Sting

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Steven James Borden, better known by his stage name Sting (born March 20, 1959 in Omaha, Nebraska), is an American professional wrestler who has wrestled with several promotions including the National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, World Wrestling All-Stars, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling since the early 1980s. The longest (and most famous) of these four runs was with WCW, where he held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times.

Career
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Early Career

Sting started out as a part of a tag team with the wrestler later known as The Ultimate Warrior. Sting and the Warrior were called The Blade Runners (a probable reference to the movie of the same name) in the Universal Wrestling Federation. Warrior soon left the UWF, leaving Sting to turn face and win the tag titles with Rick Steiner.

Sting was one of the wrestlers who joined World Championship Wrestling when it purchased the UWF in late 1987. Sting's legendary feud with Ric Flair began when he and Flair fought to a 45-minute time limit draw at the inaugural Clash of the Champions in 1988. However, when Sting later began a feud with Keiji Mutoh, Flair and Sting became friends and they stood together against Mutoh's stables. When Flair formed the Four Horsemen, Sting joined it, but was kicked out during Clash of the Champions X after he demanded a title shot from Flair, thus restarting their rivalry. That same night, Sting injured his knee in a cage match while making a run-in on the other Horsemen. This created booking problems for WCW, as Sting was slated to take Flair's title at the next Pay Per View, WrestleWar. Instead, Lex Luger took Sting's place for several epic matches with Flair, meant to keep the title on Flair using any means necessary (despite heavy backstage politicking to drop the title to Luger) while buying time for Sting's recuperation.

On his return, Sting focused on taking out the Four Horsemen and at The Great American Bash, he finally defeated Flair for the NWA Heavyweight Title. He went on to feud with Lex Luger, though later they would become good friends and a successful tag team.

World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001)

Sting lost the NWA World Heavyweight championship back to Flair on January 11, 1991; shortly afterward, WCW officially seceded from the NWA and began promoting its own WCW World Heavyweight championship and WCW World Tag Team championship. However, NWA titles would continue to be competed for in WCW, even though the NWA would officially die in 1993 and the titles would become meaningless.

At the end of 1991, Sting became embroiled in a feud with the Dangerous Alliance, headed by manager Paul E. Dangerously. The stable targeted Sting because he was the so-called "franchise" of WCW, and vowed to destroy both him and the promotion that he was the face of. Sting engaged in many memorable matches with Dangerous Alliance members, especially "Ravishing" Rick Rude, who was the group's main star. It was during this feud that he won the first of his six WCW World Heavyweight titles, defeating Lex Luger at SuperBrawl II on February 29, 1992. The feud ended when Sting and his allies, named Sting's Squadron (consisting of himself, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Nikita Koloff) defeated the Alliance (Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Eaton) in a brutal War Games match at WrestleWar in May of 1992.

Near the end of Sting's battles with the Dangerous Alliance, the seeds were sown for what would arguably come to be the most famous feud of his career. In April 1992, he defended his WCW World title at The Omni in Atlanta against a 450-pound bull of a wrestler named Big Van Vader. During the match, Vader splashed Sting, cracking three of his ribs. Sting recovered and defended his title against Vader at The Great American Bash in July. He was systematically dismantled by Vader, dropping the title to him after a brutal powerbomb. After beating Cactus Jack in a falls-count-anywhere match at Beach Blast and newcomer Jake "The Snake" Roberts in a "Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal" match at Halloween Havoc, Sting again faced Vader in the "King of Cable" tournament final at StarrCade. Once again, Sting endured a harsh beating, but this time emerged victorious.

The Sting-Vader feud continued into 1993, with Vader defeating Sting in a bloody strap match at SuperBrawl III. Sting exacted revenge by beating Vader for the World title on March 11 in London, England, but lost it back to him six days later in Dublin, Ireland. Sting then teamed up with newcomer Davey Boy Smith to beat the team of Vader and Sid Vicious at Beach Blast, a match that was set up by an atrocious mini-movie that saw an evil midget blow up Sting's boat. At the end of the year, Sting was one of the first people to congratulate the newly-returned Ric Flair after his title victory over Vader at StarrCade.

Sting would feud with Vader and Rude through the first half of 1994, defeating Vader in a match for the vacant, and meaningless, NWA World title (referred to as the WCW International World title) at Slamboree after Rude was forced to vacate due to his suffering a career-ending injury against Sting in Japan. Soon afterwards, Flair turned heel and defeated Sting in a title unification match at Clash of the Champions XXVII. Sting would spend the second half of '94 and most of 1995 teaming with new arrival Hulk Hogan in his battles against the Three Faces of Fear and, later, the Dungeon of Doom.

In October 1995, Flair convinced Sting to team with him in a tag match against Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman at Halloween Havoc. As Anderson and Pillman had attacked Flair earlier in the night (in storyline), Flair was unable to come out for the first part of the match and Sting fended off both Anderson and Pillman alone. Finally, Flair came out, but promptly turned on Sting and reformed the Four Horsemen with Anderson, Pillman, and later Chris Benoit. Sting would close out 1995 by feuding with the Horsemen. His alliances with Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage led the Horsemen to attack them as well.

