10 Things You May Not Know About Sting

He was the missing puzzle piece, the cause of the lone empty spot in the display case. From the moment his Time Warner contract expired in the spring of 2002, fans would spend more than twelve years wishing and hoping for an appearance from "The Icon" himself inside a WWE ring.

In 2014, the moment of truth finally arrived, as Sting, the heart and soul of World Championship Wrestling, crossed over into McMahon terrain.

And to be fair, Sting's run in WWE was quite underwhelming. In fact, the entire tenure was about as well thought out as building a playground on a toxic waste burial site. But that doesn't take away from the magnificence and brilliance that would define Sting across the decades, whether he was the blonde-haired Scorpion or the dark-tinged Crow, the exuberant hero or the shadowed avenger, the buster of fiends or the slayer of beasts.

For as long as Sting appeared on our screens, we knew we were watching one of pro wrestling's pre-eminent superheroes, no matter what the year was. A name like "The Icon" doesn't get bestowed so easily, but for the man called Sting, it's an apt description.

With his 63rd birthday coming up, we take a look at ten things you may not know about AEW's legend.

10. A Different Path

WWE

Particularly in his days as "surfer Sting", Steve Borden displayed an endless amount of enthusiasm and energy in both his interviews, and his matches.

After his seminal time limit draw with Ric Flair on the first Clash of the Champions in March 1988, Sting began to earn appreciation for his wrestling abilities and performance instincts. While much of the Sting mystique hinged on his character and portrayal, there's no denying that Sting could hold his own as a wrestler, working in some truly-inspired matches.

It may come as a shock to those who've seen Sting at his very best that he was not a fan of wrestling growing up.

According to Sting, he didn't have television access to wrestling, and thus never had an affinity for it. Rick Bassman, his eventual trainer, tried to sell him on the business, but it took many tries.

It wasn't until Sting decided to take in a WWE event in Los Angeles in the mid-eighties, where he saw the likes of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, that he was taken by the spectacle. From there, he decided to give wrestling a try.

9. Power Up

WWE

The name "Sting" came along for Borden in 1986, when he and then-tag team partner Jim "Ultimate Warrior" Hellwig joined Mid South Wrestling, where they would be known as The Blade Runners.

Borden took the Sting name, while Warrior at the time was known as Rock. Prior to the Mid South run, Sting and Warrior worked in both California and in Memphis' Continental Wrestling Association, under some rather different names.

Initially, the two were members of a group known as Power Team USA, and that was followed by The Freedom Fighters in Continental. In both cases, Sting used the name Flash as his professional handle, while Warrior was then known as Justice.

Through the years of the name Sting being immortalized as one of the all-time great one-syllable wrestling names, it's pretty hard to imagine "Flash" pushing Ric Flair to the limit, or "Flash" silently eyeballing the nWo from the arena's rafters.

As far as name changes go, Sting was definitely an upgrade.

8. Battles Of Destruction

Poring through a wrestler's resume of matches can turn up some very unusual meeting; the kind that immediately sends you dashing towards YouTube to see if there's footage.

In his time in NWA/WCW, Sting would work with hundreds of different wrestlers, from the biggest stars the sport has ever seen, to low-level enhancement talent whose names are barely remembered. And sometimes, Sting would even work with wrestlers that would eventually become main event peers.

If you can believe it, Sting is the only man to have wrestled both The Undertaker *and* Kane...in WCW.

In 1990, Sting would tangle with "Mean" Mark Callous, not too long before Mark Calaway would don the hat and duster that costumed him as WWE's Grim Reaper.

A few years later in early 1993, Sting would defeat 25-year-old Glenn Jacobs (working under the name Bruiser Mastino) for a taping of WCW Saturday Night. So while it wasn't Undertaker and Kane at their most famously macabre and ghoulish, working both in their formative years is still listed in Sting's portfolio.

7. A Helping Hand

WWE

In the mid-nineties, as WCW was picking up steam with its fresh and bold new direction, the likes of Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and others were gasping for political airspace in a successful, yet, cutthroat, atmosphere.

