Every Look Of Sting's Wrestling Career, Ranked Worst To Best

The man known as Sting has had a lofty career filled with accolades and moments that most wrestlers could only dream of having, such as twenty-six championships throughout his work. Steve Borden has been given the chance to work with every major promotion in the United States, including World Championship Wrestling, WWE, and All Elite Wrestling.

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Sting has been able to keep his career going since 1985 and is barely starting to wind things down with the announcement that AEW's Revolution PPV in 2024 will be his final match. With such a tenured career, Sting has been able to change with the times and keep his character fresh and relevant, so let's go through every change he has made and rank them against each other.

8 Someone Really Loved The Dark Knight

Joker Sting In TNA

Slammiversary 9 saw Sting lose his TNA World Heavyweight title to Mr. Anderson after Eric Bischoff got involved in the match. This made Sting start to lose his mind a little bit and develop a new side to his famous character by becoming known as the "Insane Icon" or Joker Sting to fans.

The change saw Sting smear his face paint a bit more, and do different-looking designs, very reminiscent of Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight film. The character was gone by early 2012, shortly before Sting was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame.

7 Teaming With A Young Ultimate Warrior

Blade Runner Sting In UWF

Sting's first gimmick came as part of a tag team featuring another legendary wrestler, The Ultimate Warrior. The two started working together in the Continental Wrestling Association in the mid-80s before moving to the Universal Wrestling Federation. As a duo, Sting and his partner Rock didn't find much success in either promotion, but Sting was able to find some tag team gold with partners like Eddie Gilbert and Rick Steiner.

This was Sting at his biggest as he looked only a bit smaller than his partner. They had short haircuts and had some minor face paint around their eyes and mouths. Once Jim Crockett purchased the UWF, Sting was made into a singles star and would soon become the legend he is known as today.

6 The Debut That Most Thought Would Never Happen

Sting In The WWE

For the longest time, Sting was the final big name from WCW to make his way to the WWE. Sting himself admitted that he had no interest in working for the promotion and that was why he stayed with TNA as long as he did. Things changed in 2015 when he partnered with 2K and WWE to be a character and pre-order bonus for the new WWE 2K15 title and was soon put onto television in a storyline against The Authority.

His look wasn't anything new really, as he kept the same face paint design he had been using for a while and just looked like Sting. This run was super short and saw Sting come out on the losing end of half his matches, (he only had four).

5 Sting Finally Joined The NWO

Sting In The Wolfpac

1998 saw the nWo start to split apart and break off into two different factions, now known as nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac. Sting shocked fans by wearing a black and white nWo t-shirt before removing it and revealing himself as a member of the Wolfpac alongside Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, and Lex Luger.

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This change became one of the most significant of Sting's career as he started to speak more on the mic after his feud with the nWo, where he was mostly silent. He also started to incorporate the color red in his face paint and attire.

4 Sting's Final Run In Wrestling

Sting In AEW

Sting came out of retirement and joined AEW in late 2020 during an episode of Dynamite called Winter Is Coming. He quickly aligned himself with Darby Allin and the two have been a team since he arrived in the promotion. Sting has reversed the hands of time by performing stunts that he never did in his prime, such as diving off the audience seating onto a group of wrestlers.

Again, his appearance didn't really differ much from his time in WWE or TNA, but he had changed his face paint for a few special matches. This run has shown that even at the young age of 64, Sting is still capable of captivating an audience.

3 Multi-Time World Champion & Surfer

Sting In WCW

Sting became a mega-star after Jim Crockett brought him into WCW, holding multiple championships, such as the World Heavyweight and United States titles. His feuds with Lex Luger, The Four Horsemen, and Vader propelled him to become one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling at the time.

Sting rocked a blonde, almost white flat top, and many different face paint styles with bright colors. As the late 90s started to approach, Sting would make the biggest change to his character and gimmick.

2 The Icon & TNA Legend

Sting In TNA

As mentioned previously, Sting didn't want to move from WCW to WWE for a multitude of reasons and thus ended up signing with TNA. Immediately, he was placed in the main event picture feuding with Jeff Jarrett over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

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His appearance was a minor change from what he had in WCW, featuring a few extra designs on his face paint. Sting became a multi-time World Champion in TNA and was the first inductee in their Hall of Fame in 2012.

1 A New Darker Approach To Sting

The Crow In WCW

The big change that saw Sting become the face of WCW fighting against the rebellious faction led by Hollywood Hogan came about because of a movie that was released around that time. Most fans have heard about how Scott Hall saw Brandon Lee in "The Crow" and told Sting he should start looking like that and thus created "The Icon".

Going from the brightly colored surfer gimmick to this new black-and-white face paint with all-black clothing was a huge departure from what fans were used to with Sting. This change was for the best and saw Sting stay at the top of the card until WCW's dying days.