The first part of 1996 had Sting teaming with Lex Luger (who had returned to WCW in September of '95) to win the WCW World Tag Team titles from Harlem Heat. They lost the titles back to Harlem Heat on WCW Monday Nitro on June 24, 1996. Sting also received a World title shot against The Giant at Slamboree, but lost after accidental interference from Luger. In the summer of 1996, Sting stood up against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) from the WWF, and in an eventful match at Bash at the Beach 1996, Sting, Luger and Savage fought to a draw with Nash, Hall, and their third ally, which turned out to be Hulk Hogan—these last three eventually formed the nWo.

The nWo soon introduced an imposter Sting (played by Jeff Farmer, and later by Chris Harris), which led the crowd to believe that Sting had turned his back on WCW. When the real Sting returned he was upset (in kayfabe) by the crowd's reaction and by the fact that many people believed that he had in fact betrayed WCW, and so he left WCW. However, at certain events, he appeared mysteriously in the rafters; his new persona was quite obviously inspired by The Crow. He also began using a baseball bat as his signature weapon.

At the end of Clash of the Champions XXXV on August 21, 1997, during Sting's new entrance music, the following message was spoken to the nWo embedded in the music.

When a man's heart is full of deceit it burns up, dies, and a dark shadow falls over his soul.

From the ashes of a once great man has risen a curse, a wrong that must be righted.

We look to the skies for a vindicator, someone to strike fear into the black heart of the same man who created him.

The battle between good and evil has begun.

Against an army of shadows comes the Dark Warrior, the purveyor of good, with a voice of silence, and a mission of justice.

This is Sting.

He would shortly return to WCW, showing his true colors and helping to fend off the nWo with a title match against "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan at StarrCade 1997, winning controversially due to a decision by special guest referee Bret Hart. He later lost the title to nWo member Randy Savage at Spring Stampede in April 1998, due to interference from Kevin Nash, who jackknife powerbombed him and placed Savage on him for the pin.

Later in 1998, nWo split up owing to differences between Hogan and Nash. Nash formed the nWo Wolfpac, which Sting joined two months later. Sting would go on to win the tag titles as part of Nash's stable.

Sting unsuccessfully tried to turn heel in 1999 when he defeated Hogan to win the World Title, but this heel turn was poorly received by fans and he was soon turned face once again. He then went on to defeat Lex Luger. In 2000, Sting had an intense feud with the rookie Vampiro, which sparked Vampiro's popularity. He was "injured" by Scott Steiner in 2000, leaving WCW TV for good. However, he would return for the last episode of WCW Monday Nitro, on March 26, 2001 and defeated his long time rival Ric Flair in what turned out to be the very last WCW match ever.

Sting was one of the few high profile wrestlers in WCW who did not work for the WWF at any point throughout the 1990s, or 2000's and remained with WCW in the late 1990s and early 2000's when dozens of other wrestlers "jumped ship" to the WWF. It is for this reason, as well as WCW's wanting Sting to be their standard bearer for the 1990's, that Sting is referred to as "the franchise" of WCW. Sting came close to signing with WWE on several occasions following the sale of WCW, but was unwilling to travel enough to fulfil the number of appearances per month that WWE required. The closest signing for Sting and WWE was around Wrestlemania XIX.

World Wrestling All-Stars (2002-2003)

Sting returned to professional wrestling in late-2002, touring Europe with the World Wrestling All-Stars throughout November and December. His first match with the WWA was on November 28, 2002 in Dublin, Ireland, and saw Sting team with Lex Luger to defeated Buff Bagwell and Malice. On December 6, 2002 in Glasgow, Scotland, Luger defeated Sting in a match for the vacant WWA World Heavyweight Championship following interference from Jeff Jarrett. On December 13, 2002 in Zürich, Switzerland, Sting defeated Luger to become the WWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Sting toured Australasia with the WWA in May 2003. On May 21, 2003 he successfully defended the WWA World Heavyweight Championship against Rick Steiner and Shane Douglas in Sydney, Australia, and on May 23, 2003 in Melbourne, Australia he retained the title in a match with Disco Inferno, despite interference from Chris Sabin and Konnan. On the last ever WWA show, on May 25, 2003 in Auckland, New Zealand, Sting lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett in a championship unification bout following interference on Jarrett's behalf by Rick Steiner. This last show aired on pay-per-view in the United States on June 8, 2003.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003, 2005-present)

In 2003, Sting signed a contract committing him to four appearances with the Nashville, Tennessee-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion. He debuted in TNA on the June 18, 2003 one year anniversary show, teaming with Jeff Jarrett to defeat A.J. Styles and the returning Syxx Pac. Throughout July 2003, Sting engaged in a comprehensive series of sitdown interviews, discussing his career and his faith.

