Evolution Schematic 05.02.06: Sting (Part 2)
Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 05.02.2006
No, not the movie with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Duh.
Writer's Notes
Hello, and welcome to the *checks notes* 152nd most positive and 251st most negative column on the new, The Evolution Schematic! Today, we continue our look at the man in face paint.
Sorry, I should be more specific. The sane man in face paint.
But first, a moment of Zen/intermission/hot picture.
Click here for part one of this ES, where we reviewed Sting's early career, somehow forgot to mention the Blade Runners name, and ended with Sting's first World Title when he beat Ric Flair.
Phase 8- The Black Scorpion. Feel free to skip this part.
So, after Great American Bash 1990, Sting was on top of the world, having won the world title, and with his Dudes as back up he could look forward to defending his belt with pride and keeping the Four Horsemen honest in their matches. But instead of Ric Flair and the Horsemen, the first major challenger to Sting's title was a mysterious man. A man of shadow. A man with a past, Sting's Past. A man with a voice like a 10 foot tall man with 12 testicles who has chain smoked cigars since childbirth. The Black Scorpion.
Well, actually it was Ric Flair all along, but we didn't know it at the time. Especially given that Flair was, through various third parties, double blind payments and other such means, able to hire many different people to play the Black Scorpion as needed. So, as Flair would go on TV and make bizarre references to Sting's past (Indiana, 1994! Figure It Out!), smashing watches and making Gordon Solie his bitch (and I wish I was speaking metaphorically there), Flair got various people to pretend to be the Black Scorpion to fight Sting, who naturally wanted to fight whoever it was. Thus, he got Al Perez to fight Sting at the 12 Clash Of The Champions, Al trying to use simple moves to take Sting out, chokes and stuff, obviously at Flair's bidding. But Sting won the match, then took off the mask to reveal a second one. But then the REAL Scorpion had a stare off with Sting to end the show.
But technically, Sting had beaten the Black Scorpion. So while the Black Scorpion continued the mind games, Sting had to defend his belt against those in the WCW Top Ten. Hence, at Halloween Havoc, Sting was set to defend his title against Sid Vicious, who won the right to fight for the belt by being a big scary bastard who liked to Chokeslam people.
Hell, works for Taker nowadays.
But, despite The Black Scorpion showing Sting his powers of magic (obviously Flair is a secret Penn & Teller fan), and despite Barry Windham trying to help his fellow Horseman Sid to win the title by taking a fall dressed up like Sting, Sting retained the title, thanks to good officiating.
Then at Clash 13 (that's a portent), Sting was interrupted by the Black Scorpion early in the show over the loudspeaker, and then, during The Danger Zone, came out to do yet more magic to scare and confuse Sting. And the fans.
Well, bore and disgust are close…
But the whole thing came to a head at Starrcade 1990, when Sting gave The Black Scorpion a title shot, inside a steel cage, but on the condition that if the Scorpion lost, he would have to unmask. And, naturally, he had to be the real one. The Black Scorpion agreed, and Dick The Bruiser was chosen as the special ref to ensure that there was no funny business. Although Flair, sorry, Scorpion's entrance was pretty much 100% funny business, with a giant spaceship and such. But Sting, despite other Scorpions, Arn and Barry and Flair himself under the mask, managed to win the match and unmask Flair and generally save the day.
A month later, and WCW, which had been the main member of the NWA became WCW, the second major name outside the NWA. To commemorate it, the NWA World Title that Sting was carrying would be on the line in a free TV match against Flair, where the winner would be both NWA World Champ but more importantly, the first ever WCW World Champ. Such a prestigious title was something that Flair could not let go, and he managed to, cheating of course, win the title(s) off Sting.
Phase 9- Sting and his buddies vs. The Four Horsemen…take two!
Sting began to fight The Horsemen in 8 man tag matches up and down the country in the new WCW, teaming with Brian Pillman and The Steiners. But while his wars with the Horsemen were constant, he had to deal with mostly other enemies on major shows, everyone trying to move up the Top Ten, and beating the former champ was a great way to do it. Although you wouldn't think it for his first major match after losing the world title being a Tag Title Match at the 14th Clash, where he teamed with his good buddy Lex Luger to take on Doom, although it ended badly with Doom tossing Sting over the top rope after some double teaming to draw the DQ.
But then, at Wrestlewar, Sting focused back on the Horsemen, and with Brian Pillman and the Steiners, they took on the Horsemen in an 8 man tag match.
Although unlike the matches at non-televised events, this one was a tad different. For this was Wargames. And it also had Arn out with an injury and replaced with Larry Zbyszko (who is NotGuilty, apparently). And it also featured a Horsemen inflicted shoulder injury to Pillman. And thus, Pillman started the match for the Dudes.
*slaps forehead*
But it wasn't the shoulder that ended Pillman's night, but the cage roof being low. Hence, when Sid Vicious powerbombed him, his head slammed into the cage and made him land badly. Twice. El Gigante ran out and threw in the towel for Sting's team. Sting had lost this battle.
He then lost his next major battle, for WCW and New Japan had a supershow in Tokyo that saw Sting go against his old ‘friend' The Great Muta, and Muta beat him once more for old times sake. Then Sting and Luger, when they didn't have a match for the inaugural SuperBrawl, asked for a Tag Title shot from The Steiners. They got it, but then Sting and Luger seemed to have the match in hand when Nikita Koloff skulked to ringside with his chain, still upset at Luger. But he hit Sting when Sting sacrificed himself to save Luger, leading Scott to pin Sting.
