0:02

This is Not Sam

0:04

Wrestling. Not Sam Wrestling. Introducing

0:08

your host from New York,

0:11

here is Sam Roberts.

0:14

Hey, early. Hey, another

0:16

pod. Hey, we do what

0:19

we have to do. Welcome

0:21

to Not Sam Wrestling, a very

0:23

special edition of Not

0:26

Sam Wrestling. You know, I felt it

0:28

only appropriate that we come to

0:30

you with a special edition of Not Sam Wrestling.

0:32

I was thinking about incorporating this into the regular

0:34

podcast, but it really does deserve

0:37

its own show. As

0:39

we speak, and I record

0:42

this on the day of

0:44

what is being advertised as Sting's last

0:47

match, his retirement match at

0:50

A.W. Revolution, as he teams with

0:52

Darby Allen to take on the

0:54

Young Bucks, a lot

0:56

of us, myself included, are thinking

0:58

about the career of Sting. This

1:01

does not feel like a wrestling retirement.

1:03

This feels like a retirement. This feels

1:05

like Shawn Michaels' last match.

1:07

This, I mean, to an extent, it

1:09

feels like Ric Flair's last match. But I guess maybe we

1:12

knew that Ric Flair was never going to go. But

1:14

maybe that's because Ric Flair and Sting's careers

1:17

are so cosmically linked. I think when I realized

1:20

that I needed to do this show, it was

1:22

when I was watching Dynamite on Wednesday.

1:26

When I saw Sting repel from the

1:28

ceiling, as I had watched him

1:30

do so many

1:32

times in the late

1:34

90s, watching Nitro every week,

1:36

flipping channels back and forth between

1:38

Monday Night Raw and WCW Nitro.

1:40

And as a kid, I

1:42

was a WWE loyalist. But

1:45

Sting, repelling from the

1:47

ceiling, was one of those things

1:49

that no matter what made me change

1:51

the channel. No matter how big of

1:53

a WWE fan I was, if

1:55

there was a Sting segment on TV during that era,

1:57

I was watching. And it got me to think of it.

2:00

what is it about Sting? What is it about Sting that

2:02

is so very special?

2:04

What is it about Sting that

2:08

makes us throughout the eras

2:10

and generations upon generations of

2:12

fans relate to this character?

2:14

Because it's not like we just relate to one version

2:16

of Sting. From 1985 until

2:18

2024, nearly 30 years, you've got different versions of Sting.

2:20

And I would say from 1990

2:29

on, you've got people that would

2:31

tell you that version of Sting is my

2:33

favorite wrestler that's ever existed. And I think

2:35

one of the really fascinating things

2:38

about Sting is

2:40

that for all intents and purposes, he is

2:42

a sports entertainment

2:46

wrestling character. Meaning in

2:49

the NWA, in the territory era,

2:53

it felt like you had your WWE,

2:55

which was the Hulk Hogan Ultimate Warrior,

2:57

larger than life sports entertainment. And then

2:59

you had your NWA, which is your

3:01

more reality based, your Ric Flair's, your

3:04

Arn Anderson's, your Dusty

3:06

Rhodes, your Harley

3:08

races, Terry Funk's, people like that.

3:10

And Sting comes along and

3:13

really modernizes the NWA

3:16

in a way. But it's

3:18

also one of the few

3:20

larger than life cartoon

3:24

character come into reality

3:26

superhero type wrestling characters

3:29

that not only was it not created

3:31

by the WWE, but really

3:34

has no WWE on it at all,

3:36

except for that one set

3:38

of two matches, which doesn't really add to

3:40

the lore of Sting. And the lore of

3:43

Sting is well, it

3:45

starts in the mid

3:47

80s. This is a guy who didn't necessarily

3:49

grow up a wrestling fan, but

3:52

was an athlete, was a bodybuilder,

3:55

and ended up finding his way

3:58

Into the world of Professional Wrestling. The union

4:00

very early on in into into his career

4:02

as a family I believe his first wrestling

4:05

it as flash before he was thing but.

4:09

At the very beginning of his career. Go.

4:11

Make to that, Nineteen Eighty Five. He

4:14

started using the name staying in I believe

4:16

the U dub you have to Universal Wrestling

4:18

Federation while he was teeming with a guy

4:20

named Jim Jim How wig. And

4:23

Steve Borden and Jim How wig.

4:26

Became. The Blade Runner's. Sting.

4:29

Of The Blade Runner's. And even

4:31

back then it was face paint. right?

4:34

Away it was the bleach blonde

4:36

crew cut spiked hair, It.

4:39

Looked different. and the physiques on both

4:41

of those guys. They were young, They.

4:43

Were big, They were strong.

4:45

They were charismatic. They were

4:47

fast. It was something to

4:50

behold. But everybody

4:52

knew it was something to behold very early

4:54

on. Ninety Six, I believe. Many. Six

4:56

Eighty Seven. Jim. How

4:58

Way Guns of leaving the Blade Runner's and

5:01

goes over to the Ww Ii? Where.

5:03

He becomes the ultimate warrior.

5:06

So. Now staying of the Blade Runner's and again

5:08

this is is is one is Another thing that

5:10

makes things so unique is that. He

5:13

took a pass. The. Exact

5:15

opposite. Of the

5:18

Ultimate Warrior, and generally speaking when

5:20

a tag team exists very early

5:22

on, In one of

5:24

those team members ends up becoming the ultimate

5:26

warrior, the other team member becomes, oh yeah,

5:29

then it was that guy. Not.

5:31

In this case, Staying

5:33

ah is is is. Looked.

