Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Steve Borden has had one long and remarkable career filled with many ups and downs, title victories and devastating injuries to seeing his character morph and change throughout his nearly 40 year career. Sting made a name for himself mostly without the help of the WWE’s hype machine. While he did have a few moments with that company, Sting achieved so much before entering WWE and after his brief run with them. Today, we honor one of the greats in pro wrestling…the man they call….Sting.
I remember first being introduced to Steve Borden and Jim Hellwig, by reading wrestling magazines such as Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the 1980’s. There were pictures of him in a group led by Rick Bassman called ‘Power Team USA.’ He along with Hellwig, Garland Donoho and Mark Miller formed the group under their gimmick names of Flash (Borden), Justice (Hellwig), Glory (Donoho) and Commando (Miller). As it turned out, Donoho and Miller never really amounted to much in pro wrestling, while Flash and Justice did.
Power Team USA split up and Flash and Justice formed a tag team called the Freedom Fighters in the Memphis territory and ultimately became a Road Warrior knock off team called ‘The Blade Runners’ where the team would introduce face paint which became a staple for both of their careers moving forward. It was also be notable as both men changed their wrestling names to Rock and Sting respectively. The two would split up with Jim Hellwig going to World Class Championship Wrestling as the Dingo Warrior and Sting remaining in the UWF under the guidance of ‘Hot Stuff’ Eddie Gilbert as a member of his heel faction called Hot Stuff and Hyatt International.
Eddie Gilbert would play a very important role in the development of a young Sting in the UWF. Gilbert would help teach Sting ring psychology and how to properly work matches. Sting would often team with Gilbert and another young prospect in Rick Steiner. Wrestling in the UWF, proved beneficial to Sting and Rick Steiner’s careers as they were two young wrestlers absorbed by Jim Crockett Jr when he purchased the company from Bill Watts.
It was the booker of Jim Crockett Promotions in Dusty Rhodes who saw real potential in Sting as a babyface singles wrestler that could be marketed as a future star of the company and was pushed as so. Sting’s growth in the NWA was slow, but steady as he feuded with several heels battling over secondary titles like the NWA world Television title. His biggest break and what made him into a bonafide star with Crockett was when he main evented the very first Clash of the Champions and challenged ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair for the world heavyweight title. Sting and Flair put on a classic match that lasted for the entire 45 minute time limit. The match was a proving ground to fans that Sting belonged in the main event conversation for the promotion moving forward.
As Sting’s popularity grew, he was placed in a babyface version of ‘The Four Horsemen’ stable. It was basically all to set up Sting to be turned on by the faction and place Sting in a title match once again with Flair. Unfortunately, Sting suffered a serious knee injury and the company had to scramble to find a new opponent for Flair which turned out to be Sting’s friend Lex Luger. While Sting recovered from injury, his world title push was held back for several months.
Sting’s run to the top of the card was marred by some silly angles and side show attractions like the time he paired up with Robocop in a NWA/RoboCop movie crossover. He finally won the big one when he beat Flair for the world title in July of 1990. His first run as champion had him involved in the Black Scorpion angle that was ultimately revealed to be Ric Flair under a mask and really did nothing to further his time as champion.
Regardless, Sting was indeed the NWA’s/WCW’s top guy and remained that way for the rest of his career with that promotion. As the mid 1990’s came, Sting wanted to change things up with his career. He decided he wanted to ditch the bleached blonde haircut and grow out his hair and present a darker side to his character. Upon the suggestion of Scott Hall, who gave him his idea for Sting to become like ‘the Crow’ in the graphic novels and movie….Sting slowly transformed himself to the much darker, brooding character which was the pinnacle of his career. Recently, Sting stated that he never saw the full movie version of the Crow movie and claimed that he based the character more on the rock band KISS, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Batman instead.
It was this version of Sting that helped propel WCW’s popularity as all he did for months and months was stare down and watch the company he helped build be destroyed by the nefarious group called the New World Order. Sting’s darker image was so successful because it was actually steeped a lot in reality for him at the time. He had been using drugs and alcohol more often and his personal life was spiraling out of control. The build up to the biggest match in WCW history between Sting and ‘Hollywood’ Hulk Hogan was legendary and got fans bursting to finally see these two face off one on one for the world title. Unfortunately, the match that took place at Starrcade 1997 was seriously botched and severely hurt the company moving forward.
Sting’s career also flip flopped up and down as bad booking decisions were made and Sting just never quite held up after the Starrcade fiasco. He joined the nWo Wolfpac and changed his look for that which in my personal opinion made little sense for his character. He also had a very brief heel turn which fans would not accept and was quickly returned as a babyface.
When WCW folded and was sold to Vince McMahon, it was Sting who wrestled Ric Flair to close out WCW Nitro once and for all. Instead of joining WWE, Sting sat out and got paid handsomely from his Time Warner/AOL contract. When that finally expired, he chose to join the upstart TNA Wrestling headed by Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett says Sting joining TNA helped save the company from certain doom. His value and name recognition alone brought more eyeballs to TNA’s product. Sting’s presence in TNA/Impact Wrestling which lasted for approximately 11 years, helped establish the promotion as a legitimate number two wrestling company in the United States.
Sting would also go through some various character changes during his TNA tenure including a heel run in the Main Event Mafia faction and as the psychotic “Joker” Sting feuding with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. He would win the NWA/TNA world title a total of 5 times and be the very first inductee into their Hall of Fame.
In 2014, the impossible happened when Sting finally signed with WWE and became ‘Vigilante’ Sting as he feuded with Triple H and the Authority faction. Vince McMahon arrogantly stated: “We took someone (Sting) from obscurity and developed that character and made it important.” “Sting went from obscurity to a main event of WrestleMania.” Sting did finally have his “Wrestlemania moment” although it wasn’t against the man fans wanted to see the most in the Undertaker. Instead, he wrestled Triple H in a fun, entertaining match…but suffered the loss. Sting would then challenge Seth Rollins for the WWE title, but suffered a scary injury which was thought to be the end of his pro wrestling career. Sting would fulfill his obligations under a Legends contract and be inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame in 2016.
After being on the sidelines and unused by WWE, Sting moved on and signed with All Elite Wrestling and made his debut in December of 2020. Sting almost immediately became a mentor to the young Darby Allin and helped establish AEW further. Giving credit where credit is due, Tony Khan and AEW helped Sting further his career a few more years and in the process gave the Stinger a proper sendoff of his illustrious career.
Sure, we as fans never got to witness dream matches between Sting and the Undertaker in the WWE (Although the two did wrestle in WCW) and never got a Sting vs Ultimate Warrior match in WCW when the two were both on that roster…but overall…we were blessed to see Sting for nearly 40 years. The good, the bad and ugly…Sting was and is a true Icon in the wrestling industry. Thank You Sting.