Sting has never been listed among those known for political manoeuvring or selfish behaviour, but he did have a hand in one of the more shocking moments in the history of the Monday Night Wars, acting as a go-between.

Sting relayed the fact to Eric Bischoff that his good friend Lex Luger was working without a contract in WWE. Bischoff was nonplussed, having little time for Luger based on his attitude, but Sting insisted on talking to Lex.

And so, it was in the garage at Sting's home shortly before the launch of Nitro that Sting, Luger, and Bischoff had a summit, where Bischoff offered Luger a fairly-lowball contract, while also imposing the condition that Luger couldn't give Vince McMahon notice. Committed to jumping, Luger agreed to the terms, and there it was: Lex Luger's stunning return on Nitro came to be after a secret meeting in Sting's garage.

6. Believe In Angels

AEW

One of the most awing transformations of any wrestling character took place as 1996 came to a close.

The exuberant and fiery Sting that we all knew gave way to a sullen, emotionless void bedecked in all black, save for the white make-up. This silent and brooding variation of Sting has been referred to as "Crow Sting", due to the obvious similarities to the resurrected Eric Draven from The Crow movie and comic book. Sting has attributed the idea for the look to Scott Hall having pitched the idea.

But, according to the 2018 book Nitro, the idea for Sting to "go goth" came from artist and special effects expert Andre Freitas, who worked on designs and concepts for the company.

Freitas claims to have proposed the character to Sting personally at his studio, showing him not only imagery from The Crow, but also Marilyn Manson, as well as the bodysuit worn by Kyle McLachlan in the movie Dune. Frietas says that Sting was hooked once he was presented with the medley of ideas and images, and the design process began from there.

5. European Dream

WWE

Forget WWE's World Cup! If you want to talk about international wrestling tournaments that are destined to be relegated to the dustbin of history, look no further than the WCW European Cup.

During the few times that the company held such cross-Atlantic tours, WCW organized a pair of European Cup tournaments - one in March 1994, and one in November 2000.

And wouldn't you know, it was esteemed veteran Sting that won both tournaments, although said tournaments were very, very different.

The 1994 version was a 16-man deal that boasted a number of truly talented stars, and saw Sting defeat Stevie Ray, Ron Simmons, Steve Austin, and Vader over the span of several shows to capture the cup.

Six and a half years later, Sting won a bizarre four-man tournament in which he received an automatic bye into the finals, defeating Kevin Nash, who had to defeat Mike Awesome and Alex Wright in a three-way qualifier on the same show.

Talk about a tale of two WCWs.

4. Lucrative Revenge

For more than 15 months, Sting did not wrestle a match, and very, very rarely, if ever, verbalized his thoughts or motivations. He stalked WCW events, keeping a watchful eye on the New World Order, waiting for the right time to unleash his fury.

That time would come at Starrcade 1997, when he challenged Hollywood Hogan for the World title in what sadly turned out to be a counterproductive cluster-frig of a match, with Sting winning the gold.

The angle was built masterfully, and certainly found an audience. Per research done by Wrestling Observer statistician Chris Harrington, Starrcade 1997 did 700,000 pay-per-view buys, far and away the highest buy-rate in company history.

Not only did it obliterate the prior WCW record (405,000 for that year's Halloween Havoc), but at the time, only one WWE pay-per-view had ever done a higher amount of buys: WrestleMania 5 in 1989, which did 767,000 buys. Point being, many, many people wanted Sting to knock off the tyrannical champion Hogan, and were willing to pay to see it.

3. Ready Player One

Wikipedia

WCW video games are much like their WWE counterparts in that they're a mixed bag. There have been some absolute gems like WCW/nWo Revenge and WCW vs. nWo: World Tour, as well as some true duds like Backstage Assault and the oft-forgotten GameBoy game The Main Event.

But, good or bad, Sting has been there through it all - literally. Being WCW's franchise player throughout the company's existence also means you're the face of their products.