5:36

At as as somebody who's potentially very

5:38

valuable to the U W F when

5:40

they start to sort of build him.

5:42

As. What could be a top babies

5:45

has to put him in a television title

5:47

contention. They. Have him up pretty

5:49

quickly, allying up teaming up with the

5:51

Steiner Brothers who are big over tag

5:54

team at that point and pretty quickly

5:56

I. The. U W F

5:58

is bought out by G. Crockett.

6:01

Now this is key. In a lot of

6:03

scenarios for a lot of superstars, this would

6:05

be death, right? A lot

6:07

of times when new management comes in,

6:09

the talent that was being looked

6:11

at as the future of the company is

6:14

swept away and whatever

6:16

vision the new management has, those

6:19

are the guys that are gonna be the new

6:21

big stars. Except Jim Crockett and Dusty Rhodes, who

6:23

was booking at the time, both

6:25

saw this huge upside,

6:27

this huge star potential in

6:30

Sting. And not only as they

6:32

were incorporating the UWF stars

6:34

into what they were doing

6:37

with Crockett promotions and the NWA, not

6:39

only did they keep Sting, but

6:42

that was around the same time that

6:45

they put him in the main event of

6:47

the first clash of the champions. And

6:50

that first clash of the champions is really

6:52

looked at as the beginning

6:54

of Sting being looked

6:56

at as that

6:59

top babyface. But it's

7:01

also Crockett promotions bringing

7:03

in a new generation because Sting,

7:05

not only was he somebody who

7:07

hadn't been in that main event scene before, but

7:10

he also wasn't like anybody that had been in the

7:12

main event scene before. He was the new era.

7:14

He was what the 90s wrestling

7:16

would look like. And he

7:18

was the type of personality that you were gonna have on the

7:21

screen that was gonna bring kids in that

7:23

they were gonna want to paint their faces like him, that

7:25

they were gonna be attracted to all the bright

7:27

colors that he had new gear every single week

7:29

and the scorpion on the side of his

7:32

tights and the matching boots to

7:34

the bold and

7:36

bright colors on his tights and his face paint.

7:39

It was an experience with Sting, including

7:41

the jacket with the tassels coming down

7:43

and everything. Or the row, it was

7:45

a constant evolution.

7:48

But we saw Sting and Ric Flair go to a

7:50

time limit draw, which was huge for

7:52

a guy like Sting because while he didn't win

7:54

the world title at that point, he wasn't anywhere

7:56

near being ready to be the world

7:58

champion in the end of the year. with

8:01

Ric Flair there, but he went

8:03

to a time limit draw. He took Ric Flair to

8:05

the limit. And the perception on

8:07

Sting after that was completely different.

8:10

The match was great, but he

8:12

was now in this championship

8:15

category. And he sort of

8:17

started to be

8:19

looked at even from people who, maybe you

8:21

were a WWE fan like I was, but

8:23

you get the magazines and you'd

8:25

see Sting. Even if you weren't watching the NWA,

8:27

you'd see Sting. And you'd

8:30

see this person who was like almost

8:32

like a Hogan-Warrior hybrid. Like

8:37

it was similar yet completely different to what

8:39

we were seeing on television. But

8:41

the minute you saw a photo, that's how you knew you

8:43

were onto something. The minute you saw a photo, you

8:46

were like, I gotta find out more about this guy. He

8:49

had the charisma, he had everything. So

8:53

eventually, Crockett

8:55

ends up selling their

8:58

promotion to Ted Turner. And

9:01

Ted Turner makes it

9:03

into WCW. And

9:06

lucky for Sting, Ted Turner

9:08

saw what everybody else saw, what the

9:10

Crockett saw, what the audiences saw. He

9:13

saw Sting as

9:15

a potential top talent. We

9:17

saw Sting have runs with

9:19

the United States Championship, the

9:21

television championship. We

9:23

saw him go to another time limit draw with Ric

9:25

Flair. This time, I believe it was a full 60

9:27

minutes. And eventually,

9:30

eventually, we

9:32

get to 1990. We'd

9:36

have Sting had that,

9:38

of course, notorious angle

9:40

with Robocop. Everybody brings up the

9:42

Robocop angle. But what that does

9:44

show you is WCW was trying

9:46

hard to pierce the mainstream,

9:48

to do more of what WWE was

9:51

doing and get those celebrities involved. And

9:53

maybe they couldn't get Cyndi Lauper, but

9:55

Robocop was available. But

9:57

who did they pair Robocop with? Who did

9:59

they- want audiences who didn't

10:01

watch the product to

10:04

know about. It was Sting. They wanted that

10:06

face paint, that hair, that

10:08

everything, that charisma to

10:11

be on the screen. They

10:13

did an angle where Sting became a

10:15

horseman. For a short period of

10:17

time, Sting is on that list of people who were members

10:19

of the four horsemen, which of

10:21

course blew up in his face and led

10:24

to a match against Ric Flair

10:26

that Sting finally won, winning

10:29

the World's Heavyweight Championship in

10:33

Sting would follow that up with

10:35

rivalries with of course Ric Flair, Sid

10:38

Vicious, Lex

10:40

Luger, The Dangerous Alliance.

