The legacy of Sting is as strong as any other legend to continue working in the industry today. Sting has been going strong for many decades now after breaking out in the latter half of the ‘90s. Fans of WCW, TNA, WWE and now AEW have witnessed the career of Sting in different ways.The best moments of Sting’s run featured him stepping up to challenge Ric Flair, taking down the New World Order and changing the versions of his character via face paint. Sting unfortunately did find his way into storylines that didn’t find that same level of success. The following angles of Sting didn’t work out, even though the ideas looked good.
10 Saving TNA From Hulk Hogan
The long rivalry of Hulk Hogan vs Sting from WCW continued in TNA when both were much older. Hogan once again turned heel to form Immortal with Jeff Hardy representing him. The heel run of Hogan and Eric Bischoff gaining power in TNA led to Sting once again being the one to stand against him.
Sting eventually defeated Hogan to win the rights of the company back to Dixie Carter. Hogan turned face afterwards, but the entire story felt off compared to the previous version in WCW. Sting doing it instead of another younger wrestler didn’t hold the same relevance.
9 Lex Luger Betraying Him
WCW ran an interesting idea towards the end of the run when Lex Luger turned on Sting. The best friends were linked together on WCW television for years as an occasional tag team. Luger even convinced Sting to join the Wolfpac version of the New World Order after feuding with the group for years.
The final year of WCW saw Luger changing his name to The Total Package and playing the arrogant heel version of himself like The Narcissist in WWE. Fans didn’t buy into the big Sting vs Luger feud due to Lex primarily taking a huge decline at the time.
8 Trying To Save Abyss
TNA tried to place Sting together with another fellow mysterious character of Abyss. The heel run of Abyss did see him win the NWA Heavyweight Championship once over Sting. However, Sting wanted to save Abyss from his manager James Mitchell more than win back the belt.
The feud between the two completely missed the mark despite having interesting elements on paper. Abyss’ backstory had a lot of plot holes and the matches led to fans turning on it. Sting wasted his time trying to help Abyss since the booking didn’t help.
7 Fighting His Past Vs Jeff Jarrett
The past of Sting became the biggest part of his feud with Jeff Jarrett in WCW. Jarrett wanted to haunt Sting by having different versions of him from the past interfering in their singles match at Halloween Havoc 2000.
Various people dressed in different versions of Sting’s face paint walked to the ring from all over the venue as the real Sting attacked them all. Jarrett eventually took advantage to steal the win, but the fans didn’t react as well to this as most assumed on paper.
6 Joining Face Version Of Four Horsemen
WCW having a face version of the Four Horsemen was a surprising move since they were the most hated act in previous years. The idea of fans getting to cheer a once heel faction for their entertainment value did help the early start.
However, it was Sting joining the new version of the Horsemen that made it easier for them to get the crowd’s love. The fit still didn’t make sense as Sting uniting with his former enemies was a bold move. WCW eventually had the Horsemen kick Sting out for wanting a match against Ric Flair to end the experiment.
5 Turning Heel Against Hulk Hogan
WCW put a lot of time into the planning of Sting’s first heel turn as a top star for the company. The face vs face feud of Sting vs Hulk Hogan in late 1999 saw accusations of Hogan going to turn on WCW again by doing shady things.
A big reveal would see Sting being the one who turned heel since everyone was focused on Hogan. Sting beat Hogan for the WCW Championship with help from Lex Luger, but the fans still cheered him. WCW had to bail on the heel turn after a few weeks due to Sting still getting cheered over Hogan and other faces.
4 Putting Over Vampiro
Vince Russo’s vision for WCW in 2000 was to see the younger stars working with the main event names in the New Blood vs Millionaire’s Club angle. The face painted link between Sting and Vampiro saw them having a few matches against each other.
Sting even lost a match to Vampiro that implied he was lit on fire and thrown off the titan tron. The chemistry wasn’t there despite the similar looks. Rumors circulated that Sting didn’t like working with Vampiro and it led to them having disappointing results.
3 WWE Debut Against Triple H
The WWE debut of Sting did feel like a big deal due to how long it took him to get there. Sting made the call to finally join the biggest promotion in late 2014 and had his first feud coming against fellow legend Triple H at WrestleMania 31.
The match and overall story are remembered negatively for WWE doing Sting wrong by having him lose. A storyline of WWE vs WCW felt off due to the Monday Night Wars ending fourteen years prior. Sting didn’t get the treatment legends of his stature usually receive in WWE and his stint was viewed as a huge disappointment.
2 Dream Rivalry With Bret Hart
WCW had an easy storyline for Sting vs Bret Hart since both men used the same submission finisher. Bret named it the sharpshooter and Sting opted to go with the name of the scorpion death lock, despite the mutual results.
The rivalry between the two turned into a secondary part of the Wolfpac vs Hollywood New World Order civil war. WCW didn’t even give it a big fight feel as it was the third or fourth most important match at Halloween Havoc 1998. Bret cheating to win a lackluster match wasn’t the hope many fans had dreaming about this feud.
1 Dream Feud With Jeff Hardy
The unfortunate nature of the disappointing feud between Sting and Jeff Hardy was that Hardy viewed Sting as a wrestling inspiration growing up. Jeff hoped that he and Sting would create magic in the ring, but his personal issues got the better of him.
The infamous moment of Hardy appearing under the influence saw him embarrassingly trying to wrestle Sting for a few minutes before getting pinned. TNA never got anything more out of Sting and Jeff facing each other despite the huge crowd interest.