This annoyed Sting, who challenged and beat Koloff at the next Clash Of The Champions, number 15. Koloff then bashed Sting with his chain later in the night, since he was a dick. A Russian dick, but a dick nevertheless. Sting and Koloff then had their blow off match at the Great American Bash 91, where the two fought in a Russian Chain match, which Sting managed to blow in his eagerness to destroy Koloff, Splashing him in the corner to let him touch the fourth buckle to win the match.
Sting, having learnt from this mistake, regained his focus, and almost immediately saw results, focusing more on helping himself rather than beating the bad guys paid off.
Phase 10- USA! USA! USA!
See, Luger had won the World title at the Bash. And thus he had to vacate the US Title. And while Sting did have a problem with Luger's actions in winning the title, he did want the belt. So he entered the tournament to find a new champ. He beat Arn Anderson in the first round, The Diamond Stud (a.k.a Scott Hall) in the second and then Steve Austin in the third to win, thanks to draws in the other ‘half' to win the title, truly earning it by beating 3 legends.
Sting, despite this being a ‘secondary' title, defended it proudly, as a loyal American and such. Although he abided by WCW's choices, thus while he would happily have given Johnny B Badd a title shot at the XVI edition of the Clash, he abided in WCW's orders to make it non title. He then won the match thanks to a big box being rolled out, distracting them both but Badd more and he rolled him up. He then paid the price as Cactus Jack emerged and beat the hell out of him. Although he got revenge later in the show by repeating the process with a big box of his own (which Cactus assumed was Abdullah The Butcher).
Phase 10b- Cactus! Cactus! Cactus!
Sting and Cactus then proceeded to fight each other. A lot. Occasionally they let others join in, such as Halloween Havoc where Cactus teamed with Abdullah, Vader and Hall against Sting, El Gigante and The Steiners in a "Chamber Of Horrors" match. This is the match where Abdullah is electrocuted, for those playing the home game.
But then Paul E Dangerously (Heyman when he was covering his tracks) on the same show said he would take down WCW, starting with Sting, and his first solider was Rick Rude.
Phase 10c- Rude! Rude! Rude!
Sting, always eager for a challenge, agreed to fight Rude at the next Clash. The whole event ended up being about Sting, as he got yet another gift box early on (Cactus and Abdullah being in them in various combinations leading up to this show thanks to his mysterious "Enemy" who kept sending them, although by now Heyman's plan was obvious), but was distracted by a fancy carriage arriving to reveal Medusa, who re-distracted Sting long enough for Luger to pop out of the box and clip Sting's bad knee and injure him further, the two in their hate cycle. Sting went to hospital, but ended up getting back to the arena upon hearing Paul claiming Sting would have to forfeit the title. Sure, he had to steal an Ambulance to get back to the arena, but he had a higher responsibility than mere Grand Theft Auto laws. Heyman, luckily for Sting, spent too long gloating, and by the time the ref started his "Sting has a count of 10 to get to the ring or he forfeits", Sting got to the arena and beat the count. So, Paul went to plan B. Cheat and attack the knee. And for that Sting had no defense, and Rick won the US Title.
Damm.
Phase 11- Screw it, back to the real title!
Sting took the loss in his stride, after all, the Dangerous Alliance that had formed quickly became a major force and losing to a major force wasn't that much of a shock. Look at the Horsemen, after all. But Sting didn't press the issue with Rude, instead setting his sights back on the World Title. He started his push with the Starrcade 91 Battlebowl. It was a tournament where random teams were picked to fight, and the winning teams would advance to a 2 Ring Battle Royal, you get eliminated from the first ring to the second you move to the second, uh, officially, then the last man in the first fights the last man in the second in a over the top match. Winner gets the Battlebowl Ring. Sting drew a bad break for his partner in Abdullah The Butcher, who beat Sting up until Pillman, their opponent, made the save leading to Abdullah beating on him, then Eaton, the other opponent ran out and beat on Sting. But then Cactus ran out, accidentally nailed Abdullah, thus giving Sting enough time without having to worry about him to beat Eaton and advance.
Sting thus advanced to the Battlebowl. Sting ended up in the second ring as he was fighting Rude, while Lex Luger won the first ring. Sting ended up winning the second ring, thanks to Steamboat and Rude pulling each other out. But Rude left Sting laying as a present to his buddy Luger. But Luger, despite his manager Harley Race telling him to finish his old friend quickly, took his time hurting Sting. Thus, Sting had the time to regroup and hit a desperation clothesline to eliminate Luger and win.
And, given that Luger was WCW Champion at this point, this was a major victory.
After wrestling in the second WCW/New Japan Supershow, where he ironically teamed with Keiji Mutoh, a.k.a Great Muta in his kinder, friendly mode of behavior to beat the Steiners who he was friends with, and then teaming with Steamboat to beat Dangerous Alliance members Rude and Steve Austin at the 18th Clash, Sting got his world title shot at Superbrawl 2.
And, thanks to a Harley Race screw up, Sting pinned his ‘Best Friend', and was once again World Champion. But if he thought Flair waiting in the wings was bad, this time a much bigger, nastier man was waiting to take him down.
For it was time. His Time. Vader Time…
Writer's Notes
Yes, I am aware this is a tad short. But then I'm only one man, what do you want? But that will change soon.
For next week, it's the (somewhat) triumphant return of The Dee Spot!