10:45

You know, he would go

10:47

and WCW would branch off from

10:49

the NWA. So

10:52

the NWA title or

10:55

the lineage of it would kind of

10:57

be warped and the big

10:59

gold belt became WCW's international title and

11:02

their world title became the WCW

11:04

Championship, which Sting also had

11:07

runs with. And one of these runs with

11:09

the title led to maybe

11:11

my favorite WCW

11:13

rivalry pre-NWO that

11:16

Sting had, which was with Vader. The

11:19

idea of the babyface fighting from beneath against

11:21

the monster is a tale as old as

11:24

time. You could argue that that's what Cody

11:26

Rhodes has with Roman Reigns right now to

11:28

an extent. Roman Reigns may not be this

11:30

big hulking monster the way Vader

11:32

was, but what he's done is

11:35

monstrous. The way you have today, he's a beast

11:37

that cannot be conquered. And this

11:39

is who Vader was. Vader was coming off

11:41

fresh from Japan, peak American

11:44

Vader. And this was

11:46

who Sting had to deal with and he couldn't deal with it. Vader

11:50

would squash him. Vader would powerbomb

11:52

him. Vader broke his ribs and

11:54

it built and built and built until finally

11:57

Sting could be the hero. It

12:00

would finally conquer. Vader.

12:03

And you really bought into it.

12:05

You bought into every bit of

12:07

Vader being this unconquerable. So I

12:10

loved Vader. From that perspective. But.

12:13

Thing was the only guy. They.

12:15

Can beat him. And. It and it

12:17

any. And when they finally did beat Vader, it

12:19

really added. To. That aura. Of

12:22

Sting as the hero. He.

12:24

Got into some murky waters there in Debbie. should have

12:26

you for a period of time. Because.

12:29

Eric this off or took over. And.

12:34

There. Was this. Taken

12:36

big year. For. Debbie Cw

12:38

to really start competing with W

12:41

W E. That. That in a

12:43

W W did not want to be looked at

12:45

as a distant second, they wanted to be looked

12:47

at as putting on of a product. That.

12:50

Was of the standards of Ww Ii. so how

12:52

are they going to do that? Bringing.

12:54

The Star Power the Debbie W he

12:56

had so Adobe Savvy started doing his

12:58

signing. Big names. from that

13:00

we have you either come in. People.

13:02

Like. Hulk. Hogan. People.

13:04

Like. Macho. Man, Randy Savage.

13:06

And while that's all great and a sound

13:09

strategy, it led us a giant paper view

13:11

by rate, especially by Ww standards. The first

13:13

paper view that Hulk Hogan came in for

13:15

any main event that against Ric Flair. We

13:17

finally saw the Hogan versus Blair match. But

13:20

what happens to the guy that's been the

13:22

face of your company for all these years?

13:25

What? Happens to the guy that's been waving

13:27

the flag. What happens to the guy that

13:29

was built as an alternative to Hulk Hogan

13:31

and macho man Randy Savage. When you actually

13:33

bring in. Hulk. Hogan. And

13:35

Macho Man Randy Savage. Same.

13:38

Found himself. While. Still looked

13:40

at as a giant star. In

13:42

more of a support role. And

13:45

at the same time all this was going

13:47

on. Times were changing. So.

13:49

While Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, we're kind

13:51

of pushed to be the top guys in

13:53

the company. The. Things

13:55

that Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage

13:58

had done previously no longer. Connected

14:00

with the audience in the same way wrestling

14:02

audiences were looking for something different. And.

14:05

Steam was in that same boat. Singh was

14:07

built to be the alternative to Hulk Hogan

14:09

and Randy Savage and People Like That, But

14:12

ultimately. As I said earlier, Was.

14:14

A very similar. Sports.

14:17

Entertainment. Late.

14:19

Eighties early nineties character. And.

14:22

Twisting found himself in his position were not

14:24

only is he no longer the top guy.

14:27

But. Also. His. Gimmick

14:29

was. The connecting

14:31

with the audiences the way it used

14:34

to see third to see little changes

14:36

right thing started to be coming is

14:38

started becoming a little less of. A

14:42

character in you started to see more of the

14:44

real person. He let his natural hair grow, it.

14:46

right? He still would come to the ring

14:48

would they would the neon green guy tights

14:51

and the and the bright face paint. but

14:53

instead of bleach blonde hair which was so

14:55

popular in the early nineties, he started letting

14:57

it grow in naturally Huge A let his.

15:00

Brown. Hair grow in and. Be

15:03

a little wavy and everything. He was part

15:05

of this Ninety Ninety Six bash In the

15:07

Beach Bash. The Beach Match. Where. The

15:09

End of you Okay Ms. And it was

15:11

just The Outsiders with their mystery third man

15:14

to take on Lex Luger, Randy Savage. And.

15:16

Stink. And of course they all wore

15:18

the sting face paint. Going into that

15:20

match which. Does. Give some

15:23

credence to the fact it's thing is

15:25

still that top guy n n when

15:27

the outsiders came in it did give

15:29

staying. Kind. Of

15:31

a an immediate. Tic

15:35

into gear, Because. When

15:37

the Outsiders came in, it did change

15:39

wrestling forever. And. Any inkling

15:42

that Sands had that they were kind

15:44

of over. The. Cartoon

15:46

character era of wrestling was solidified

15:48

when Kevin Nash and Hall walked

15:51

in in their street clothes using

15:53

their real names, speaking in their

15:55

real voices and really. Speaking.

15:58

to that audience that was

16:00

craving something different and quite frankly ready

16:02

for WCW to be taken over by

16:05

a rebellious force. That

16:09

said, they were villains. And who

16:12

is the guy? If somebody is coming

16:14

in to take out

16:16

WCW, who do you look at

16:20

as your top guy to represent everything

16:22

that WCW is? Who do you look

16:24

at, no matter where the

16:26

wave is going, no matter what's cool and

16:29

what's not cool, who should be the guy

16:31

logically that would be

16:33

on the front lines defending WCW? Sting.

