With all the Sting chatter for obvious reasons, thought I’d start a thread based around Sting’s body of work.
Favourite matches and memories.
I know for me personally, my earliest memories of wrestling are a combination of Warrior / Shango’s voodoo angle and the same weekend, watching WCW Power Hour on TSN, and the build up to Beach Blast 92.
It was a while before I ever saw Sting vs. Cactus Jack from that PPV, but my nine year old brain ran wild with the idea of a “Falls Count Anywhere on the Gulf Shores of Alabama” match that was happening, and imagining them fighting on a beach.
Sting immediately connected with me. He was literally everything cool about the early 90’s for a suburban kid like myself. Spiked up bleach blond hair. Neon colours. Cool make up. A fast-paced style than guys like Hogan or Warrior.
I remember him being on the cover of many Apter mags, specifically jumping out to me on the PWI 500 cover in late 92.
I did my best to dress like him for Halloween that year. No photos exist, but I found a line of shiny fringe streamers from a nearby car dealership, and attached it to a denim jacket. And did the face paint. I don’t think anybody knew who I was, haha.
I’ve mentioned it elsewhere. Sting vs. Vader from Starrcade 92 was such an awesome, hard hitting match.
Sting vs. Vader from Superbrawl 3 was a violent bloodbath of a strap match, that thanks to a lot of revisionist WWE history, gets chalked up to a silly gimmick match due to the White Castle of Fear match build up videos.
Sting’s Squadron vs. Dangerous Alliance from Wrestle War 92 still stands up to me as the best War Games match ever. A completely bloody and violent affair that has stood the test of time.
Even his match with Lugar at SuperBrawl 2, when he won the WCW title for a second time, is one of Lex’s best matches ever. A fun, simple, main event match.
A classic I remember first discovering on VHS from Halloween Havoc 89, where he teamed with Flair against Muta and Funk in the electrified Thunder Dome cage.
Even his goofier stuff during this time was fun. Jake Roberts in a Coal Miners Glove match at Havoc 92. The random match against The Prisoner (formerly Nailz) at Slamboree 93. The Chamber of Horrors from Havoc 91.
Even when he wasn’t the focus as the main event, 92, 93, 94, he was often the best part of the upper card.
I always hated how he became second fiddle to Hogan and his crew once he came in. Right up until Spring 94, he was main eventing against Vader at Slamboree 94 and the Clash of the Champions in June 94, where he dropped the International Title in the unification match to Flair ahead of Hogan’s arrival.
Sorry I’m rambling now.
I dropped off WCW during the later nWo years and missed a lot of the silliness of him joining the Wolfpac, etc. Pretty sure I never saw any of his TNA run. Was highly disappointed by his WWE run.
The AEW run was something I don’t think most fans expected - and nobody could have imagined just how much fun he would deliver.
Looking forward to tomorrow night. I think unlike a lot of my favourites over the years who never had proper retirements (like Bret for instance), it’s nice to see Sting going out on such a high note.
I keep thinking back to Angle, and wishing he got to go out like this on his terms too. Or guys like Guerrero or dozens of others who died so young and never got to say goodbye in the ring like this.
- great 50 second match with The Demon. I went to a few TNA shows where he had a promo but never wrestled.