Just S'pose 10.11.06: Sting
Posted by Ron Gamble on 10.11.2006
It's a beautiful day in my Neighborhood of Make-Believe, so come on along, neighbor!
Not a good week football wise for me. Brooke lost to University High School in Morganhole, 12-3. Scott Victorio was injured the week before against Pittsburgh's Taylor Allderdice (which Brooke won, 17-14), and managed just seven yards on four carries. Meanwhile, quarterback Jimmy Reitter was injured in the second half against University. Hopefully, they're both healthy this week against arch-rival Weir. Not only is it Homecoming week at Brooke, but one more win should guarantee a playoff berth for the first time since 1999. Also, I'm going this week. Last year, Brooke started an alumni band, and though I couldn't make it then, I'm in this year. I was part of the drumline for four years, playing second bass, triple tenors, snare, then back to the trips my senior year.
Pitt, meanwhile, continued to improve their record, beating Toledo, 45-3, and Syracuse, 21-11. The Panthers are now 5-1 overall, and 2-0 in the Big East. However, I'm still not sold on Dave Wannstedt as head coach. After all, their only loss this year was at home against Michigan State, who has since gone on to lose three straight against Notre Dame, Illinois, and Michigan. Next up this week is a non-conference game at Central Florida.
As for the Steelers, I wasn't worried when they were 1-2 going into the bye week. I wasn't worried when they led San Diego, 10-0, late in the second quarter. By the end of the night, when the Chargers won, 23-13, I was plenty worried. Now, Your Super Bowl Champions (I say that just to bug many of you) are 1-3 (I say that just to bug me), with Kansas City coming to The 'Burgh on Sunday.
Before we get to the main course of the column (this section is just the salad and rolls, you see), I'd like to quote an email I received from Daniel Moore, in its entirety:
oh my god i can't wait!!!!!
cheers
daniel moore
a sting fan
Let's get to it.
STING REMAINS WITH GORDON SUMNER
Steve Borden was a little sad, but at the same time, he was excited. He was sad because he had just wrestled his last match in the Universal Wrestling Federation under the name Blade Runner Flash. He was excited because he was headed to one of the hottest territories in wrestling today, World Class Championship Wrestling, in Texas. They had left the NWA earlier that year, and Fritz Von Erich promised they would use him as one of their top heels. That meant he would be wrestling against a Von Erich almost every night, and he could expect a good share of the box office to end up in his bank account.
Sure, he wouldn't be "Blade Runner Flash," and sure, he wouldn't get to see his partner, Jim Hellwig, anymore, but he would surely come across him sometime in the future, right? Right?
In the reality we know, Blade Runner Flash stayed in the UWF, changed his name to Sting, and eventually went to the NWA, where he would beat Ric Flair on July 7, 1990, to win the World Championship. But, Just S'pose Sting went to WCCW. What might have happened?
Borden went to the WCCW offices in Dallas to officially sign his contract and speak with WCCW officials. There, he found out he would no longer be known as "Blade Runner Flash," but rather, "Steve Boulder." Boulder was immediately paired with manager Percy Pringle, and would wrestle in tag team matches with former WCCW champion Rick Rude for a few weeks. Soon after that, he would work his way into the WCCW World title picture, where he would face champion Kevin Von Erich and his brothers regularly. He never did win the World title, but he did beat Bob Bradley to win the WCCW Texas title in April 1987. He held the Texas title for six months, losing it in October 1987 to Ted Arcidi. It was to be his last match in WCCW. In the match, he broke his left arm when Arcidi, not yet used to relaxing in the ring, twisted a hammerlock a little too far. During his time off, he got a call from Vince McMahon, and after a flight to Connecticut, Borden gave his notice to WCCW.
He arrived in the WWF in January 1988 and was renamed "Demolition Hammer." He joined the team of Demolition, and the three of them worked six-man tag matches as well as regular tag matches, with any two of them representing the team on any night. Hammer got a lot of the work when he first joined the team, so fans would see his work and be impressed as the aerial member of the team that usually won by clubbing their opponents into submission. His "Sledge Hammer" move, a high running splash into the corner onto his opponent, was not particularly flashy, but compared to Ax and Smash, he may as well be doing moonsaults every night. Smash and Hammer beat Strike Force at WrestleMania IV in Atlantic City, NJ, to win the WWF Tag Team titles for Demolition.
They continued to hold the titles for ten months, with Ax gradually stepping into the mentor role, teaching his younger partners. In January 1989, Demolition lost the titles to The Midnight Rockers when Hammer mistakenly hit Smash with the Sledge Hammer. As Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty celebrated outside the ring, Ax and Smash confronted Hammer inside. A few minutes later, Hammer was kicked out of Demolition when they introduced their newest member, Crush, and a three-on-one attack began.
