On the most recent edition of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, Jon Alba hosted as “Diamond” Dallas Page and Jake “The Snake” Roberts reminisced on the career of “The Icon” Sting.
Sting’s early career as a professional wrestler
Sting’s beginnings in professional wrestling, now almost recited by many fans as if reading from his Wikipedia entry, were mentioned by the three and how a California promoter named Rick Bassman saw Steve Borden (Sting) and the then Jim Hellwig (The Ultimate Warrior) in a gym and suggested they become professional wrestlers.
Roberts and Page then discussed the anomaly of both wrestlers in a tag team not only becoming huge singles stars, but in separate companies with Warrior in WWF and Sting in WCW. It didn’t always seem that way as The Blade Runner tag team with the two wasn’t an instant success. Alba mentioned Sting’s article from The Players’ Tribune where he said he was ready to quit in the early years, but persevered.
Roberts added that Bill Watts put Sting through hell, but, “Sting was very fortunate to go there because that place, you learn more than any other place on the planet. Bill Watts made you learn,” in Mid-South Wrestling. Roberts mentioned how Watts would never put two green wrestlers together using himself tagging with The Barbarian “to help The Barbarian.”
They moved to Clash of the Champions I, which had a main event of Ric Flair and Sting ending in a 45-minute time-limit draw. Page said he doesn’t think there could be a greater compliment than “The Nature Boy” going 45 minutes with you and then to a 60-minute broadway. He likened it to the then Cody doing something similar for Darby Allin in AEW.
Alba asked if Flair made Sting and the two Hall of Famers were unequivocal in affirming the question that yes, Flair made Sting. They said he had the look, the size, the entrance, the charisma, and even if he was a little green, those matches with Flair made Sting into “they guy.” Roberts said Sting ran with it once he had the position, and Page added that Sting still has it even in his 60s.
Page credited a match with Sting on WCW Monday Nitro on January 8, 1996 for changing his career trajectory. He was effusive is his praise for Sting letting Page lay out most of the match, which led to a funny phone interaction with Michael Hayes.
The birth of “Crow” Sting
They then discussed Sting’s transition to his most iconic character, “Crow” Sting. Page said it was the smartest thing for Sting to do with the n.W.o. running rampant and obliterating babyface “Surfer” Sting. Page added that it was actually the late Scott Hall who suggested to Sting to make the change. Page said that Sting sitting in the rafters for a year while other babyfaces were being beaten down opened up the doors for him to become a top babyface in the company opposite the faction.
Alba mentioned that this version of Sting also helped Nitro do big numbers, but Page and Roberts said that Hall and Kevin Nash were the catalysts. However, they did credit the patience to keep Sting from wrestling for a year as “the people want what they can’t have, but you can’t let them have it too soon.” Page said the biggest pay-per-view in WCW was Starrcade ’97 between Sting and “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, which was built over the entire year.
Page discussed a hilarious moment where Sting was supposed to rappel down, hook up Page, and then rappel back up together. Page said Sting was supposed to come down, no one was supposed to touch them, and they would leave easily. He brought up Roberts discussing the chaos in the ring earlier with his snake and mentioned how with eight guys in the ring, they all want to do their own thing. Page said he wasn’t scared until he heard Sting yelling at the others that they weren’t supposed to touch them.
Sting post-WCW
They touched on the final Nitro match and how apropos it was to have Flair vs. Sting, the two men most synonymous with WCW. From there, they moved to Page’s first post-WWE match, which Alba said was July 2004 for HCW Battle Hawaii where Page teamed with Satoshi Kojima to take on Sting and The Great Muta. Page said he just wanted to show people that he could still go in the ring, and working with Sting, Kojima, and Muta was a dream.
Alba moved to Sting’s hesitancy to sign with WWE because of how WCW wrestlers were portrayed until relenting and signing in 2014, debuting at Survivor Series, then facing Triple H at WrestleMania 31 in a losing, but memorable effort. Roberts said he was “shocked” that Sting signed with WWE as he never envisioned Sting signing with the company. Page said in his opinion, “they pushed the hell out of him” and even if he lost to Seth Rollins in Sting’s final WWE match, it was Rollins who was receiving the rub from Sting.
They ended by asserting that Sting has redefined and rewrote what it means to utilize legends in this business. Roberts said it’s about utilizing them the right way and just having respect for what they’ve done. Page added that there isn’t anyone in the AEW locker room who doesn’t want to take the Scorpion Death Lock.
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