16:38

So whether we realized it or not, immediately

16:40

when the outsiders came in, it

16:42

gave Sting a reason for being.

16:46

If you wanted to have the NWO

16:48

booed, Sting was

16:50

the quintessential good guy to

16:54

have them face off with. And

16:56

so this storyline started to be told, where

16:58

people started going over to the NWO. Hulk

17:00

Hogan went over to the NWO. The Giant

17:02

went over to the NWO. And

17:06

they started saying Sting is coming over. Sting

17:08

is here. Sting is a member of

17:10

the NWO. Sting said, I'm not a member of the NWO.

17:14

The NWO said, oh, yes, you are. Sting is a member. And

17:16

it went all the way to War Games, where

17:18

Sting was on the

17:20

side of the NWO until

17:23

Sting came out. Yes, a fake

17:26

Sting had been used. It

17:29

had been a ruse the whole time that

17:31

they had had a body double. A

17:33

wrestler who used to go by the

17:35

name of the Cobra was now the Scorpion.

17:39

He had been dressed as Sting. And

17:42

WCW had

17:44

had no fate. WCW and the

17:46

superstars of WCW had just assumed

17:50

that that was the real Sting and Sting had been lying to them. Well,

17:53

it didn't really sit too well with Sting. And he went on

17:55

Nitro the next night, And he said

17:57

he was done, that he was not a member of

17:59

the NWO. Never would be a member the end of

18:01

you are but. Debbie.

18:04

Shabby didn't have his back and it became

18:06

difficult for him to have wc Debbie's back

18:08

if they weren't gonna have his. And

18:10

he said the immortal words that would

18:12

be com I think. Probably.

18:15

The most important phrase in things

18:17

careers is something that he said

18:19

multiple times since. The

18:22

only thing that's for sure bad thing. Is.

18:24

Nothing for her. And.

18:27

He walked out. Here

18:29

for all intents and purposes. The last time

18:31

that we saw that version. Of

18:33

staying. Because. He went away for

18:35

a couple a weeks. And

18:38

then suddenly. On. An episode of

18:40

Night True They pay end to the top

18:42

of the rafters and we saw staying dressed

18:44

in all black and white with with make

18:47

up on that resembled a brand and lead

18:49

character in the Crow Would you been a

18:51

popular movie like three years before but the

18:53

imagery of that movie is coming to this

18:56

day. It's popular but it was super popular.

18:58

Them. And we

19:00

see him just up in the rafters. All

19:03

black. White. Paint. You

19:05

know, Black eye makeup on.

19:08

Expressionless, Is watching.

19:12

And. We don't know what any of it meets and

19:14

and we saw this of all we saw the look

19:16

of all we saw the paid devolved. the hair would

19:18

grow longer, We'd. Start to

19:20

see a scorpion on his chest. If while

19:22

white scorpion on a black t shirts. at

19:24

some point he would have a literal crow.

19:28

And. He just watch and he be looming.

19:31

Over Wc W. And

19:35

then he would come to the ring. First Through

19:37

the crowd many start rappelling down from the ceiling.

19:40

And he would ripple down from the ceiling and

19:42

he would have a black baseball bat with him.

19:45

And we give that baseball bat to the superstars. Debbie's

19:47

you have you and would turn their back on him.

19:49

He would turn his back on them. To

19:51

see if they would hit him. And

19:54

they didn't. And.

19:56

He. disappear once more And

20:00

over the course of time,

20:02

he started to develop a rivalry with

20:04

the NWO after months and months and

20:06

months. When the NWO

20:09

was using the numbers advantage to take

20:11

out WCW superstars, Sting would

20:13

rappel down from the ceiling, out

20:16

of the blue, and take out

20:18

the entire NWO with that baseball bat. One

20:21

thing, as the NWO had

20:23

this reign of terror over

20:26

WCW, Sting was the one

20:28

superstar who

20:30

was able to defend WCW.

20:32

Sting was the one superstar

20:35

on his own that was able to

20:37

fight off the NWO. And

20:41

while Hollywood Hogan had other

20:43

opponents and the NWO had other

20:45

rivalries, he was always there

20:47

looming. And this thing

20:49

built and built and built and

20:52

built. And it

20:54

went from coming right

20:56

off of fall brawl 96 all

21:01

the way to Starrcade

21:03

97 a year into this story. J.J.

21:08

Dillon started to feel the pressure. The

21:10

onscreen authority figure of WCW started to

21:12

feel the pressure that Sting wanted a

21:15

match with Hogan. That's what

21:17

he wanted. He was ready to

21:19

declare his side. Sting did not wrestle

21:22

for 15 months. Yet

21:25

for 15 months, we

21:27

all tuned into Nitro to

21:29

see what Sting was going to do. He didn't wrestle and

21:32

he didn't say a word. He

21:34

didn't fight or talk, and

21:37

he was the biggest star on that show. The

21:40

spring break episodes of Nitro, where they would

21:42

do the show outside, and

21:44

that helicopter would fly above the ring and Sting would

21:46

come down from the helicopter. It was amazing

21:50

stuff. Sting

21:52

coming down from the ceiling with that

21:54

trench coat on, holding

21:56

his baseball bat, Was

21:59

as... Iconic. An

22:02

image as you could ever get. And.

22:04

Even even the most ardent fans of Monday

22:07

Night Raw and Ww Ii. Would.

