Could Sting have made it in WWE?

[flyonthewall2983]

This discussion was in another thread and something I think we can expand upon. Inherently, my instinct tells me no. He could have had a few hot angles to start out with, but eventually they would have moved on and repackaged him like they did virtually everyone else they got from the purchase.

[Ryan Faulconer]

The first thing they would do is change his name. He wouldn't be "Sting" anymore.

[Al]

WCW babyfaces usually ended up feuding with Triple H. Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kevin Nash, Goldberg. I wouldn't like Sting's chances.

[s1rweeze]

Sting would keep his name (Goldberg, DDP, Booker T, Steiner and even Lance Storm all did) but I'm sure JR would've saddled him with some godawful nickname. His entire presentation would have been overhauled as well. Like Goldberg, Sting would've also been asked to do too much on the mic where I don't think he would have fared well at all.

 

Interesting that two of the biggest WCW babyfaces, Sting and Goldberg, did hardly any mic-work in their late 90s runs yet were hugely over.

[Loss]

Sting had cooled off toward the end of WCW to the point where he didn't even get a reaction in front of their crowds. I'm sure he would have started off strong, but it would have faded fast, just like every other over-40 WCW guy they signed. If people were tired of Hogan after a few months, there's no way anyone else had a chance.

[JerryvonKramer]

In 2002 wouldn't they have just replayed all the Crow Sting stuff only with him terrorising HHH or Vince or whoever? Like everything else around that time, it would have fizzled out in 3-4 months.

 

I actually wonder about if Sting had the right skillset to make in WWF. I reckon if he'd gone to WWF in 1990 or something like that, he would have been an IC title sort of guy. I don't think he was a very good promo. I just wonder if he might have struggled to get over in a place with guys like Warrior and Hogan around.

 

Timing-wise, possibly the best time for him to make a move would have been some time in 1994-5. Around that strange time he had brown hair but was still surfer Sting. He was doing absolutely bugger all of note until Luger turned up (love that relationship and angle). He was crowded out of the main event spot by Hogan and friends, plus Flair and Vader. He had nothing to do.

 

In WWF he might have been a ready-made opponent for Shawn and I can imagine a decent feud with Diesel in 95 that would have played to his strengths.

 

I don't think he would have done big business, but if there was ever a time he could have made it as a main event act in WWF, that window in 94-5 was it.

[Marty]

In 2002 wouldn't they have just replayed all the Crow Sting stuff only with him terrorising HHH or Vince or whoever? Like everything else around that time, it would have fizzled out in 3-4 months.

 

I actually wonder about if Sting had the right skillset to make in WWF. I reckon if he'd gone to WWF in 1990 or something like that, he would have been an IC title sort of guy. I don't think he was a very good promo. I just wonder if he might have struggled to get over in a place with guys like Warrior and Hogan around.

 

Timing-wise, possibly the best time for him to make a move would have been some time in 1994-5. Around that strange time he had brown hair but was still surfer Sting. He was doing absolutely bugger all of note until Luger turned up (love that relationship and angle). He was crowded out of the main event spot by Hogan and friends, plus Flair and Vader. He had nothing to do.

 

In WWF he might have been a ready-made opponent for Shawn and I can imagine a decent feud with Diesel in 95 that would have played to his strengths.

 

I don't think he would have done big business, but if there was ever a time he could have made it as a main event act in WWF, that window in 94-5 was it.

I think even slightly earlier (say '92 or so) would've been a good chance. Business was down in the WWF and Vince would've thrown any possible shit on the wall he could've. Granted, Sting was never the greatest draw either, but that's looking back in retrospect.

 

I don't think he would've done that well post-WCW in the E. Guys getting sustained pushes were either Attitude Era guys or favourites of Vince's from development (Cena, Batista, Orton). I'm with the others when they say Sting would've been lucky to reach where Goldberg got. He had an ally in Flair, but I'm not sure how much that would've meant.

[s1rweeze]

In 2002 wouldn't they have just replayed all the Crow Sting stuff only with him terrorising HHH or Vince or whoever? Like everything else around that time, it would have fizzled out in 3-4 months.

I don't think he was a very good promo.

I agree, after a while they would've had him doing the weekly Raw opening 25+ minute promo opposite HHH to start Raw and it would have bombed.

[Loss]

Jericho also would have had a much better match with him on Raw than HHH did on PPV, and would put him over clean. Jericho had better than expected matches with all the WCW castoffs in 2002-2003. I think it's safe to say that he had a better TV match than HHH's PPV match with almost everyone HHH headlined against during those two years.

[JerryvonKramer]

I have a serious question which is: what has Sting's TNA career actually been like? Has he done good work there?

 

What's making the end of career highlight reel?

[Cox]

In 2002 wouldn't they have just replayed all the Crow Sting stuff only with him terrorising HHH or Vince or whoever? Like everything else around that time, it would have fizzled out in 3-4 months.

 

I actually wonder about if Sting had the right skillset to make in WWF. I reckon if he'd gone to WWF in 1990 or something like that, he would have been an IC title sort of guy. I don't think he was a very good promo. I just wonder if he might have struggled to get over in a place with guys like Warrior and Hogan around.

 

Timing-wise, possibly the best time for him to make a move would have been some time in 1994-5. Around that strange time he had brown hair but was still surfer Sting. He was doing absolutely bugger all of note until Luger turned up (love that relationship and angle). He was crowded out of the main event spot by Hogan and friends, plus Flair and Vader. He had nothing to do.