WCW released ten video games between 1990 and 2000, and Sting is the only wrestler to have appeared on all ten.

Whether he's wearing Wolfpack-foreshadowing red and black tights on NES' WCW Wrestling, or swinging a cattle prod on the late-nineties' Mayhem release, Sting has been the one constant in all the games - moreso than the ring itself, which Backstage Assault thoughtfully excluded.

The likes of Ric Flair, Lex Luger, and The Steiner Brothers all have a game or two that they missed, leaving Sting as the model of consistency.

2. The Fame Game

When TNA opened up its Hall of Fame in 2012, it seemed a bit premature, given that the company had only existed for ten years, but whatever - it's still cool to see some of the greats earn immortalization one way or another.

Sting would be the first inductee into the Hall of Fame back in the fall of 2012, a tribute to his importance in adding legitimacy to a promising young company in the mid-2000s, providing the main event scene with reliable star power for a number of years.

It will go down in history that Sting was the very first man to have been inducted into both the TNA and WWE Halls of Fame, upon his induction to the latter's sanctum in 2016.

Since then, four other men have matched Sting's dual honour, including Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, and The Dudley Boyz. But none of them won over audiences like Sting did when he used a demonic bird to hold Eric Bischoff hostage. Good times

2. The Fame Game

When TNA opened up its Hall of Fame in 2012, it seemed a bit premature, given that the company had only existed for ten years, but whatever - it's still cool to see some of the greats earn immortalization one way or another.

Sting would be the first inductee into the Hall of Fame back in the fall of 2012, a tribute to his importance in adding legitimacy to a promising young company in the mid-2000s, providing the main event scene with reliable star power for a number of years.

It will go down in history that Sting was the very first man to have been inducted into both the TNA and WWE Halls of Fame, upon his induction to the latter's sanctum in 2016.

Since then, four other men have matched Sting's dual honour, including Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, and The Dudley Boyz. But none of them won over audiences like Sting did when he used a demonic bird to hold Eric Bischoff hostage. Good times

1. Leader Of The Pack

From the time of the storied time-limit draw with Flair, through the end of his long run with TNA, Sting had been often relied on to be face of the places in which he's wrestled. WCW, TNA, and other promotions understood Steve Borden's value as a living, breathing superhero, and that standing was rewarded with a number of World title reigns that almost equals Ric Flair's oft-bandied about total of 16.

Depending on what you consider a World title, Sting appears to have held a total of 15.

In WCW, he would hold belts considered a World title nine times (six WCW titles, one NWA title, and two times with the sometimes-forgotten WCW International title in 1994).

For TNA, add five more - four times with the Impact Wrestling belt, and once with the NWA title when TNA still used it. There's also the World Championship of the short-lived World Wrestling All-Stars in 2002, but if you exclude it, we wouldn't blame you.

Regardless, that's a lot of World title reigns, but few would ever argue that the man behind the make-up, whichever scheme he was wearing in whatever era, did not deserve them.

Now that's an Icon.

1. Leader Of The Pack

From the time of the storied time-limit draw with Flair, through the end of his long run with TNA, Sting had been often relied on to be face of the places in which he's wrestled. WCW, TNA, and other promotions understood Steve Borden's value as a living, breathing superhero, and that standing was rewarded with a number of World title reigns that almost equals Ric Flair's oft-bandied about total of 16.

Depending on what you consider a World title, Sting appears to have held a total of 15.

In WCW, he would hold belts considered a World title nine times (six WCW titles, one NWA title, and two times with the sometimes-forgotten WCW International title in 1994).

For TNA, add five more - four times with the Impact Wrestling belt, and once with the NWA title when TNA still used it. There's also the World Championship of the short-lived World Wrestling All-Stars in 2002, but if you exclude it, we wouldn't blame you.

Regardless, that's a lot of World title reigns, but few would ever argue that the man behind the make-up, whichever scheme he was wearing in whatever era, did not deserve them.

Now that's an Icon.