wrestling / Columns

The Piledriver Report 07.05.13: Sting, WWE Bound?

July 5, 2013 | Posted by RSarnecky

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Well, one rumor in particular. It’s the rumor that rears its ugly head every ten to twelve months. It’s the rumor that will never die. Of course, I am talking about Sting possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment.

THIS IS STING

According to the latest round of rumors, Sting is interested in joining the WWE to the point where he has sent out “feelers” to garner their interest. Apparently, there is a lot of confidence within the WWE that Sting will finally join the WWE roster once his TNA contract expires. According to these rumors, this is why the WWE highlighted Sting in their video packages on former World champions during this week’s “Monday Night RAW” telecast.

I was never a Sting mark, nor a big fan of World Championship Wrestling. My loyalties were always for the World Wrestling Federation. When I did watch WCW, I was more of a Lex Luger fan than a Sting fan. To me, Sting was WCW’s golden child, sort of like today’s John Cena in the WWE. I didn’t see what was so great about Sting that he was the WCW’s franchise wrestler. This was my opinion of the blond-spiked hair Sting. When Sting underwent the “Crow” style transformation, I thought that it brought great depth and edge to his character. While he still wasn’t on my Fab Five list of favorite wrestlers, the anti-hero Sting was a much more interesting character then his former self.

When the doors closed on the WCW franchise, I assumed that it was only a matter of time before Sting entered the doors of the WWF. The WWF offered a lot of “dream” match-ups for the fans with Sting in the fold. Triple H, Steve Austin, The Rock, Edge, Kurt Angle, and the Undertaker were just several wrestlers that Sting could have dream matches with. By the time 2002 hit, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash had made their returns to the WWE. Sting could reignite his rivalry with Flair and war with the original New World Order on the WWE’s stage. It seemed too good to be true. It was, because the WWE was never able to land WCW’s big fish.

Instead, Sting wound up signing with the upstart TNA Wrestling. Since joining TNA, there have been numerous Sting to the WWE rumors. The strongest were two years ago when many assumed that Sting was going to headline WrestleMania XXVII against the Undertaker. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but it didn’t stop people from clamoring to see the match-up.

Fast forward to July 2013, and the rumors are starting again. This time, it just doesn’t seem like a pipe dream that Sting may wind up eventually signing with the WWE for one final run. In recent interviews, he has talked about wanting to wrestle the Undertaker, and also wanting to work a WrestleMania. There is only one way to do either; sign with the WWE.

STING AND WRESTLEMANIA

There are a lot of wrestlers who have never worked a WrestleMania. From Lance Storm to Nikita Koloff, Magnum TA, to the Midnight Express, to AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. All great wrestlers, who should have had at least one WrestleMania match. However, the greatest wrestler to never work a WrestleMania is Sting. He deserves to have a WrestleMania moment. Even though Sting has had a legendary career, if he doesn’t work at least one WrestleMania match, there will be a void in his career. It would be like Dan Marino never winning the Super Bowl or Ted Williams never winning a World Series.

Working next year’s WrestleMania would be the perfect time for Sting to make his WrestleMania debut. Next year’s WrestleMania will be the 30th installment of the super card. What better way for the WWE to make this historic event even more memorable than to have the one wrestler that they can never sign to finally make his debut. Also, working next year’s WrestleMania would be a perfect bookend to Sting’s career. He received his first big time exposure with Bill Watts’ Mis-South Wrestling, which had its home base in the Louisiana area. Next year’s WrestleMania will be held in the Louisiana Superdome, which is where Bill Watts held his company’s big card. This is too perfect for it not too happen.

IS SIGNING STING A GOOD OR BAD THING FOR THE WWE?

Sting is 54 years old. No disrespect to Sting or the WWE, but it’s kind of crazy to think that a company would sign a 54 year old wrestler to a main event level contract. However, this is no ordinary case. The WWE signing Sting to a contract, even if it’s a short term deal with limited dates, is a smart move for them. It gives the WWE a big name star from the past that they can match up with the stars of today. Think Attitude Era vs. Current ala WWE 13 video game. Sting vs. John Cena, CM Punk, and Randy Orton would sell itself. Not to mention matches with Triple H, Brock Lesnar, the Undertaker and The Rock. You would have the best of both worlds. Dream matches of one era vs. another era, as well as dream matches from the Monday Night Wars. The only down side from an in ring standpoint is that the Sting the WWE will be getting isn’t the 34 year old Sting, but the near 55 year old Sting. The work rate might not live up to the standards of the Monday Night War era, but it would still be cool to see.

There is another reason why hiring Sting would make smart business sense. With Sting in the fold, the WWE can produce a career retrospective DVD with Sting’s participation in the biography portion. Plus, he could be used for future releases, such as a possible Ric Flair/Sting rivalry DVD or another WCW DVD. Without question, there would be a Sting Hall of Fame induction before his WWE contract expires, which would give the WWE Hall of Fame more legitimacy. From a financial aspect, signing Sting would probably pay off for itself pretty quickly.

Since signing Sting seems like a no brainer, what could possibly be the negatives? Signing Sting, a 54 year old wrestler, would just be an example of the latest trend in the WWE. That would be bringing back older stars on a reduced schedule to give the WWE more star power than they currently have. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing guys like Rob Van Dam, The Rock, Chris Jericho, and Brock Lesnar back in the fold, along with 40 yrs old plus stars like Triple H and the Undertaker. At the same time, the addition of these wrestlers is acting like a band-aid for the WWE’s problem of creating new stars. By going back to the wrestlers who were in their prime a decade or more ago, the WWE doesn’t have to worry about creating stars to lead the WWE into the future. However, once the nostalgia wears off and these wrestlers are either no longer considered special attractions, or their production level decreases dramatically, the WWE could be in trouble. The business is all about creating new stars, and bringing in these old wrestlers should be to help create these new stars, and not hinder their growth.

From a short term perspective, the possible signing of Sting is a good business move, as long as they do long lose sight of their long term goals. The bigger question is will Sting finally cave in and sign a contract with the WWE? We have six months to speculate until we have an answer. If the answer is yes, then the Road to WrestleMania should be very interesting. We’ll see in a few months. Until then, let the rumors continue.

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