[1996-09-16-WCW-Nitro] Interview: Sting

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Sting announces that he's a free agent and that he will pop up when we least expect it. There is NO WAY they had any idea that the angle they came up with to get Sting out of the ring would turn out that well.

 

Another cool thing that you don't often hear discussed is that this really led to a redemption story for Luger. Savage, Flair, Sting and Arn would all fall by the wayside over the next few months, making him the de facto leader. A guy who was previously really self-absorbed was now being looked at to lead the way.

 

I'm not sure this positioning could have worked out any better. Losing so many of the NWO opponents at one time could have been disastrous, but they navigated it very well.

[Tim Evans]

So was Sting injured or was this the time he took off to fix his marriage? Bischoff was funny with his "why isn't he looking at the camera?" mentions.

[Loss]

So was Sting injured or was this the time he took off to fix his marriage? Bischoff was funny with his "why isn't he looking at the camera?" mentions.

Sting had already fulfilled every wrestling date requirement on his contract, but still had time left on his contract. So they couldn't use him in the ring anymore, even though he was still under contract, so this is what they came up with to write him out.

 

He took time off to fix his marriage after Halloween Havoc '98.

[Zenjo]

Presumably Sting was turned away from the camera to symbolise turning his back on WCW.

[y2stump]

Just watched this promo today & it's probably the best promo I've ever seen Sting cut. Good intensity & good content but having him turn his back to the camera was the cherry on top.

[El-P]

Excellent promo for Sting, one of his best ever at this point. It's amazing to think they had to work it out because of stupid contractual reasons, and then come up with the crow gimmick which would make him the hottest babyface in the country for a whole year. Actually, Sullivan mentionned in the 96 Timeline that Hall came up with the crow gimmick for Sting.

[PeteF3]

Sting raises a lot of good points even if I don't get the logic behind "going into seclusion" after the previous Monday as anything other than a plot contrivance. Of course this sort of thing was a lot easier in the days before social media, cell phones as anything other than a rich businessman's toy, and text messaging. That said, he's right about all the times he gave Lex the benefit of the doubt and carrying WCW. Effective promo, and now all really does look lost for the company.

[soup23]

Agree this is a top promo of Sting's career. He speaks with conviction and seems justified in his viewpoints based on how WCW has treated him up to this point. I also agree there was no way to project how well this would turn out but it was a great starting point to get Sting to start acting this way.

[tim]

Good promo from Sting, a rare enough occurrence. Cool visual again with Sting's back turned to the hard camera and the commentary whispering about the implications of that. Surely these early NWO angles are the most artistically/aesthetically impressive stuff ever seen from wrestling production.