The WCW career of Sting made him the most beloved figure by the fan base for many years. Sting loved representing the promotion and was one of the top WCW stars who never jumped ship to WWE. Even though he was valued as an iconic performer by WCW, Sting wasn’t booked perfectly there.
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Any company to have a wrestler on the roster that long is bound to have some slip-ups, but Sting deserved better than most of these scenarios. Each situation either provided poor booking, the wrong timing, or ineffective executing to provide disappointing results. Find out just which memories from WCW were the worst things they did with Sting.
10 Vampiro Feud
The idea of Sting vs Vampiro seemed good on paper as two wrestlers with face paint and mysterious backstories. Vampiro was one of the heavily pushed members of the New Blood faction, with Sting representing the Millionaire’s Club.
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The execution of the program along with the creative made it an embarrassing part of Sting’s career. Moments like getting attacked in a bloodbath with blood falling from the rafters or the implicated stunt of him getting set on fire just made him look silly.
9 Getting Betrayed By Ric Flair Multiple Times
WCW found huge success with the rivalry of Ric Flair vs Sting, but there were some strange moments involved. Sting looked like the biggest fool in the company for trusting Flair twice as a partner with the worst-case results.
The first instance featured Flair convincing Sting to join the Four Horsemen before kicking him out for not handing over his title shot. Sting looked dumber the second time when teaming with Flair against the Horsemen, considering that Flair predictability turned on him as a huge swerve.
8 Bailing On His Heel Run
Sting only had one heel run in WCW during his long career. The turn came in 1999 when Sting betrayed Hulk Hogan by cheating him out of the WCW Championship. Vince Russo gained control of WCW the following weeks and it ruined the angle.
The WCW Championship reign of Sting would see Hulk Hogan laying down to lose the rematch in a worked shoot moment. Goldberg faced Sting later on that show and lost the title even though the title wasn’t on the line. Sting was stripped of the title for attacking the referee who handed the belt to Goldberg.
7 Feud With Avalanche
The signing of Hulk Hogan by Eric Bischoff in 1994 completely changed the landscape of WCW. Many of Hogan’s friends like Ed Leslie, Jim Duggan, and Big Boss Man joined the promotion. Former WWE star Earthquake also received a major push under the new name of Avalanche.
Sting was the wrestler tasked with trying to deliver good performances against the limited big man. Starrcade 1994 featured Sting having a wasted program against Avalanche on the biggest show of the year.
6 His Past Haunting Him Vs Jeff Jarrett
Sting has changed his look many times throughout his career with different face paint color schemes. WCW tried utilize that to their advantage during an unusual match between Sting and Jeff Jarrett at Halloween Havoc 2000.
Various versions of Sting’s prior looks would walk to the ring from the surfer Sting era to the Crow era. Jarrett came up with the distractions to get the advantage before defeating Sting. The visual was cool, but Sting looked foolish trying to stop them all. An idea like this should have played out in a more thought off manner.
5 Ruining Starrcade 1997 Moment
Every WCW fan from 1997 had a strong interest in the blockbuster match of Sting vs Hulk Hogan at Starrcade. Sting wrestled his first match in over a year attempting to be the one who stopped Hogan’s dominance with the New World Order.
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The record for most WCW buyrates was set here with fans getting the payoff of Sting winning the WCW Championship. However, a last-minute change saw Nick Patrick and Bret Hart getting involved to add confusion to the finish that just took away from what fans wanted.
4 Lex Luger Turning On Him
One of the final storylines for Sting in WCW’s last year featured his best friend Lex Luger turning on him. WCW attempted to repackage Luger as a heel using the moniker of Total Package as his ring name and they wanted to showcase his change.
Luger betrayed Sting leading to a handful of singles matches between the two. Almost every match and segment missed the mark with Luger losing quite a few steps. Sting had some of the worst matches of his career against his closest friend in the business.
3 Losing Dream Match To Bret Hart
WCW had a true dream match of Bret Hart vs Sting when Hart joined the company. Sting used the Scorpion Deathlock submission for years in WCW while Bret had the same move as the Sharpshooter in WWE.
The two finally faced and had a decisive match at Halloween Havoc 1998 when Sting was in the Wolfpac and Hart was in the Hollywood version of the New World Order. Bret winning made little sense at the time since he was at his lowest value in WCW and it just made Sting look worse by comparison
2 Moving Him Down Card When Hulk Hogan Signed
Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, and Lex Luger had their stints as the top face of WCW, but Sting was almost always considered the most beloved figure in the company. Fans loved Sting as the heart and soul of WCW when they were building their own identity outside of WWE.
Hulk Hogan joining WCW in 1994 forced Sting to take a smaller role in the immediate future. Sting had programs with the likes of Meng, William Regal, and Avalanche in the upper mid-card picture. It wasn’t’ until Hogan took time off that Sting returned to his main event face role.
1 Ending Crow Championship Reign Early
The momentum of Sting in 1996-1997 saw him becoming the choice of the fans as the anti-hero of WCW. Sting’s methods coming down from the rafters to attack the New World Order became the hottest part of the show.
Unfortunately, the big payoff of Sting winning the WCW Championship featured a disappointing title reign. Sting lost the belt after just two months since WCW wanted to have Randy Savage beat him to drop it back to Hogan. The huge reign of Sting felt like an afterthought once he actually won the big one.
