Sting, whose real name is Steve Borden Sr., didn't grow up watching wrestling as most other WWE superstars did. He wasn't really interested in the world of staged matches and storylines that most of our favorite superstars were hooked on long before gracing us with their presence. He was just another bodybuilder that was given an offer that he couldn't refuse and from that point on, he gradually became “The Icon” that we all have grown to love. He debuted with NWA in 1987 and began wrestling with World Championship Wrestling, quickly becoming known as “The Franchise of WCW,” following his Clash of the Champions match against Ric Flair which ended in a 45 minute draw.

In his early years, he had what some call a “surfer” style persona with bleach blonde hair and his face was partially painted with bright color combinations, but in 1996 he shocked the world with his transformation into a dark, more mysterious character. He would wear all black and had white and black paint that now covered his entire face. His new look seemed to be inspired by the hit movie The Crow and Sting became even more popular. Throughout Sting's 14 year stint with WCW, he held a total of 13 championships and never left until WWE finally bought them out in 2001.

Instead of heading over to WWE with the majority of the WCW superstars, Sting (who by that time was a born again Christian) went on to promote mostly God and spent a little time touring internationally with WWA. When TNA came about, he joined their roster and spent 11 more years wrestling there, however, WWE will never acknowledge those years. In 2014, he officially stepped into a WWE ring for the very first time as “The Vigilante” and has since been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame where he publicly retired. Now that he is officially a WWE Hall of Famer, there are a few things that WWE would like for us to forget about “The Icon” that we know as Sting and here are the top 15.

19 15. Inducted In The TNA Hall of Fame

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via my123cents.com

Now that Sting has officially been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, it is evident that WWE will see it as his only Hall of Fame induction, but it is not. Sting was the first wrestler to be inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame back in 2012, when Dixie Carter decided it was time to recognize the main players in the organization. At the time when Sting was inducted, he had held the TNA World Heavyweight Title four times throughout his nine years with the company. While the TNA Hall of Fame is not nearly as extravagant as WWE's Hall of Fame, it is still considered to be a great honor to those wrestlers who have been inducted. Ric Flair was invited by TNA to celebrate with his longtime friend, but decided not to show up after being released.

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16 14. Sting Was Never The Black Scorpion

via cagesideseats.com
via cagesideseats.com

Unfortunately for Vince McMahon, Sting was never The Black Scorpion, so it didn't make much sense to try and alter his voice to sound like him. A lot of fans seemed confused by the alteration of Sting's voice on his Raw promo just before his match with Triple H at WrestleMania and apparently the question was answered by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer. He says that, according to Vince, the alteration was meant to reflect Black Scorpion Sting, but what makes this even more amusing is that The Black Scorpion was actually a gimmick of a masked character that Sting had a feud with. Originally, the voice behind the mask was Ole Anderson, distorting his voice so nobody would guess who it was, but Sting eventually unmasked him to find that it was Ric Flair. Sorry Vince, but The Black Scorpion was never Sting…

15 13. That Sting Is Not The Only Sting

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via reddit.com

Nobody knows, except “The Icon” himself, why Steve Borden chose to name his wrestling persona Sting, which he shares with the famous singer, but it does to cause quite a bit of confusion. Are we talking about Sting the famous musician or are we talking about Sting the greatest wrestler to ever appear on WCW? I hate to answer my own question, but at the moment we are talking about Sting the wrestler. Now that we have cleared that up, hopefully you see the confusion that Sting has often caused in conversations.

This is exactly why WWE would absolutely love for us to forget that there is in fact another famous Sting out there. Anytime the name Sting is mentionned, most think of the singer, while WWE would love if we thought of the Hall of Famer.

14 12. Robocop Saved Sting

via jarviscity.com
via jarviscity.com

In 1990, Sting was going after Ric Flair for his World Heavyweight Championship Title and during a cage match at Clash of The Champions X, Sting was hurt and unable to interact in upcoming matches. The main problem behind his injury was that he was set to fight at the upcoming PPV and it was thought that ticket sales would drop without Sting in action. So instead of putting in a match at Capitol Combat, he stood ringside for Lex Luger and Ric Flair's match only to be attacked and put in a cage. Then the unthinkable happened! Robocop came out to save Sting from the steel cage by peeling the bars aside using his robo-hands. It was terrible.