22:09

Still say. But. Things cool,

22:13

And a Halloween would come around. And

22:16

people would be dressed up as as as the Rock

22:18

and the dress up as Mankind A be dressed up

22:20

as Stone Cold. And. They be dressed up

22:22

as thing. You. Couldn't go anywhere.

22:26

Ninety. Seven Ninety Eight. Even in The

22:28

Ninety Nine. Without.

22:31

People dressed up, Kids dressed

22:33

up. As. Crow era

22:35

Sting. A. Press all

22:37

the way to start a ninety seven. Which.

22:40

Was may be. The.

22:43

Best build. To. A

22:45

single match potentially in the history

22:48

of wrestling. You.

22:51

Could talk about. story is all you want

22:53

but when you talk about build was to

22:55

a single match you can go back to

22:57

Wrestlemania three and Hogan and Andre that had

22:59

an incredible build. You.

23:02

Know you could argue Cody and Roman

23:04

but like. I

23:06

feel like those are both bigger stories. The

23:08

weren't necessarily just directed into this one build.

23:11

Undertaker enchaine. But again, a bigger story.

23:14

Not necessarily about a single match. it

23:16

was all about this moment. It was

23:18

almost like this entire reign of terror

23:20

that the end of You Owe it

23:22

had squashing Gabi stab you for fifteen

23:25

months. Was. All a build

23:27

to what we were going to

23:29

see with Staying and Hollywood Hogan.

23:31

And somehow without fighting, without wrestling,

23:33

without saying a word. Staying

23:35

at slowly over the course a

23:37

fifteen months built anticipation. Of built

23:40

anticipation. of build anticipation until you.

23:42

That's a stark aid. Ninety Seven.

23:45

And every wrestling fan in the

23:47

world was glued to it. The.

23:50

Best build to a single match

23:52

maybe in the history of wrestling.

23:56

With the worst pay off.

23:58

May. Be in the his. The real wrestling

24:00

and one of the reasons why the payoff is so

24:02

bad. Is. Because the build up was

24:04

so good. Of course you get

24:07

the. What? Should have been a

24:09

fast count. It was a completely standard count

24:11

by Nick Patrick. Hogan. Wins

24:13

fair and square. Bret Hart comes in and

24:15

says the referee screwed staying. The fans go

24:18

in really staying. Ends up winning the title.

24:21

You. Have your moment of thing, holding

24:23

up the title triumphantly having beaten

24:25

Hollywood Hogan. But. The

24:27

air been completely taken out of the building.

24:30

The I mean as a you're watching name

24:32

in a building, just watching at home you're like

24:34

enemy that what? I guess. Diddy.

24:37

The next night on nights where they go okay

24:39

we'll have a rematch the next night. I night

24:41

row and what happens they run out of tv

24:44

time we don't see the fitness. The title ends

24:46

up being vacated. Sting does eventually end up winning

24:48

the title without a bunch of weirdness and walking

24:50

this but. By. that time

24:52

that the moment as kind of past.

24:55

Still cool to see roasting. Still cool

24:57

to see that he's the champion. But.

25:01

They. Completely. Did.

25:04

Just destroyed everything that they were doing.

25:06

it the one yard line. And

25:09

they had no plans for what they could do once they

25:11

got to the end zone. They.

25:13

knew how to get. To.

25:15

That one yard line. And

25:19

then they had no idea. How To

25:21

Finish. And no idea how to

25:23

get any other touchdowns after that. It

25:26

was. Remarkable. Seeing.

25:29

Would still be staying. You know he'd still be a top

25:31

guy. He entered have joined

25:33

the end of your wolfpack. For.

25:35

Some reason although was interesting because you

25:37

did get the red and black instead of

25:39

white and black look and. It

25:42

was also during the Wolfpack era

25:44

that Sting evolved the crow character

25:46

further and started to bring back

25:48

some of that kind of light

25:50

hearted charisma and talking. He maintained

25:52

the crow look. But. still

25:54

be brought back some of that charisma and

25:56

i mean i like that i like to

25:58

unpack thing it just didn't click

26:02

the way it had. After Wolfpack's

26:05

thing, he brought the crow back. He brought back a

26:07

little bit of a more serious look. But let's be

26:09

honest. We're now talking about the last year and a

26:11

half or so of WCW and the less that is

26:13

said about the last year and a

26:15

half of WCW, the better. But

26:20

the key is, and the great book point, this is

26:22

what you want to do. When you're looking, you want

26:24

to watch the build of Sting in WCW. You want

26:27

to see him turn into the crow. You

26:29

want to watch that 15 month beautiful

26:31

build to Star Kade 97.

