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Profile: Sting
Regarded by many as the face of WCW, Sting is perhaps the biggest name in American wrestling to have never worked for WWE. An eight-time world champion, he now wrestles for TNA in his most common role, a main event babyface.
After working in Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation, where at one time he teamed with partner Rock (later known in the WWF as The Ultimate Warrior) as The Blade Runners, Sting became an NWA star when the UWF was purchased by Jim Crockett Promotions, a National Wrestling Alliance member that would later become World Championship Wrestling. In 1988, as a fresh new babyface pushed to the top, he feuded with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair and his Four Horsemen, wrestling Flair to a 45-minute time limit draw at the first Clash of Champions supercard.
Sting won his first singles title the following year when he defeated Mike Rotunda (later known to WWF fans as Irwin R Schyster) to become NWA Television Champion. He would lose the belt in a hot feud with The Great Muta, during which he would actually team with Ric Flair to battle Muta and Terry Funk. This unlikely alliance led to Sting joining a new version of The Horsemen late in the year, though a tournament win at Starrcade '89 put him in line for a shot at Flair's NWA World Title. When he refused to pass on his opportunity, he was thrown out of the group and feuded with The Horsemen alongside other babyfaces, collectively labelled the Dudes With Attitudes. At The Great American Bash on July 7, 1990, Sting finally pinned Flair for the championship by countering a figure-four leglock with a small package.
The following January Flair regained the title, but in August Sting won his first WCW United States Championship by defeating Steve Austin. The Dangerous Alliance, a stable led by Paul "E Dangerously" Heyman and featuring Austin as a member, feuded with Sting over the coming months, as did WCW Champion Lex Luger, despite being a close ally during wars with the Horsemen and a partner against The Steiner Brothers at the inaugural SuperBrawl. At SuperBrawl II in February 1992, Sting pinned Luger for his first WCW World Title, and in May he led a team to War Games victory against the Dangerous Alliance at Wrestle War.
Over the next two years, he would endure several tough battles with Big Van Vader, which included exchanging the title for a six-day reign for Sting during a European tour in March '93. That Summer, he teamed with Davey Boy Smith to defeat Vader and Sid Vicious at Bash At The Beach, and in December was quick to congratulate Ric Flair on pinning Vader for the gold at Starrcade.
At Slamboree '94, Sting scored another victory of his own against Vader for the vacant WCW International World Title, a short-lived championship that replaced the NWA World Heavyweight Title in WCW after the company left the NWA. At that year's Clash of the Champions however, Flair, who had turned heel on Sting, defeated him to unify the belt with his WCW World Championship. Sting then aligned himself with WCW newcomer Hulk Hogan - arguably his opposite number as franchise and top babyface in the WWF until now - in feuds with The 3 Faces of Fear and The Dungeon of Doom. When Flair again turned heel on Sting to reform The Horsemen, he feuded with the heel group while loosely aligned with Hogan and Randy Savage.
In early 1996, Sting teamed with old friend Lex Luger to win and defend the WCW World Tag Team Championship, eventually losing the belts back to former champions Harlem Heat. At Bash At The Beach, Sting and Luger were joined by Savage to represent WCW against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) and a mystery partner, who turned out to be Hulk Hogan in the beginning of the New World Order angle. With the nWo declaring war on WCW, the heel faction employed an imposter Sting, implying that the WCW franchise had turned his back on the company. When the real Sting's denial was met with uncertainty, he expressed a feeling of betrayal by his fans and fellow wrestlers, and declared himself unaligned to either side in the war.
Ditching his colorful personality and facepaint in favor of a long, black leather coat and white painted face (inspired by movie character The Crow), Sting became a silent observer from the rafters, occasionally lowering himself to the ring on a cable to attack nWo members with a black baseball bat. Right up to Starrcade '97, the feud was built between the wronged conscience of WCW, Sting, and the evil leader of the New World Order, Hollywood Hogan. In the main event of the pay-per-view, with Sting winning the WCW World Title by Scorpion Deathlock submission after a controversial restart by guest enforcer Bret Hart. When a rematch still failed to produce a clean result, WCW Commissioner JJ Dillon held up the title until Sting won a third battle in February '98.
