The iconic career of Sting is still going all these years after he broke out in the 1980s. Sting is a rare name to spend time in WCW, TNA, WWE and AEW at various points. Most fans treat Sting with respect as an all-time great that did many outstanding things to improve the wrestling business.
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However, some things get lost in translation as time goes on and countless ways to discuss wrestling history have emerged. Even the most tapped in fans will get some things wrong or agree to a talking point that wasn’t fully accurate. Sting’s career warrants a deeper look at the things that fans get wrong about him.
10 Hulk Hogan Matches Ruined Momentum
The rivalry between Hulk Hogan and Sting is considered both a high point and low point in Sting’s career. Starrcade 1997 being booked so poorly took away from Sting’s moment, but fans sometimes overestimate how much it impacted his momentum.
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WCW fans still loved Sting after the title win and Hogan became part of the past. However, the follow up is what ruined Sting’s momentum as the hottest babyface. Lackluster builds to PPV matches with Scott Hall and Randy Savage led to Sting no longer being a must-watch act after Hogan.
9 Had A Friendship With Ultimate Warrior
The Blade Runners tag team helped introduce Sting and Ultimate Warrior early in their careers. Both guys showed potential and got over as a fun colorful tag team in the territory days. Most fans assumed they were close friends while working for opposing companies when breaking out.
Sting and Warrior actually stopped talking after their tag run ended. Warrior claimed Sting didn’t back him up when standing up to Bill Watts. WCW reunited them for one night in a tag match against Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart where they pretended to be friends.
8 Deserves Blame For Vampiro Not Getting Over
One of Sting’s biggest career failures was feuding with Vampiro and not being able to get him over. WCW booked them in a personal rivalry after a short-term tag run ended as part of the bigger New Blood vs Millionaire’s Club story.
Sting and Vampiro didn’t get along to make Vampiro believe that Sting tried to harm his career. However, Sting took a few losses and even agreed to look weak when a stunt double was set on fire. Vince Russo just booked an awful angle that made it hard to care about either man.
7 TNA Run Was Pointless
Many fans diminished the value of TNA and sometimes called it a waste of time for most great legends. Sting skipping WWE for years and picking TNA over them upset many fans that wanted to see him on the bigger stage.
However, TNA had many great moments involving Sting that showed he provided a positive presence to the company as a big name. Sting had strong moments with Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy and even Hulk Hogan that provided a lot of help for TNA to continue having their audience.
6 Surfer Sting Act Was Getting Stale
The Crow version of Sting became the most popular look since he used it during the hottest WCW angle stalking the New World Order and has kept a similar look since then. There is a belief that WCW fans got sick of Sting’s Surfer act since it was a more generic babyface act.
Sting could have kept that character forever and fans would have welcomed it. The Crow version only felt like such an upgrade because of the context in the story. Surfer Sting was still getting huge ovations as the flag bearer of the WCW babyfaces, but the changes were needed.
5 Triple H Feud Was A Disappointment
One of the biggest complaints about Sting’s career was the WWE run and especially the Triple H feud. WrestleMania 31 featured Triple H defeating Sting in Sting’s first-ever WWE match. However, the belief that WWE dropped the ball with the entire feud was wrong.
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Sting had a great debut as a vigilante figure refusing to let Triple H and The Authority cheat others. The build created a lot of excitement, and the match quality was even great. A booking decision of the win for Triple H shouldn’t erase everything before that.
4 Joining Wolfpac Was Confusing
The topic of the New World Order Wolfpac existing at all and especially Sting joining them led to lots of debates back and forth. Many fans believe it was a terrible move to have Sting become a member of any NWO group since he was their biggest enemy.
WCW actually did a great job explaining how much Kevin Nash changed as the leader when Lex Luger joined the group. Sting’s best friend recruiting him became a huge story for the summer of 1998. The massive reaction showed how much the WCW audience wanted it when Sting became Wolfpac 4 life.
3 Was A Bad Heel Wrestler
Sting is a rare legend to never have a lengthy stint as a heel character. Names like Sting, Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam were basically lifelong babyfaces due to the crowd loving him. Sting had one major heel turn in 1999 when cheating Hulk Hogan out of the WCW Championship.
The heel work of Sting wasn’t that bad as he had impressive segments during the month as a bad guy. WCW fans loving Sting too much and feeling that he was justified against Hogan ruined it more than anything he lacked. Sting even looked good in the short TNA heel stints, but there was a grey area each time still having some babyface moments as a tweener.
2 Was A Great WCW Champion
Sting is usually in the debate for the greatest WCW Champion of all-time, but that is not an ideal argument when exploring deeper. Sting's overall accomplishments made him arguably the best WCW legend. However, his title reigns typically left a lot to be desired.
Five of Sting’s six WCW Championship reigns ended in under two months for transitional reigns. Even the one lengthy reign of Sting featured him rarely having standout moments. Sting was a rare instance of a wrestler already being over without the gold and chasing the title being more ideal than holding it.
1 Ric Flair Was By Far His Best Rival
There is a belief that Ric Flair was easily Sting’s greatest career rival and no one else is close. However, a real debate exists in favor of Vader and Hulk Hogan when looking back. Vader and Sting basically carried WCW during Flair’s WWE departure as the biggest names having great matches.
Hulk Hogan vs Sting was the most financially successful feud in WCW history with massive buy rates and television ratings. Flair putting Sting on the map will always give him a case, but Sting had at least comparable feuds with Vader and Hogan afterwards.
