When the news first broke that “The Icon” Sting had signed a multi-year contract with the WWE after years upon years of refusing to work with Vince McMahon, my first reaction was holy shit this is awesome, i was expecting many great things to happen.
One of the last legendary heroes of the WCW days. His debut at last year’s Survivor Series was a special moment for me and in WWE history. Sting received a huge crowd pop, one of the biggest in a long time, there was this sense of excitement in the air. Something that the WWE product has seriously been missing in the last few year.
Just the presence of Sting, at long last, stood in a WWE ring was something to go crazy about. A true mark out moment as a true wrestling fan. Sting debuted by playing a big role in helping Dolph Ziggler end The Authorities reign, (which lasted a month btw) Sting had started off his WWE career strong and things were looking good.
Fast forward a year or so and obviously, i set my expectations too high, i actually feel letdown with the way WWE have handled Sting and his legacy. Stings first match in WWE was to face Triple H, a guy career wise is not even in the same league as Sting. Virtually no one had predicted that Sting would lose his WWE match debut to Triple H. What happens? He loses by jobbing out to HHH (very wwe). It would be forgiven if his 1st match was vs The Undertaker, but this was HHH, he’s just “a guy” a nobody.
Sting returned two week ago to a rather lame reception from the crowd, you’d hear bigger receptions at a GFW arena, that’s how bad it was. Sting faces Seth for the WWE World Heavy Weight Championship this Sunday at Night Of Champions with statistically 0% chance of winning the strap. No chance in hell. This means Sting will lose again, with whatever momentum he had left completely vanishing.
The WWE is not letting us see the real Sting, the Sting that we once knew, the Sting that Steve Borden is aching to let loose, they’re seeing Sting through a WWE filter, stripped of both the mystique of the Crow Sting and the presence of the Sting of old. In my personal opinion Sting has fell into McMahon’s trap, hook line and sinker, and in the process became just another WWE puppet like the WCW guys before him. For legacy/careers sake, Sting would have been better off staying put with TNA or retiring. I personally believe Stings WWE run is basically killing his legacy and the sooner he realizes that, the better. At this point i firmly believe Sting should never have stepped foot inside a WWE ring.
Is it salvageable ? Maybe, but for some strange reason i very much doubt WWE will change there stance until they destroy the Stingers legacy for good.