26:34

And then before you get to the end of

26:36

Star Kade 97, maybe just fast forward, a couple

26:38

of clips of him in the Wolfpack and then

26:40

watch the last episode of Nitro. Because the last

26:42

episode of Nitro was like poetry. At

26:45

the first clash of champions, Sting

26:49

made his mark by going to a time limit draw

26:51

with Ric Flair. They celebrated

26:53

that on the first episode of Nitro by

26:56

doing Sting versus Ric Flair. And

26:59

on the last night that WCW, as we

27:02

knew it, was in business, the

27:04

last episode of WCW Monday

27:06

Nitro, the main event

27:09

that night was once again, Ric

27:11

Flair versus Sting. And it

27:13

couldn't have been more fitting for

27:16

where we were at the time. And I'm personally

27:18

so glad that that was

27:22

the final match of

27:24

WCW as we knew

27:26

it. When WWE acquired

27:28

WCW, a

27:31

lot of the WCW talent obviously went over to WWE, but

27:33

a lot of the big names did not because

27:36

they had guaranteed contracts with Turner. So

27:38

they just, they collected their checks. However,

27:40

eventually they all made their way

27:42

over. Eventually Hogan made it. Eventually Holland Nash

27:44

made it. Eventually Goldberg made it. Eventually, well

27:46

DDP made it quicker. Booker T made it

27:49

a little quicker. Sting

27:52

didn't. Sting decided

27:54

not to. Sting sat at home and

27:57

collected his money and then Sting watched what

28:00

was going on with some of the WCW

28:02

superstars in WWE and said, yeah,

28:05

I don't know if I want to do that. I

28:07

don't know. Going

28:09

back to what we said in the beginning of this, if

28:12

sting, which very well

28:14

may be the

28:17

best sports

28:20

entertainment character, you know, it's not Ric

28:22

Flair, it's not dusty roads. I'm just

28:24

talking about like a sports entertainment character

28:26

entity, the best cartoon

28:29

character come to life, never

28:32

created by WWE. What does that look like in

28:34

WWE? At the time, there

28:36

were thoughts that the people in charge of WWE in 2001 did

28:38

not like things that

28:41

they didn't create. Sting didn't want to risk that.

28:43

So instead he signed

28:46

what at the time was a short term

28:48

deal with TNA in 2003. And

28:53

people figured it was just like, okay, Sting will go

28:55

in, work with Jeff Jarrett a little bit. He had

28:57

been working with him in WCW, make a little bit

28:59

of money, you know, do some one

29:01

off appearances and it'll be great. Nobody

29:03

realized when Sting got to TNA in

29:06

2003, number one, that

29:08

he would up his deal and become

29:10

a full time member of the roster for years.

29:13

But number two, do

29:16

some of the best work in his career.

29:18

And while one generation found him after

29:21

clash of the champions as the face of

29:23

WCW and another generation

29:26

found him when he donned the crow makeup

29:29

as the great nemesis of

29:32

the new world order, still

29:34

a third generation would find him for

29:36

the first time for the work that

29:38

he did in TNA. He

29:40

was absolutely phenomenal as a

29:43

superstar for TNA to the point that it makes

29:46

you wonder how

29:48

much potential was there for him

29:50

in WWE in those

29:53

first, that first decade of the 2000s.

29:56

Because he did some amazing

29:58

work. You Know, he, he, he would. Feud

30:00

with with with Jeff Jarrett. With.

30:02

Kurt Angle. Abyss. Christian.

30:06

Samoa Joe, Aj styles

30:08

and have great. Matches.

30:11

With them. He

30:13

would come in. As. With

30:15

that kind of crow gimmicks that he had

30:17

a slightly altered crowe getting with a little

30:19

more personality, a little more words to it.

30:22

And. When. It started

30:24

to get to the point in T and A

30:26

where fans thought okay we saw it like okay,

30:29

it like this, like this sort of. I. Cool.

30:32

Factor of thing being here in kind of worn off and

30:34

said what else do you have for as he showed them.

30:37

And. The Main Event Mafia was born. The.

30:39

Main Event: Mafia was great.

30:42

Scott Steiner. Kevin. Nash.

30:45

Booker. T. Staying.

30:47

Kurt. Angle. And

30:50

they showed up in it was very real

30:52

play on politicians in wrestling. It was okay

30:55

if you want to believe that on

30:57

this legend the just here to leech off

30:59

the company and make it about myself. Okay,

31:02

let's do that. Let's. Play that game.

31:04

Let's give. Let's lean into that. Let's give you

31:06

exactly. What? You want and

31:08

the main event mafia was awesome but what

31:10

ended up happening was. People.

31:13

Of thing too much. So

31:16

the Main Event mafia evolved kind of out

31:18

of it, you know? And that's where some

31:20

of those are rivalries that I was talking

31:22

about. Ah, came from. But.

31:25

Then he went a step further and did something. We

31:27

saw elements of it. In ah,

31:29

in a W. But.

31:32

He is. Evolved.

31:34

His character even further and I feel

31:36

like. Because. This happened in

31:39

T at a a lot of people don't give

31:41

it enough credit. Blue. And our

31:43

beloved character. A lot of

31:45

people in that generation love Dna. You.

31:48

Can find people have a certain generation they're

31:50

like. Yup I grew up on T, had

31:52

a I used to watch and Spike I

31:54

like. I loved watching Impact. And one

31:56

of the things that they loved. Will. joker

31:59

state where would take this sort of crow

32:02

look, but smudge it up

32:04

a little. He had lost his mind a little bit

32:07

and he became this sort of Heath Ledger

32:10

meets Steve Borden Joker

32:13

Sting crossover, where maybe crow sting didn't

32:15

realize he wasn't crow sting anymore, but

32:17

fans who were watching did. And

32:20

it made Joker Sting all the

32:22

more compelling. I mean, that's where it's like

32:24

you're getting backstage segments with Sting,

32:27

with his makeup all smudged up going nuts and

32:29

going like, yeah, this is, this is great.