Later that year, Sting joined Kevin Nash's tweener nWo offshoot faction, nWo Wolfpac, switching from his black and white appearance to red and white, inkeeping with the group's identity. During this time, Sting and Luger again won the WCW World Tag Team Titles, but eventually went their separate ways when Nash reunited with Hogan and Luger became part of the combined nWo, with Sting going babyface to oppose the group and returning to his black and white colors.
On April 26, 1999, Sting enjoyed the shortest ever WCW World Championship reign, when he defeated Diamond Dallas Page on Monday Nitro, only to lose the title back to him later on the same show in a four-way match when Page pinned Kevin Nash. In September, he turned fully-fledged heel for the first time in his WCW career by attacking a babyface Hulk Hogan with his trademark black bat, before making him submit to the Scorpion Deathlock for the WCW Title. Realigned with Lex Luger, the heel Sting made a habit of attacking and injuring babyfaces, but fans did not take to the change, as he continued to receive mostly cheers rather than boos. When stripped of the title the following month for assaulting referee Charles Robinson, he turned face again and soon entered another feud with Luger.
2000 saw him waging war with Vampiro, including a Human Torch match that ended in Sting (or in fact a stuntman dressed in his familiar costume) falling from atop the giant screen at the entranceway after being set on fire. After a storyline injury at the hands of Scott Steiner, Sting would later take time off television, returning only for WCW's final episode of Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001, where he and Ric Flair wrestled the last match just as they had on the show's debut in 1995. Sting won the bout with the Scorpion Deathlock, and the old rivals then embraced in the middle of the ring.
Late the following year, Sting began participating in tours of Europe, New Zealand and Australia with World Wrestling All-Stars, whose championship he won from Lex Luger. He eventually lost the title on WWA's last show in May 2003 to Jeff Jarrett, unifying it with Jarrett's NWA World Heavyweight Title.
That same year, just days after the final WWA event aired on pay-per-view in the States, Sting debuted for TNA on the promotion's first anniversary show where he teamed with Jarrett to defeat AJ Styles and Syxx Pac (Sean Waltman). He returned briefly in November to feud with Jarrett and Luger, teaming with Styles along the way. Then, in March 2004, as part of promotion for his Sting: Moment of Truth video biography, he took the role of guest enforcer in a four-way match that saw Raven defeat Abyss, Styles and Ron Killings.
In January 2006, he made a long-term return to TNA, vowing to cure it of the "cancer" that was Jeff Jarrett. His return match teaming with Christian Cage to beat Jarrett and Monty Brown broke company records for pay-per-view buys, though in his pursuit of Jarrett's NWA World Title, he would be double-crossed by Cage who thought Sting was stealing his spotlight.
At Bound For Glory, after a long title hunt and changing his image slightly to incorporate more color, Sting finally defeated Jeff Jarrett for the gold, temporarily ridding TNA of The King Of The Mountain. The following month however, he lost the title by disqualification to Abyss, igniting a feud between them that saw Sting dig into his opponent's past and dig up the history that Jim Mitchell had been holding over his head, eventually persuading him to cast his manager aside after defeating Abyss in a Last Rites match.
At Sacrifice 2007, Sting would come close to becoming the first TNA World Champion after TNA and the NWA ended their working relationship, by pinning Christian Cage in a Triple Threat match. However, at the same time, third participant Kurt Angle had Sting trapped in an ankle lock, forcing him to tap out as the referee counted to three. Angle was awarded the victory, though would be stripped of the title on the next episode of Impact due to the controversial finish.
As one of the biggest mainstream names in TNA, Sting is in a position to not only extend his own legacy, but also play a big part in creating new stars. As one of the highest paid on the roster, he clearly has the company's faith to do just that.
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