Why I Love Wrestling: Sting
Oh Sting. How I have loved you from afar. As an avid WWE fan and merely a casual WCW fan, Sting was always on my radar. He was always a guy who when I would see him on TV I would think, now there’s a guy I should be following. He’s got something. But he was a bleach blond surfer with neon tights at the time and I was way too cool and way to angsty to be into that completely. But then the Crow movie came out. And the NWO happened. And Sting needed a character change. And I was hooked. Sting became one of the reasons I loved wrestling not for his in ring work, which has always been good, but for his character. He was the face of WCW, the franchise if you will. And in the middle of the NWO storyline, he stopped talking. Which in pro wrestling, is huge. Instead of coming to the ring spouting catchphrases, he hung out in the rafters of the arenas and pointed a baseball bat at people. While dressed in black. With his face painted like the Crow. It was eerie as hell and unlike anything I had ever seen in wrestling. He did so much without ever saying a word. I was hooked and have remained so ever since.
Now, as a pro wrestler, Sting has never been the most flashy guy. His moveset is basic at best. His finishers, the Scorpion Death Drop and the Scorpion Death Lock, are really good but have been done better by other wrestlers if we are being honest with each other. What he has though is an innate ability to connect and tell a story. Watching some of his old matches, before the Crow gimmick, you can feel the story being told with every punch. Check out the matches he had with Vader to get a sense of what I mean. His lack of in ring work rate was more than made up for in his mic skills. Sting has always been great on the mic. It’s why his year of silence was so cool. He has always walked the line between crazy face and crazy tweener but has never gone full heel. (No, the Main Event Mafia stuff doesn’t count) Even with the Crow makeup, he never went too creepy with it. It fits with our 31 Days coverage though and remains an iconic look. Everyone knows Sting. You can’t ask for much more than that.
His recent run in WWE has been a mixed bag. His Mania match against Triple H was booked all wrong IMO. His championship match against Seth Rollins was cut short due to a legit injury. He may very well be done. If we never get the Sting v Undertaker match it will be a shame. I want that match so bad, 10 years anyway, and honestly believe they could tell a great story if given the proper framework. Check out some of the matches below and follow me on Twitter, @geekadedan, to let me know what you think of the man called Sting. And make sure to check us out next week as we close out Geekade’s 31 Days of Halloween coverage with a look at the Undertaker.
