Breaking It Down: Random thoughts from a wrestling junkie!
Volume 1: Sting: The Franchise, Or Just A Mirage?
Forward: This will be a column where I express my views on a number of wrestling topics that pique my interest at that specific time. I watch wrestling all the time (mainly old stuff) and there are a lot of things that really bother me, and also interest me, about what I am watching. Therefore, I have decided to put my thoughts down on paper so to speak and share them with all of you. Again, these are just MY thoughts and opinions, therefore you can either agree with them, or we can agree to disagree. That is the beauty of opinions. Everyone can have one and it can spark a great debate every once in a while. No matter how you feel, all feedback is appreciated. So, without further ado it is time to get this column going.
Lately, I have been watching WCW Monday Nitro on the WWE Network and one of the constant figures on this show, of course, is Sting. He was the quintessential face of the WCW. No matter what others say or do, Sting was always THE guy. Upon his arrival in the NWA in late 1987 he had that “IT” factor that everyone talks about but nobody can explain. When he came on your screen you paid attention because he was different than everything else you were seeing in the NWA at the time. He had the spiked blonde hair, the face paint, the charisma, and everything else you could ask for in a future star to have. His first major break came at the very first Clash of the Champions when he had a marathon of a match with Ric Flair that essentially put him on the map. After that match you could say pretty much that the rest was history.
Now, let’s fast forward through all his early accolades to 1996 when arguably the biggest angle in the history of wrestling is about to go down. Sting has been built up over the years as the face of the company and the guy that is going to carry the torch for the WCW in this battle with the nWo. After Hogan’s turn, Sting was arguably the biggest name left on the WCW side of the fence, and the guy that the war should have been based around as far as WCW was concerned. However, some idiot running the company decides to let Sting wrestle all of his dates on his contract earlier than he should have. Therefore, Sting has the option to mail it in and not wrestle during this time. Of course, like most smart people would, he decided not to wrestle and not renegotiate his contract to add dates to his contract. Or Maybe it was a company decision, either way, the ball was dropped here on keeping Sting from competing with the NWO early on.
This is where I have the problem. If you are the franchise of the company, THE guy, the top face in the company, and it is during the hottest time in recent memory for the company and you decide to go hang out in the rafters for 15 months? I’m not blaming the guy for getting paid to pretty much do nothing. More power to him. But if you are a franchise guy, then you go out there and do your part. That’s like Peyton Manning getting to the Super Bowl then saying “Whelp, my contract only asks me to play 17 games so I am not going to play this. I am going to sit at home and get paid while I watch the biggest game on TV.” It’s as if he didn’t want to be in the middle of it and he just wanted to hang out and watch everybody else make the company as big as it has ever been.
This leads me to my other problem. I always thought it was very curious that Sting never went to the WWF/WWE during his prime. I get that he was a company guy and didn’t want to leave and all of that is fine. However, I feel like (and this is just my opinion) there is a lot more to it. He always spouts off his religious beliefs didn’t go with the image of what the WWE was producing. However, I doubt that is the case. He has been with TNA for the last 7-8 years and they put out the more adult oriented product than the WWE does in the last 7-8 years. Therefore, that argument is out of the picture. My thoughts on this matter is I feel like he didn’t like the pressure. Name a big show that Sting was a part of that was on the level of a WrestleMania? The only one you can think of is Starrcade 1997 and that match with Hogan completely bombed. I know it was a cluster and the booking of the match was terrible. However, Sting looked like total crap in arguably what was the biggest match of his career. He looked terrible.
This is why I feel like he can’t handle the pressure. If he would have jumped ship to the WWF he would be asked to either main event or co-main event the biggest events in wrestling and I don’t think he could have handled or lived up to the expectations. I feel like he loves the comfort of the small time because it won’t magnify how mediocre Sting is as an in-ring performer. Everybody says that WCW got the better end of the bargain when they ended up with Sting and WWF ended up with the Ultimate Warrior. But I strongly disagree. In the biggest of matches Warrior showed up and put on classics that people still talk about today matches with house hold names like Hulk Hogan and the “Macho Man” Randy Savage. How many matches of Sting do you bring up and talk about as “classics” outside of the Clash of the Champions 1 match? Not many.
The last point I want to get to is the “Crow” gimmick. The best part about Sting was his high energy, charisma, crazy surfer guy look and when he decided to do the Crow gimmick he cut off his nose to spite face. He took away the best part about Sting, and when he did that he got exposed as just another guy. He was never the same after he switched gimmicks because he no longer did the things that made the Sting character so awesome to begin with. He traded his energy for appearance, and after a while things get old without personality involved.
In closing, I really like Sting. I think he could have helped any wrestling company that he was a part of. However, I don’t think he could ever be considered a franchise guy or a cornerstone guy because he never rose to the occasion to take the bull by the horns and actually CARRY his company. He had the perfect opportunity in 1996 to become the guy in the company and instead of doing that, they decided to have him hang out in the rafters with a bird and watch while the hottest time of his company passed him by.
Editor’s note: This is just column 1. I’m not sure what the topic will be next week but hopefully you’ll check back to see what’s on my mind next. If you have any comments leave them and hopefully we can get a good conversation going. Thanks again for reading and I will see you again next week.
I had thought the reason sting didnt wrestle much after the angle went down is that he went into treatment i could be wrong but he did have problems that he need to fix in his life which is why i thought he just dropped in from Time to Time…
Are you implying Sting was away due to alcohol or drug issues? And, also to Mr. Buckley, Sting never actually “left”, he would make appearances fairly often outside of the ring.
Yeah, I don’t think Sting was away for drugs and whatnot. From what i have gathered and was told his required dates were finished and he didn’t have to wrestle so he didn’t. Once i found that out, it became the inspiration for the piece all together.