Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
‘The Icon’ known as Sting has been involved in pro wrestling for nearly 40 years. In that period of time, Sting has evolved into different characters. Whether it was the “surfer” Sting, nWo Wolfpack Sting, Main Event Mafia Sting or my personal favorite and perhaps most successful version…the “Crow” Sting. Each of those personas had different levels of success…some very iconic and others, not so much. One of those versions that doesn’t get nearly as much mention, is the brief transformation into the “Insane Icon’ aka the “Joker” Sting from TNA wrestling.
According to the Stinger himself, out of all his different variations, Joker Sting is the character he likes the most. As he explained, the gimmick was much more of a realistic extension of himself in real life. Steve ‘Sting’ Borden calls himself a clown, who likes to joke around a lot and do different impersonations of other people.
The basic origin of the character…at least in storyline…was the arrival of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to TNA. Sting felt in his heart that Hogan and Bischoff were up to no good, but nobody cared to listen to Sting. With almost everyone excited to see Hogan/Bischoff in the company…Sting felt his warnings were falling on deaf ears and felt abandoned. Sting started feeling paranoid and eventually lost his sanity. Thus, Sting became the Joker character and began playing mind games on Hulk and others.
Sting went on to say, that fans either loved the gimmick or absolutely hated it. One individual that hated Joker Sting was one of Sting’s biggest rivals in Ric Flair. Flair said….“I didn’t like it. That doesn’t mean it was bad. I’ve told him a hundred times, I like the Sting with the crewcut, the blonde hair, and the vest, and I always will. I understood the other thing because some guys want to change. Taker became biker Taker for a while. That’s when I worked with him. He’ll always be The Undertaker and Sting will always be Sting. He won’t be remembered as Joker Sting. I can tell you that. He’s still an icon. He is an icon. He’s an active icon.”
While Joker Sting might have gotten mixed reviews from fans in the United States, Sting claims that the gimmick was very over in the United Kingdom. He said…“We went to the U.K. and went to Wembley and they absolutely loved it,” Sting explains. “They ate it up, and I had a lot of fun doing that. I had the Joker thing, but I didn’t like the way things were going toward the end there. I had to walk away and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a couple of times now that I’m sort of disappearing with my tail between my legs.’”
The Joker Sting ended after the Bound for Glory pay per view in October of 2011, after the Joker Sting was able to turn heel Hulk Hogan back to a babyface. That was his mission all along from the Joker Sting. He wanted to bring out the good in the evil Hulkster and did so…thus the gimmick was dropped after that show.