Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller. Vampiro ended up pouring gasoline on the announcers table and tried to put Sting through a flaming table. Sting avoided it, and put the fire out. However, Vampiro was still able to put Sting through a non-burning table leading into the Great American Bash PPV.
At the Bash on June 11th, Vampiro was able to beat Sting by lighting ‘Sting’ on fire. Yeah, it was a stuntman as ‘Sting’ was shoved off a steel trust above the big screen and was sent plummeting down through a “stage” while lit on fire, but still, Vampiro got a win over Sting. The incident would cause Sting to be off television for several weeks.
Watch Stuntman Sting Take The Flaming Fall Below
Sting would return by mid July, but was under a mask to protect his apparent burnt face. Sting would unmask on July 31st to show that he was completely healthy and scar free. His feud with Vampiro seemed to be dying out, as he was having matches with Booker T among other main eventers. Sting had a title match against Booker T on the July 31st Nitro but Vampiro and his associates, the Great Muta and Demon, got involved. They ended up putting Sting into Demon’s KISS coffin and lit the coffin on fire. They sure do love fire!
The singles feud between Sting and Vampiro is no longer really a top priority on WCW television. In fact, at the ‘New Blood Rising’ PPV Sting simply squashed the Demon. The night after, Sting cost Vampiro and the Great Muta their newly won WCW World Tag Team Championships. Sting continued to get the better of Vampiro and his friends when he won a four way match against all three in just over two minutes.
In what should probably be considered the end of the feud, Sting would beat Vampiro once again in a singles match on the September 6th edition of Thunder. The match had the “Anything Goes” stipulation, but that didn’t sit well with Vampiro. It wasn’t over. Sting had to beat Vampiro AND the Great Muta in a triple threat match at Fall Brawl 2000. Thankfully, it was finally marked the end of the feud.
This feud could have been a great opportunity for WCW to make Vampiro a star for them. He was actually really over as a babyface, so it’s probably a questionable decision to have even turned him heel in the first place. The feud lost a lot of momentum when Vampiro wasn’t able to actually beat Sting in the ring. Sure, he had mind games going for him and whatnot, but he never once put Sting’s shoulders down on the mat for a three count. I find that rather interesting considering Vampiro pinned Hulk Hogan, a guy widely known for not wanting to put people over.
As you can see, Vampiro lost three matches to Sting within the first month of the reboot of WCW. The one match he actually won, wasn’t even by pin fall or submission but rather because he was able to lite stuntman Sting on fire. Sure, that makes Vampiro look deranged and spooky, but he was never near being a threat to Sting or any other main event guy.
Once Sting got back from the fire incident the feud was pretty much done. It had been going on for three months and Vampiro hadn’t done anything to keep the momentum going. Even the attempt to bring in more guys (Demon/Muta) to keep the feud going was a failure because Sting would never lose to them, ever.
It could’ve been a great way to diminish Sting’s role and an even better way to build up Vampiro as a star for WCW. But, instead Sting was just fed three guys for five months and Vampiro was off television by the end of October. It was a wasted angle all around.
What are your thoughts on Vampiro vs. Sting feud? Feel free to share your comments!
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I didn’t overly enjoy the Sting/Vampiro feud. I always viewed Vampiro as way overhyped. I never got the appeal, but he did seem to be getting over as a face so turning him heel probably was not the best idea. And if they did, they probably should have started him against a lesser face. And had him work his way up to Sting. That way he would have gotten more established as a heel before taking on arguably the most over face of the company.
I, for one, was never really on the Vampiro bandwagon. I understand he was quite over in Mexico before his WCW run, but he didn’t work as a heel in WCW. I was never that into Vampiro, but I thought he made an ok face at the time. When he went heel, I lost complete interest. I agree with the post above, Vamp should have been groomed for a feud with Sting instead of being thrown right in with the sharks. Having KISS Demon Torborg and Muta phoning it in didn’t help things either.