10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Sting

Following years of anticipation, Sting made his first appearance inside a WWE ring on November 23, 2014 during the main event of the Survivor Series. After a tense staredown with Triple H, “The Game” attacked the six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion who countered by executing his patented Scorpion Death Drop. Sting then pulled Dolph Ziggler on top of Seth Rollins, giving Team Cena the victory and removing The Authority from power.

While many WWE fans know who Sting is, there a lot who aren’t too familiar with him. There are many fans have only watched the WWE brand of wrestling and may have only heard about Sting from other fans or through YouTube. Those of you who watched World Championship Wrestling (WCW) or Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling will definitely know who Sting is because prior to his Survivor Series appearance, he was the biggest name of the modern wrestling era that had never step foot inside a WWE ring.

There are many things about Sting which WWE fans aren’t aware of, so it’s up to Vince McMahon’s organization to inform them. Whether it’s by running video packages on Raw and SmackDown or highlighting his legendary career on WWE.com, they need to explain why Sting is such a special performer. However, there are some things about “The Vigilante” which WWE probably won’t draw attention to and they are as follows.

He Worked For TNA After WCW

The company Total Nonstop Action wrestling barely exists in the WWE Universe. Steve Austin actually mentioned it a couple of times during his podcast with Vince McMahon, but it’s not like WWE will ever talk about TNA on their show, nor would they ever say they are competition to them.

The fact is that with regards to Sting, they actually were competition. If TNA didn’t exist then Sting likely would have went to WWE in the mid to late 2000s instead of waiting until 2014 to do.

A big reason why he didn’t get to WWE is because TNA was paying him a handsome sum of money (rumored to be about $500,000 or more) and a lighter schedule. Working for TNA meant he only had to work 30-40 days per year and wrestle once in a while. He did win their World Title five times too, but it’s not like he was full time in the ring that often.

When WWE tells Sting’s story, they are probably going to skip the fact that he was a TNA regular from 2006-2013 with some brief stops before that.

The reality is that if TNA didn’t exist and if they didn’t pay him big money, Sting probably would have been in WWE much earlier.

He Wrestled Kane Before

Sting’s 56-years-old and the oldest active wrestler on the current WWE roster is Kane, who is 48 years old. There are rumors out there that if Sting does wrestle multiple matches in WWE that they might put him against Kane just because he’s a WWE veteran guy.

What WWE probably doesn’t want you to know is that Sting has actually faced Kane before. It was back in 1993 on WCW Saturday Night, which was WCW’s biggest TV show in those days. Nitro started in September 1995, so Saturday Night was their most important weekly broadcast. Sting was the top babyface performer like usual while Kane was working as a guy named Bruiser Mastino.

Their match was basically a squash win for Sting that ended in about three minutes. He beat Kane with the Scorpion Deathlock for the submission win.

A few years after this, Kane made his way to WWE as Isaac Yankem, then Diesel and eventually Kane. He also faced Sting 21 years ago although WWE may not want you to know that.

He Was Managed By Zeb Colter

There aren’t that many current WWE employees that had a history with Sting because he’s older than all of the active wrestlers, but there is a manager that was involved with him. That’s because current WWE manager Zeb Colter actually managed Sting when he was managing people under his Dutch Mantel name.

The Blade Runners were comprised of two legends, The Ultimate Warrior and Sting. They teamed together in the mid-1980s. For a brief time, Dutch managed them. There are several photos of the group with Dutch standing in front of them while the power wrestlers were standing there looking all mean.

It was at a point in Warrior and Sting’s careers where they were really young, green wrestlers that were winning people over because of their looks and impressive physiques. Since neither of them could talk very well at that point, it was smart to give them Dutch as a manager.

While they do have some history together, most likely we’re not going to get an acknowledgement from WWE that Sting had some interaction with Zeb when he was starting out as a wrestler. It’s one of those things where if it didn’t happen in WWE then it didn’t happen at all as far as WWE is concerned.

He Turned Down WWE Many Times After WCW Folded

If you have been reading about wrestling on the internet for the past decade or more then you know that there have been all kinds of rumors about Sting going to WWE. When WCW folded in 2001, the expectation was that Sting would get there eventually. It didn’t happen, though.

Here’s Sting talking about the discussions with comments from last year: “Over the last few years those rumors have gotten stronger. I do an annual contract every year and the rumors start right around January. The year that they did the (black and white) vignette, I had nothing to do with it and I had no conversations with the WWE at that time. Shortly afterward there were conversations (with WWE) just by happenstance but nothing official.”

Vince McMahon wants people to think his company is the greatest wrestling organization in the world (in many ways it is), but if they were then why were they unable to get Sting? It was Sting’s call more than anybody else.

It’s unlikely that WWE wants you to know that Sting said no to them for over a decade.

His Entrance Theme Is Different

The Sting video that played at Survivor Series during Sting’s entrance was different than the one that played during the WWE 2K14 video game reveal in the summer.

This new Sting song is a lot more generic. It’s just a few beats in a marching tune before turning into the song. The Sting song in the video was the same as the one in his later years in WCW when there was an orchestra playing the tune, which is a bit dark and it fit his darkened Crow gimmick well.

The song that played in his WCW days sounds much better. It’s more of an attention grabbing song because it starts out as this peaceful organ music and then the pace picks up. That’s the song that WWE should be using, but instead they like to put their own twist on everything and make it their own.