 

In WWF he might have been a ready-made opponent for Shawn and I can imagine a decent feud with Diesel in 95 that would have played to his strengths.

 

I don't think he would have done big business, but if there was ever a time he could have made it as a main event act in WWF, that window in 94-5 was it.

The only problem is, WWF in 1994-5 did not have a need for any new babyfaces. They had Bret, Undertaker, Luger, and Razor Ramon, and Nash and Shawn both turned in late 94/early 95. Sting was not very effective in his (admittedly short) run as a heel in WCW, so I can't imagine him coming in as a heel. Maybe they don't turn Shawn if Sting is there (the crowd was heavily cheering heel Diesel around this time and I think they would have turned him no matter what), or maybe they turn Razor or Luger heel, but I don't know if there would have been a place for Sting in WWF around that time.

[JerryvonKramer]

Did Razor really make the stepup to main event? I recall an IC title feud with IRS. And what was Luger really doing? My memory is him teasing a turn and then NOT joining DiBiase's corporation.

 

I was thinking either Sting could work against a heel Shawn in 96 (turn him if need be, maybe easier said than done given his frame of mind then, fans were ready to boo him though), maybe it could have been Shawn vs. Sting instead of Shawn vs. Sid. Face vs. face a possibility too.

 

With Diesel he'd have have to have been kept as a heel somehow.

 

I agree it's a squeeze, but out of all the periods I can't see a place for him while Hogan is still there and I can't see a place for him post-Austin.

 

He would have been an IC guy pre-94 and totally lost in the mix during the attitude era. Also it coincides with a period he wasn't doing anything of note in WCW.

[flyonthewall2983]

The best scenario for Sting getting in WWE during that time, is if they went with Luger instead of Bret on top. There is no doubt in my mind that they would have repackaged him (they probably would have had to, as WCW would likely have claimed Sting as their creation), as someone who could be a serious contender to Lex's title.

[KrisZ]

Per WON

 

Sting questioned the decision to beat him at Slammiversary and talked about wanting to do a match with Undertaker at WrestleMania. Regarding the decision for him to lose and never get another title shot, he said, “It’s a question I’ve asked myself and thrown out a few times here and there. I’ve wondered what (the booking team’s) intentions are,” he said in a VOC radio interview. “When I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, I asked Dixie if she was putting me out to pasture and she said, `Absolutely not.’ I’m giving you a straight up answer. It makes me wonder.” Regarding WWE, he said, “It’s no secret. I’ve always wanted to wrestle Undertaker. I’ve said that for years. And who would not want to work WrestleMania?” He talked about previous talks with WWE. He said nobody talked with him after WCW went down in 2001. He had 18 months left on his WCW contract and WWE declined to pick up the contract, forcing Turner Broadcasting to continue to pay him. WWF turned down most of the expensive contracts, not wanting to mess with their own pay scale. WCW was on the hook for any contracts that were guaranteed that WWF didn’t want. There have been lots of arguments over the years that WWE would have more than made the money back from those contracts if they did the WWF vs WCW program with WCW’s biggest stars. Certainly, at least taking some of the contracts would have made it, had it been done correctly, the biggest money feud in wrestling history, a status that it is remembered as anything but. Sting said in 2006, he had a week worth of talks directly with Vince McMahon. They came close, he said, but he decided instead to go with TNA (it’s probably 2005 the time frame of this). Sting has told people over the years that the reason he didn’t go is because he saw how WWF virtually never used WCW talent well, and didn’t want to be added to that list. Sting noted that in 2011, when there were all the rumors of him going to Mania, that he had not talked to WWE at all when the vignettes played. “I had nothing to do with it and I had no conversations with the WWE at that time. Shortly afterward there were conversations just by happenstance but nothing official.” What happened was a WWE official did call Sting a few weeks after the vignettes played and the rumors were flying just to feel him out. Essentially Sting was told that if he was interested, to call Vince, and I don’t believe he followed up on it because he had already made a verbal commitment to TNA for another year by that time. It was funny because people everywhere were reporting he was going, wrestling Undertaker at Mania, and at that time, they in WWE had never considered it nor called him, and when he was finally called weeks later, it wasn’t even someone looking to make a deal as much as a social call where the subject was brought up and he was given a “If you happen to be interested” type of response. As much as anything, problems in the past was WWE for years was not interested in anything but a full-time schedule and Sting had money and kids growing up and didn’t want to be on the road. Now, with Lesnar, Undertaker, Rock and others, Vince has shown he’ll sign limited date deals. Whether he’d think Sting was marketable enough to get one of them, who knows. Even when they did talk, the money promised was never enough that it made it clear they were going to do anything significant with him like it was with Bill Goldberg (who really only got the deal he did because Dwayne Johnson wanted to work a program with him and brokered it pretty much himself, but things fell apart because Johnson was starting to get so much movie work that after their first match, he was never around to “protect” him). Sting’s deal is up at the end of this year.

[flyonthewall2983]

No way in hell Sting would ever get a deal like Rock or Lesnar did. WWE are such star-fuckers for anyone who could bring them media attention, and the only attention his signing would get is from the one that really doesn't matter to them. Us.

[GSR]

The first thing they would do is change his name. He wouldn't be "Sting" anymore.

Not a chance, the last thing they would do is change his name.

[flyonthewall2983]

He would have been Sting in name only. They would have changed everything else.

[Johnny Sorrow]

He would have been Sting in name only. They would have changed everything else.

What was everything else?

[flyonthewall2983]

His promo style, the howl, they definitely would have made him change finishers because of Bret. And at a certain point they'd probably make him lose the face paint, too.