Sting returned to TNA on November 5, 2003, defeating Jarrett by disqualification in a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship after Jarrett hit him with a chair. On November 12, 2003, Sting teamed with A.J. Styles to defeat Jarrett and Lex Luger. He made his final TNA appearance of 2003 on December 17, defeating Jarrett in a non-title match.

On March 24, 2004, Sting was interviewed once again by Mike Tenay as part of the promotion for his direct-to-video biographical film, "Sting: Moment of Truth".

At TNA Turning Point 2005 on December 11, 2005, Jeff Jarrett defeated Rhino to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship following copious interference and cheating. As Jarrett stood in the ring celebrating his victory, the lights in the arena went out. Images of a scorpion — Sting's symbol — then appeared on the arena screens, along with the date "January 15, 2006" (the scheduled date of TNA Final Resolution 2006). Spotlights then illuminated the ring, revealing that a chair bearing Sting's signature trench coat, boots and black baseball bat had been placed in the center of the ring.

On the December 18 episode of TNA iMPACT!, Sting's entrance music played and a scorpion symbol once again appeared on the arena screen while Jarrett was in the ring. His return to TNA was officially announced one minute after midnight on the January 1, 2006 episode of iMPACT!. TNA later confirmed that he had signed a one year contract.

At TNA Final Resolution 2006, Sting and Christian Cage defeated NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown after Sting pinned Jeff Jarrett following the Scorpion Death Drop. His heavily promoted return was greeted with chants of "welcome back" and "you've still got it" by the Orlando, Florida audience. TNA later revealed that Final Resolution was "by far the most-purchased TNA Pay-Per-View event in company history, breaking all previous numbers."

On the January 28, 2006 episode of TNA iMPACT!, Sting made his Spike TV debut and first appearance on national televison in almost five years, coming to the ring at the end of the show to make a "major announcement". After briefly recounting his professional wrestling career, Sting noted that he had never had a chance to properly say goodbye to his fans. He then announced that Final Resolution 2006 had been "his goodbye", before thanking the TNA management and the fans. Sting then dropped his bat, with a spotlight appearing over it, and left the ring, shaking hands with various TNA wrestlers on his way up the ramp. The last wrestler to shake hands with Sting was Christian Cage, who urged Sting not to leave. Sting responded by telling Cage that he loved him "like a brother" and then left the arena.

In subsequent weeks, Eric Young began claiming that Sting had not actually left TNA, and set up a further storyline, in which Alex Shelley taped Sting with his family. This violated many levels of kayfabe, because Sting was with his family, at his home, normally dressed (Shelly actually went to California to get the footage, from Sting's real life). Young, however, watched the footage along with Planet Jarrett, and claimed it proved he was coming back. At the end of the February 15, 2006 episode of iMPACT!, Young said that Sting was going to come back. While Sting was playing golf with his family he caught Alex Shelley taping him. An outraged Sting walked up to Shelley's car and told him that he was going to show up at Destination X, and confront Jeff Jarrett as Steve Borden.

Wrestling Facts
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Finishing and signature moves

• Scorpion Death Lock (Sharpshooter)
• Scorpion Death Drop (Inverted DDT)
• Stinger splash

Managers

• Miss Elizabeth
• Eddie Gilbert
• Missy Hyatt

Championships and accomplishments
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• National Wrestling Alliance
  • 1-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-time NWA World Television Champion
  • Winner of 1988 NWA Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, with Lex Luger
  • Winner of 1989 NWA Iron Man Tournament at StarrCade 1989
  
  
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him # 15 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
  • PWI ranked him # 52 of the best tag teams of the PWI Years with Lex Luger in 2003.
  • PWI Most Improved Wrestler (1988)
  • PWI Wrestler of the Year (1990)
  • PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler (1990)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1991)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1992)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1994)
  • PWI Most Popular Wrestler (1997)
  • PWI Match of the Year (1991) = Sting and Lex Luger versus Rick and Scott Steiner
  
  
• Universal Wrestling Federation
  • 3-time UWF Tag Team Champion (2-time with Eddie Gilbert, 1-time with Rick Steiner)
  
  
• World Championship Wrestling
  • 6-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion
  • 2-time WCW International Heavyweight Champion
  • 2-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion
  • 3-time WCW World Tag Team Champion (1-time with Kevin Nash, 1-time with Lex Luger, 1-time with The Giant)
  • Winner of 1991 WCW Battle Bowl
  • Winner of 1994 WCW European Cup
  • Winner of 1992 WCW King of Cable
  
  
• World Wrestling All-Stars
  • 1-time WWA World Heavyweight Champion
  
  
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • 1988 Most Improved Wrestler
  • 1988 Most Charismatic Wrestler
  • 1988 Match of the Year (vs Ric Flair)
  • 1992 Best Babyface
  • 1992 Most Charismatic Wrestler