It’s unlikely that WWE will go back to the WCW version of the song even though they used it in the summer. This new song is likely here to stay.

He’s Already In A Wrestling Hall of Fame

There will come a time within t he next few years where Sting will likely be the headline name at the WWE Hall of Fame. It might be 2015 at WrestleMania 31 or one of the following years, but now that he’s a part of the WWE family it’s only a matter of time until it happens.

There’s no question that Sting deserves it. He was considered the top performer in WCW for almost 15 years from the late 1980s right up until 2001. He has headlined many major PPVs, done great as a top draw and has a lot of classic moments under his belt. He’s not just a Hall of Famer. Sting is a headline act in the Hall of Fame.

What WWE is never going to tell its fans is that he’s already a part of another wrestling company’s Hall of Fame. That’s because he became the first man to ever be inducted in the TNA Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012. It wasn’t a major ceremony, but it happened as TNA celebrated its 10th year as a company.

Since WWE never wants to even acknowledge TNA as a wrestling company, this is something they want you to forget about the Stinger.

He Entered Arenas By Coming Down From The Roof

A big reason why Sting’s Crow look worked so well in WCW was because of the element of surprise. He wasn’t booked like every other wrestler. When he appeared on Nitro or other WCW programming, he did so by repelling from the ceiling. You just never knew when he might strike against Hulk Hogan and the evil New World Order.

While it’s unfair to say that the element of surprise was the only reason he got over as a character in the mid to late 1990s, it was a huge aspect of his persona at that point.

When it comes to WWE, they are never going to let him come down from the rafters to enter for a match or a segment. That’s because Owen Hart died in May of 1999 when he tried to enter the ring on a zip line, the harness didn’t detach in a safe way and he went crashing into the ring at an incredibly fast speed. Owen died shortly after. It’s something that is considered the most tragic thing to ever happen in a WWE ring.

Sting’s history as a guy that entered an arena by dropping down from the rafters is likely going to be ignored by WWE and it should be. They don’t want fans thinking about Owen Hart in any way. The good thing about it is that Sting stopped doing that sort of thing about 15 years ago, so it’s a distant memory for a lot of fans anyway.

His Character Is Ripped Off From A Movie

The Crow was a popular movie in 1994. It starred Brandon Lee and grossed over $140 million on a budget of $22 million. In other words, it was a huge success in theatres while also becoming a cult classic after airing on cable TV for such a long time. A lot of people saw that movie.

Two years after the film came out, Sting appeared on WCW TV with a different look. Instead of the spiked blonde hair and the colorful face paint, he wore a long leather trenchcoat, he had the black & white face paint and his hair was long as well as black. It was a complete makeover for his character.

For much of his first year as The Crow version of Sting, he barely spoke. When he did speak, it was a huge deal because he had morphed into this mysterious figure and we almost forgot what he looked like just because of the commanding presence that this Crow look had.

The gimmick was actually the idea of Scott Hall. It’s a story that has been told many times. Some guy in WCW actually dressed like The Crow backstage to impress his girlfriend, Hall remembered the look and suggested it for Sting when they needed something new for him. Sting liked it and that’s what they went with. That was back in 1996, so here we are in 2014 showing that the gimmick obviously worked.

It’s unlikely that WWE is ever going to mention that there’s a movie called The Crow or that Sting got his look from him. They will want fans to think he’s an original, which is not true.

He Did The Scorpion Death Lock Before Bret Hart Used The Sharpshooter

If a WWE fan saw the submission move that Natalya and Tyson Kidd currently use on WWE TV, they would immediately call it the Sharpshooter. That’s because that is the name that Natalya’s uncle Bret Hart called it when he became a top guy in WWE in the 1990s. However, it was not a move that he invented, nor was he the first big name to use it in American wrestling. Sting was.

When Bret became a singles wrestler 1991 he needed a finishing move. Apparently it was Konnan that taught him the move. At the time, Konnan was working in WWE as Max Moon. Since nobody was using it in WWE, they figured it was okay.

Any wrestling fan that grew up watching the NWA/WCW knows that Sting was doing that move (the Scorpion Death Lock) in the late 1980s. He won almost all of his matches that way and since he was the top face for much of his career, he won a lot of matches. In the mid to late 1990s he started doing the Scorpion Death Drop (reverse DDT) as a pinfall finisher too.

When Bret went to WCW in 1997, he eventually had a feud with Sting where they had battles to see who was the master of that submission move they both made famous.

It would be nice if WWE could educate the fans on the origins of the move, but a lot of WWE fans will probably think it was a Bret move more than a Sting move if they only watched WWE in their life.

He Has Already Wrestled The Undertaker

The one match that people want to see Sting have more than any other is a showdown with The Undertaker, preferably at a WrestleMania. If it happened it would likely be billed as a “first time ever” match. It makes sense because it would be a big deal, but it’s really not the first time they would have a match.

They actually had a match in September of 1990 when Sting was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. It was a house show that took place at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina when Undertaker was known only as “Mean” Mark Callous. They were actually scheduled for another match at a house show, but that got changed and then Undertaker left the company.

It was so long ago that it wouldn’t be a surprise if most fans had no idea that this even happened because Undertaker ended up in WWE a few months later in November 1990. He never left while it took Sting 24 years after that match to get to WWE.

There’s no video of the match as far as we know, but it definitely took place.