Sting (real name Steve Borden; 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, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling since the early 1980s. The longest - and most famous - of these three runs was with WCW, where he held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times.
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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 1988 Clash of the Champions. 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 soon kicked out 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.
[edit]When WCW broke away from the NWA, Sting was recognized as the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion. However, he was knocked out of the top babyface position by Hulk Hogan, who joined WCW in 1994. The two would team up, this time to face off against the Dungeon of Doom. At this time, Ric Flair sought Sting's help in a match against Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman, but in the match, Flair turned against Sting, and along with Anderson and Pillman, reformed the Four Horsemen. Sting and Flair continued to feud, and when it appeared Sting was on the losing side, Lex Luger came to Sting's aid.
Sting, in his Crow persona.In 1996, Sting stood up against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) from WWF, and in an eventful match at Bash at the Beach 1996, Sting, Luger and "Macho Man" Randy Savage were fought to a draw by 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 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 baseball bat as his signature weapon.
During a Clash of the Champions event in 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 colours 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 Randy Savage in 1998, who was revealed to be a member of the nWo.
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 and the U.S. Title 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, to defeat Flair.
Sting was one of the few high profile wrestlers in WCW who did not work for the WWF at any point throughout the 1990s, and who remained with WCW in the late 1990s when dozens of other wrestlers "jumped ship" to the WWF.
[edit]After WCW folded, Sting returned to professional wrestling with the World Wrestling Allstars in 2002, winning the WWA World Heavyweight Title in the process. He was defeated by Jeff Jarrett in March 2003, in a match which reunited the WWA and NWA World Titles.
Sting would return in June 2003 in the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling annniversary show, siding up with Jeff Jarrett against A.J. Styles and Syxx Pac. Since then, he has made numerous appearances for TNA, mostly against Jeff Jarrett, who has turned heel. His last appearance in TNA was as a special enforcer in a World Title Number One Contender match.
It is well known that Vince McMahon has for many years wished for Sting to sign with the WWF/WWE. However Sting has never signed; he is one of the few famous wrestlers in the United States since 1980 to have never worked for the WWF/WWE.
[edit]Steve Borden has been a devout born-again Christian since August 1998. He is a church deacon and spends time with his family. He has two sons, Garrett and Steven, and a daughter, Gracie, with his wife, Sue.
He does occasional appearances for the wrestling/religion shows that fellow born-again Christians Ted DiBiase and Nikita Koloff put on.
He has filmed a movie about his life titled Sting: Moment of Truth that came out on DVD in 2004. His other movies include 1998's The Real Reason Men Commit Crimes, and 2000's Ready To Rumble and Shutterspeed. He has also made appearances on the TV series Thunder in Paradise and Walker, Texas Ranger.
He is a huge fan of heavy metal music. So much so tha t his entrance theme was Metallica's "Seek and Destroy" in his final years with WCW.
[edit]Categories: 1959 births | American professional wrestlers | People from Nebraska | Television actors | American actors | Film actors | Born-again Christians | The Four Horsemen | NWo