32:31

This is what it's all about. At

32:35

the end of the TNA run, I think that Sting

32:37

realized that there was only so much time left in

32:39

his career and there were only so many things that

32:42

he could possibly do left. And I think he started

32:44

thinking about if I could put thoughts into his head,

32:48

what does he want to do? And

32:50

so he leaves TNA. And

32:52

the first inkling that we get is

32:55

the new 2k video game is

32:57

advertised and we hear the

32:59

strings playing. By

33:05

the way, Sting's WCW theme is

33:08

incredible. I

33:19

love it. I love it. And

33:21

that's being played on the strings and they turn

33:23

around and they're all, they have their faces painted

33:25

like Sting. You know, this face paint became so

33:28

iconic in that era that WCW, who

33:32

was notoriously terrible at merchandising, they made

33:34

a boatload of money off of two

33:36

things. Number one, nwot shirts. Number two,

33:39

Sting masks. They

33:41

made a boatload of money off those Sting masks,

33:44

but the string orchestra turns around and

33:47

they all got Sting paint on and then Sting

33:49

shows up and the announcement is

33:51

made that in the WWE 2k video game,

33:53

you're going to be able to play as

33:56

Sting and people lose

33:58

their minds. He

34:00

makes it very clear Sting does that he has

34:02

not come to WWE to wrestle. He

34:04

has not come to WWE at all. He

34:07

has signed a deal that he

34:10

as a legend can be played in 2K. Rumors

34:14

start to circulate that Mattel has the license

34:16

that we're going to get some Sting action

34:18

figures. But again, this is something

34:20

where the WWE 2K video games, they have

34:23

legends in there that are not

34:25

active wrestlers in the WWE. Mattel puts

34:27

out action figures of legend. Mattel put a Kevin

34:29

Von Erich action figure out. When was the last

34:31

time you saw Kevin Von Erich WWE match? They

34:33

put out action figures

34:36

of legends that WWE

34:38

has merchandising rights for. That's all

34:40

that is until

34:44

we get to Survivor Series 2014. At

34:46

the end of the show, as Triple

34:49

H is at the height of his reign of terror. I

34:51

feel like I said reign of terror several

34:54

times in this podcast and I apologize.

34:57

It's very unoriginal. But

34:59

as Triple H is just

35:02

drunk with power, the

35:05

lights go out and

35:07

Sting appears. Sting shows

35:09

up in a WWE building. This

35:12

is the one thing at that

35:14

time that we all thought would never happen. The

35:16

one thing we all thought we'd never see,

35:18

the one superstar that would never

35:21

get to WWE was Sting. Yet here

35:23

he was. Sting for

35:25

everybody to see. And

35:29

he dropped. He called

35:31

out Triple H immediately, dropped a Scorpion

35:33

death drop and

35:35

took a hike. And

35:37

we didn't see him again for a couple months. But

35:41

the challenge was made and the challenge was accepted.

35:43

And we found out at WrestleMania 31 we were

35:45

going to get Triple H versus

35:47

Sting. Now this was

35:49

odd to a few people because we

35:51

all wanted Sting versus Undertaker. Sting

35:54

versus Undertaker was always the match that

35:57

every wrestling fan of that era wanted to see.

36:00

Crow, Sting, descending from the ceiling,

36:02

up in the rafters, just morbid

36:05

as all get up. Versus

36:08

the Deadman. What could be better than

36:11

these two icons, these two

36:13

people that had ascended reality

36:17

meeting for the first time in

36:19

a match that we never thought would happen? Well, for whatever

36:21

reason, and maybe it was because, I mean, keep in mind,

36:23

this is WrestleMania 31. You

36:26

know, this is one year after Undertaker's

36:28

streak has been beaten.

36:30

This is not the same Undertaker. This is not WrestleMania

36:32

24, 25, 26, 27, 28. This

36:40

is 31. We'd

36:42

see Undertaker and Bray Wyatt on that WrestleMania.

36:44

This was kind of the Undertaker, and we

36:46

saw it on that Undertaker documentary. This

36:50

is just him getting his sea legs back. You

36:54

know, we do – well,

36:56

we can get into the Undertaker's career all we want,

36:58

but we ended up getting Sting versus

37:00

Triple H, and it was basically just a

37:02

nostalgia bath, is what it ended up being.

37:05

And a nostalgia bath that, to me, and maybe I'm being

37:07

too, like, geeky about it, it didn't make a ton of

37:09

sense. Like,

37:11

it was fun seeing all these guys that

37:13

we grew up watching, but

37:16

the reality is that DX came out and helped Triple

37:18

H, which makes sense. And then the

37:20

NWO came out and helped Sting, with the

37:22

idea being we're finally seeing DX versus the

37:24

NWO. Except the

37:27

NWO was Sting's enemies. Why would the

37:29

NWO help Sting? It never bothered me.

37:31

This is what bothered me. Not

37:34

that it was Triple H versus Sting, not that

37:36

we weren't getting Sting versus Undertaker, not even that

37:38

Triple H ended up winning the match, which

37:41

I still don't fully understand. But

37:43

what bothered me was that the

37:45

NWO was on Sting's side. Why?

37:48

It was the original NWO.

37:51

Hall, Nash, and Hogan? Why

37:53

would they be on Sting's side? Why would they want

37:55

him on Sting's side? Why would Sting want them on

37:57

his side? Made no sense. At

38:00

least we got to see Sting, in a good match by

38:02

the way, at WrestleMania. Still

38:04

awesome. Sting

38:07

would have one more WWE match

38:09

against the then WWE Champion Seth

38:12

Rollins. Now in this match, Sting

38:14

would get injured and he would announce

38:16

that his career was over. In

38:20

2016, I believe, he'd end up going in

38:23

to the WWE Hall of Fame.

38:26

And he became an ambassador for

38:28

the WWE. During

38:31

the pandemic, as Sting's contract was winding

38:34

down, we're now into 2020. And

38:37

there were rumors that Sting wanted to do a

38:40

match with The Undertaker. Kind

38:42

of like how AJ Styles had gotten to do the Boneyard

38:45

match with The Undertaker that we could do a cinematic match

38:47

and it didn't happen. And whether

38:49

that was what it was or whether it was because of

38:51

other reasons, Sting ended

38:53

up leaving WWE, which people did not

38:55

expect. And in

38:57

December of 2020, Sting

39:01

showed up in AEW.