Hammer joined with Michaels and Jannetty against the three members of Demolition for several weeks, concluding with a match on "Saturday Night's Main Event" from Baltimore. Hammer then went out on his own a singles wrestler, beating Dino Bravo at WrestleMania V. From there, Hammer joined the Intercontinental title scene, regularly wrestling Mr. Perfect, Ronnie Garvin, Bad News Brown, King Haku, and Bravo. At SummerSlam '89, Hammer beat Jake Roberts, with the winner guaranteed an Intercontinental title shot at the next "Saturday Night's Main Event." He followed that up with a disqualification win over IC champion Rick Rude at "SNME" in Los Angeles in October 1989. At Survivor Series 1989, Hammer was part of "Roddy's Rowdies" team of Roddy Piper and The Bushwhackers, where he and Rick Rude were both counted out of the ring.
January 1990 brought something new to Hammer's career: world title matches. In the Royal Rumble match, Hammer entered the ring with number 13, and lasted over 30 minutes before being eliminated by The Barbarian. Just based on the crowd reaction, he was given title shots against WWF champion Hulk Hogan, to prepare him for his match against Mr. Perfect at WrestleMania VI. Hammer did not win the title, but did get used to wrestling at the end of the night. At WMVI, he wrestled in the semi-main event, winning the Intercontinental title from Randy Savage.
He continued defending the IC title for the rest of 1990 until Rick Rude won the WWF World title. Rude and Hammer met at Royal Rumble 1991 with Rude's title on the line, which he retained by countout. They wrestled a few more times before it was announced they would have one final match at WrestleMania VII in a cage, and both titles would be on the line. After 22 minutes, Hammer would escape the cage first to win the title.
As the standard bearer for the WWF, Hammer (who borrowed "It's Hammer Time!" from a popular rap song for his promos) was not a great success. He had very good matches against people his size, like Rude, Mr. Perfect, Texas Tornado, and Randy Savage, but when asked to wrestle larger men like Big Boss Man and Earthquake, the matches were not very good. At SummerSlam 1991, he lost the title to Davey Boy Smith. He had a few rematches, but could not beat Smith to regain the title.
At Survivor Series 1991, Hammer turned on his teammates and joined with recent WWF arrival Ric Flair. The two of them decided to get a stable together, similar to Flair's "Four Horsemen" in the NWA. They joined with Ted DiBiase (no longer using the "Million Dollar Man" gimmick) and Virgil Tibbs (DiBiase's former bodyguard) in the new faction. Flair won the World title shortly after WMVIII, DiBiase won the IC title in February 1992 and defended it at WMVIII, and Steve "The Hammer" Borden and Virgil won the WWF Tag Team titles at WMVIII. "The Lords of the Ring," as they were known, held all the gold.
At Survivor Series 1992, The Lords of the Ring took on the Hart Foundation team of Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Davey Boy Smith in a Survivor Series cage match, set up similarly to the WarGames matches from the NWA. The main differences were there was just one cage around one ring, and wrestlers could still be eliminated without the team losing. Borden and Owen Hart were the last two in the ring, which ended when Borden was ruled too bloody to continue. No one was happy with the result, however, and Borden vs. Owen Hart was scheduled for Royal Rumble 1993, with the winner of the match winning the feud for his team. In this match, Hart beat Borden with the Hart family's patented move, the Sharpshooter. Borden and Owen continued to have great matches against each other, and at the end of the year, Pro Wrestling Illustrated named it "Feud of the Year."
At WMIX, Borden and Tibbs, who had lost their tag team titles to Earthquake and Typhoon in October 1992, beat The Doinks in their final match as a team. Borden and DiBiase essentially traded places in the hierarchy of The Lords of the Ring, with DiBiase teaming with Tibbs and Borden going after the Intercontinental title. Borden won the title from Shawn Michaels in July 1993 and held it until losing to Razor Ramon at Royal Rumble 1994.
At WMX, Borden was kicked out of his second faction, when the other Lords physically ejected him from the group. He was saved by his real-life friend, Lex Luger, and the two of them formed a team with Barry Windham to take on the Lords. When Mike Rotundo stopped using the "Irwin R. Shyster" name and joined the Lords, Luger, Borden, and Windham, known collectively as "The New Wave," were joined by former Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich. The feud continued until Survivor Series 1994, when Von Erich eliminated DiBiase to win the match.
After Royal Rumble 1995, where Borden beat Owen Hart, he asked that his schedule be reduced, so he could spend more time with his family. His request was granted, and in October 1996, he wrestled his final match, losing to Goldust at In Your House 11: Buried Alive.
Today, Steve Borden lives quietly with his family in Sarasota, Florida, where he runs the original of a chain of gyms, "Hammer's House." He continues to get offers from promoters to work reunion wrestling shows, but has refused all of them. In 2003, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. In his acceptance speech, he thanked many people, including "my old partner, Blade Runner Rock, Jim Hellwig. Back in those days when we were running the back roads of Tennessee and Louisiana, we kept saying, 'One of these days, we'll look back at these times and be amazed we weren't arrested.' Without him, I wouldn't be here today. I really miss him, and when I look around, I wish we had kept in touch after The Blade Runners broke up."
WHAT'S THIS? YOU MENTIONED WARRIOR WARRIOR BY HIS BIRTH NAME?
Yes, I did. You may have wondered, "What about the other guy in The Blade Runners?" Next time, Grasshopper.