13 11. Sting Will Never Be Remembered As “The Vigilante”

via thehistorybomb.com
via thehistorybomb.com

Through the years, Sting has been recognized by many names. First, he was Flash until he adopted Sting, then he became known as “The Franchise of WCW,” but most will always remember him by his self-given nickname: “The Icon.” When Sting finally made his first WWE appearance in 2014, it became obvious that they were not going to allow Sting to use any of the nicknames that fans had grown to love. Since they were promoting his revenge over the fall of WCW, they could have called him “The Franchise” or better yet called him by “The Icon,” as we always had, but instead they were deadset on calling him “The Vigilante.” The most logical reason for WWE to try to create another nickname for Sting would be best explained by saying that since WWE has never owned the rights to “The Icon," they had to invent something that they could in fact own. Regardless, Sting will always be more known as “The Icon”, not “The Vigilante”, which we're sure WWE hates.

12 10. Finished Off His Rivalry With Hulk Hogan In TNA

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via bleacherreport.com

The thing that most WCW fans remember about Starrcade in 1997 is how disappointing the match between Hollywood Hogan and Sting was. With the year long wait, it was one of the biggest buildups in wrestling history, yet ended with a thud because fans felt that the extra add-ons made by Bischoff were unnecessary. Instead of allowing Sting to win the match clean, the plan was changed at the last minute to have the referee botch the count and then restart the match with Bret Hart as the new guest referee. Sting ended up winning by submission and Eric Bischoff has since explained that, at the time, Sting was not prepared and would often “disappear,” so he and Hogan made the call to change the original ending which would have had Sting winning clean against Hogan. Later, Hogan and Sting would meet again in TNA and finish off their feud properly, with a decent legends match at Bound for Glory. This is something that WWE would not only want us to forget, but since it happened in TNA, they will never acknowledge it either.

11 9. Ripped Off The Undertaker's Style

via youtube.com
via youtube.com

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Sting's evolution from colorful surfer Sting into dark, mysterious Sting based off of the hit movie The Crow. Scott Hall has said he was behind the idea and Hall has even described his thinking in interviews. At the time, Sting was growing his brown hair back and Hall said he “didn't know Sting” with brown hair, so he brought up the character from the movie and Sting loved the idea, but he had never actually seen The Crow. When he explained to Sting how to create this new gimmick, Hall basically told him “I ain't telling you to rip off Taker, but rip off Taker.” So the new Sting was born with “Taker” style clothes and a white painted face, with some black around his eyes and mouth. While it's not an exact copy, WWE would definitely rather that fans didn't know that the idea came from Scott Hall wanting Sting to copy The Undertaker.

10 8. Sting Is A Promoter For God

via colombia.as.com
via colombia.as.com

While being a born-again Christian is a wonderful thing to be, promoting it openly has not set well with Vince McMahon in the past. Think back to Shawn Michaels and the horrible storyline and consequential match that followed after he openly became a man of God. If I recall correctly, God ended up being Shawn's tag team partner against Vince and Shane McMahon, which was not only one of the dumbest WWE storylines ever, but it also was obviously offensive. Aside from that, Sting's character is supposed to be a dark, mysterious one and although he is a face, it still would take away from the vigilante role that Vince was trying to have him display. One thing that we can definitely call a blessing in disguise is that Vince didn't try and call a rematch with God and have “The Vigilante” as God's sidekick.

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8 7. Should Have Had A WWE World Championship

via pl.wwe.com
via pl.wwe.com

Sting has fought in many of the top wrestling companies in the world and has had the opportunity to win each of their World Championships. During his career, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship twice (once with WCW and once with TNA), the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times, and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship four times.

Despite all that, it didn't make much sense for him to be put in a match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins when he finally made his way to the WWE. It was obvious he'd lose and they should've given him that opportunity when he first emerged in WWE, so he could've conceivably won the belt in the eyes of fans. He lost that match against Rollins and was injured in the process, which ultimately ended his career.