39:06

I think people thought

39:09

this would be good for AEW. Big

39:11

star, there is an ambassador. Big

39:14

star there to draw

39:16

maybe a little bit. Tony

39:19

Schiavone can go, it's Sting.

39:22

He's on TNT again, that's a fun little thing

39:24

cuz that hasn't happened since Nitro. I

39:27

don't think we realized that we were gonna get a full run.

39:30

I don't think we realized that we were

39:32

gonna get another run. Where

39:34

even people that didn't necessarily

39:36

love what AEW was doing at the

39:39

time, were going to love what

39:41

Sting was doing. And it happened very

39:43

slowly. Again, it's the pandemic

39:45

era. We

39:47

start with Sting and Darby doing

39:49

like a cinematic match. Remember that match in

39:51

the warehouse and everything? And it was cool

39:53

and Sting did some really cool stuff. But

39:55

a cinematic match, smoke and mirrors, we're all

39:58

good. And

40:00

slowly but surely, Sting

40:02

started finding his way to the ring. Sting

40:05

was involved in the—when CM Punk returned, and

40:07

his first match was against Darby Allin. Sting

40:09

was involved in that. Now

40:11

CM Punk being a babyface, we weren't going to

40:13

get the match, but what we did get was

40:15

a really cool six-man. MJF and

40:18

FTR, I believe it was, versus Sting,

40:20

CM Punk, and Darby Allin, where

40:23

Sting had the Chicago Fists

40:25

x'd out on his face

40:27

paint with the colors, and Punk had

40:29

the Sting paint on. It was a beautiful

40:31

night, beautiful night. But

40:34

throughout his AEW run, we'd

40:37

see Sting doing stuff that defies

40:39

the imagination, stuff that we would think

40:42

was impossible. Doing

40:44

only tag matches, but within these tag

40:47

matches, doing leaps off the entryway, doing

40:49

leaps off of spots

40:51

in the crowd where it's like, you know, I wouldn't see

40:54

a guy in his 30s doing

40:56

moves like this, let alone Sting. And

41:00

he recaptures the imagination. The

41:04

same way when Sting

41:06

first started, right after the Clash of the

41:08

Champions, the whole idea was that Sting was

41:10

an essence. Sting was a character. Sting was

41:12

a cartoon character come to life. With the

41:14

paint and the bleach blonde and the neon,

41:16

it wasn't a human being. It

41:20

was Sting. It was larger than life. And

41:23

then you had Crow Sting. That wasn't

41:25

a human being. That was

41:28

an essence, an essence that would

41:30

ascend from the ceiling, or descend,

41:32

that would descend from the ceiling. And

41:35

then somehow, by himself, take

41:38

out an entire faction like the NWO.

41:40

The NWO was capable of completely destroying

41:42

an entire wrestling company. But this essence

41:44

that would descend from the ceiling was

41:46

strong enough that he could fight off

41:48

an entire group and we believed it.

41:53

And then 20 years, 25 years later,

41:57

we turn on Dynamite. We turn on

41:59

Rampage. We turn on an AEW pay-per-view. And

42:02

we don't see a man in his sixties. We

42:06

don't see a, a, a,

42:08

a, an older wrestler. We

42:11

see sting, defying logic,

42:14

doing the impossible. We're lost once

42:16

again in this world of sting

42:19

where no other man, human

42:22

being, that's the age in

42:24

human years of sting can do the stuff

42:26

that sting does. Nobody's jumping

42:28

off the banister. Nobody's

42:31

jumping off the entryway. Nobody's

42:34

telling these stories. Nobody

42:36

his age is going to make

42:38

me believe that a guy who's 30

42:41

years younger than he is, is afraid. Nobody

42:46

who stings age. It's a

42:48

kiss of death. When somebody that old

42:51

walks to the ring and they look at a guy who's 32

42:53

years old and the 32

42:55

year old starts to quiver. That's the

42:57

end of that 32 year old's career. That makes no sense.

43:00

That old man has no business in the ring, except

43:02

it's not an old man. It's sting. It

43:06

goes beyond human

43:08

interpretation to

43:10

the point that when sting looks at

43:13

the two young bucks, if

43:15

they are quivering in fear, it

43:17

makes sense as a fan. Because

43:20

it's the essence. It's always been

43:23

about the essence. It

43:26

goes beyond and really the undertaker

43:28

is the only character like that.

43:31

It's the essence. The

43:33

human being under the paint has

43:36

really nothing to do with

43:38

what we're watching because this essence is created

43:41

and that's why we connect the

43:43

way that we connect. And that's why when

43:46

in 2024, I'm

43:49

watching TBS and

43:52

sting for the first time in decades

43:56

comes down from the ceiling and

43:58

the young bucks are like, Oh my God. We're in

44:00

such trouble. I'm not thinking to myself,

44:03

what are you in trouble? Cause there's an old man on a bungee

44:05

cord. I'm thinking to myself, damn right you're

44:07

in trouble. Sting is

44:09

back. And that's

44:12

the guy that we say goodbye

44:14

to. That's the guy who's changed

44:16

the industry. That's the

44:18

guy who's the icon. I

44:21

appreciate you going on this journey with me.

44:25

Uh, let's all enjoy it. Go

44:27

back on YouTube, find some Sting matches. Have

44:29

some fun with them. And we'll

44:31

see you for another Not Tam wrestling real soon.