WWE announced today that Sting, the face of WCW, will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He was the first announced member of the 2016 Hall of Fame class, and it is hard to imagine a bigger name being in the same class.
Sting has been wrestling since the 1980s in promotions like the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Total Nonstop Action (TNA). He made a name for himself early on by battling the likes of Vader, Cactus Jack, and fellow Hall of Famer “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Some of his championship reigns (and number of times held) include:
- NWA
- World Heavyweight Championship (1 in WCW, 1 in TNA)
- World Television Championship (1)
- WCW
- International World Heavyweight Championship (2)
- United States Heavyweight Championship (2)
- World Heavyweight Championship (6)
- World Tag Team Championship (3)
- Partners: Lex Luger, The Giant (currently WWE’s “The Big Show”), and Kevin Nash
- TNA
- World Heavyweight Championship (4)
- World Tag Team Championship (1)
- Partner: Kurt Angle
- Hall of Fame (2012)
Sting is most known for his time spent in WCW, where he was originally a surfer-type of character, sporting face paint that matched his colorful attire. After the debut of the NWO, Sting was pushed to the side as this new edgy faction took WCW and the wrestling world by storm. Sting needed to reinvent himself, and by doing so became very cryptic. In fact, he went a whole year on television without speaking a single word. Sporting black and white, Sting was the only person in WCW who couldn’t be convinced to join the NWO. This led to Sting becoming the face of WCW, when it was a company that had to battle with the NWO. In fact, the final match for WCW television was Sting taking on Ric Flair.
After WCW was bought by WWE, for reasons unknown, Sting decided not to sign with the company. Instead, he decided to join TNA, a promotion started by WCW colleague Jeff Jarrett. Sting wrestled for TNA from 2003 to 2014, and was also a general manager of the weekly Impact Wrestling television show. Although he spent a great deal of time in TNA, it has had no impact on his WWE Hall of Fame induction.
Fans were surprised to see that year after year one of the biggest names in professional wrestling would not join the biggest professional wrestling company. Other top WCW stars decided to sign with WWE, like Scott Steiner, Booker T, Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, and many more. The fact that his colleagues would sign but he would stray confused fans. They wanted to see Sting at “The Grandest Stage of Them All,” WrestleMania. But most importantly, fans have wanted to see WCW’s best take on WWE’s best, The Undertaker.
Sting shocked the world when he appeared at WWE’s Survivor Series in November of 2015, attacking Triple H. Throughout the following months, Triple H and Sting would go back and forth, building up to their match at Wrestlemania 31. The idea of seeing Sting at WrestleMania, let alone at any WWE event, was something fans thought would never happen. However, Sting lost. Although it was weird for Sting to lose his first match with WWE, he would take his loss in stride and focus on his new opponent.
A few months later in August 2015, Sting returned with one purpose: to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from none other than Seth Rollins. The Raw before Night of Champions, Sting teamed up with John Cena to face Big Show and Seth Rollins in a tag team match, and he ended up submitting to Seth Rollins via the Scorpion Death Lock. After having a great match with Rollins, he would end up putting the champion over, and injuring his neck in the process. Sting is currently recovering from the injury.
Sting is probably the biggest name, other than The Undertaker or The Rock, that could possibly be in the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016. The WWE Hall of Fame currently consists of some of the greatest names in WWE history, including Andre the Giant, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Trish Stratus, Lita and Shawn Michaels. Over the following weeks leading up to WrestleMania, we will find out who will be joining The Icon.