7 6. He Wrestled In TNA

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via wallpaperfolder.com

Well, this one should be pretty obvious. Every time someone comes to the WWE from TNA, WWE absolutely refuses to mention that they wrestled there. When AJ Styles debuted this year, they showcased the fact that he had won championships all over the world and named all of the promotions he won in, except for one; TNA. It's so blatantly obvious that Josh Mathews ripped the WWE for not mentioning Samoa Joe's past in TNA, when he finally made his debut in TNA.

When Sting finally made his way to WWE, they made sure to mention his past in WCW, even though they refused to call him "The Icon," but made no mention of the promotion he spend the last 10 years in.

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5 5. Questionable Friendships

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via twitter.com

WWE never wanted you to know that Sting had friends in WWE throughout the wars with WCW and even during his stint with TNA. He has been, and is still, really good friends with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, both guys he worked with in TNA. Then due to his friendship with The Hart Family, he refused to do his flight entrance after Owen Hart died until Bret Hart said it was okay. He even stole Lex Luger from WWE while they were working on signing him to a new deal. What's even more interesting is that Eric Bischoff signed Luger to WCW (per Sting's request), who he never liked, but he did it as a favor to Sting.

4 4. Admits To Once Being A Hardcore Steroid Abuser

via 80swrestlingpics.tumblr.com
via 80swrestlingpics.tumblr.com

Sting has admitted that he was a habitual steroid user, but according to him, he “got smart somehow or another” and was able to quit cold turkey in 1990. This was a few years before he had problems with his other addictions and it's something that WWE would not want fans to know now that Sting is a WWE Hall of Famer. With all of these suspensions being handed down, they wouldn't want fans whispering that it's possible Sting might have recently been using steroids based on the fact that they saw a clip of an article on Google without bothering to read the whole thing. Although Sting has been promoting his success story with both addictions on his own, you will never see WWE acknowledge it.

3 3. Never Needed WWE

via prowrestlingresource.blogspot.com
via prowrestlingresource.blogspot.com

One thing that has always ticked Vince off in the past is that when WWE bought WCW and signed the majority of their roster, most of the big names refused. There have been a couple of answers from Sting as to why he didn't accept their offers until 2014. One was that he had been talking to Vince about coming to WrestleMania to wrestle The Undertaker, but he met with Vince's attorneys and things just fell apart. It has also been said that he wasn't offered enough money and he has also admitted that he didn't like how other WCW talent were being used. However, the best answer and most reasonable is that he never needed WWE, Vince, or his money. When WCW died, he was still under contract with Time Warner and AOL, which weren't transferred over to WWE, so he was still getting paid. Then, when TNA opened up shop, he knew he could implement his persona and talent how he wanted, so he signed there instead. His estimated net worth is 8 million, meaning he's done just fine on his own. When he did finally decide to make the move to WWE, it was never because he needed WWE, but because he liked the story and wanted to give it a try.

2 2. Still Friends With Dixie Carter

via flickr.com
via flickr.com

Despite Sting leaving TNA and finally making the move to WWE, being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and announcing his official retirement through WWE, Sting and Dixie Carter have remained friends. Dixie has done interviews on Sting leaving TNA, saying that she is “happy for him” and wished him the best. However, she did not watch his WWE debut, so she might be just a tad bit jealous. From her interview, it seems that Sting left the company amicably and that TNA is shooting to build up younger talent. She also congratulated him on Twitter following his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. This is most definitely not something Vince is happy about, considering his long-term plan of completely ignoring TNA.

1 1. WWE Failed To Bring You Sting vs The Undertaker

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via youtube.com

The final thing that WWE wants you to forget about Sting is that they never gave us the dream match we were hoping. The match that fans have talked about since WCW went down and, possibly, since Sting became “The Crow.” How could they bring Sting to WWE and not have him face The Undertaker. Then to make matters worse, the idea had once been teased, but fell through when Sting was not happy with Vince's attorneys.

Apparently, fans were not the only ones holding out hope as The Undertaker and Sting had both mentioned the possibility before Sting got injured at Night of Champions. So what happened? Sting had mentioned, after he retired, that there was supposed to be “one more match” and rumors about a possible retirement match for both. Sorry WWE, WCW, and TNA fans, but we will never know who would have came out on top between Sting and The Undertaker. Oh, and to WWE, we will never forget.