Why the Love for Sting?

[JASONIGHTMARE]

The fact that wrestling fans will always find some reason to complain about. You can't compare john semen to Steve Borden. Sting puts guys over all the time compared to cena.cena wants special treatment, a loss to him means the end of the world to him. John is selfish, egotistical, careless, heartless and is not a true sportsman. It's all profitship for him unlike sting who is a true sportsman in my eyes and rest of the wrestling fan's eyes. Money is not an issue for Steve. Let me remind you all he declined wwes Disney stars for lotsa money cause he did it for Sportsmanship not profitship. Jc will continue to be the goofy star of wwe Disney superstars u

[New Hot Fed]

I think Sting should remain super-strong and sometime he could put someone over, I don't mind it, if it's the right circonstances. He did put AJ Styles over at BFG 2009 and remember he mad a speach and it was almost over for him.

Now my main problem is the whole presentation of Sting. Not only he's not always convincing outthere, he gets winded and beat-up a lot but always going in his match with t-shirts make him look like he is half-assing things. Secondly, his whole trying to please Hogan character is annoying or trying to convert guys, trying to see the good in guys, he comes off most of the time like an old lady whining. Like he did with Bully recently. I just wish he was this silent badass that would come in set down the law, sometime having matchs but not being bogged by stuff. And no more t-shirts please. After all this talks about Dixie always convinving him to stay and TNA needing him, I think most of the time they've used him badly. It could be done better, Sting could be better for TNA as a whole.

That's my 2 cents.

[Dyscord]

Originally Posted by enviousdominous

The most recent person he lost clean to was Randy Orton back in 2009. Every loss after that has been a fluke, mainly because taking a clean loss to anybody would be putting then over.

He lost clean to Rock at last year's Mania. But yeah, Cena rarely loses clean. Sting, on the other hand, has lost cleanly plenty of times.

I find this thread amusing though. I dunno how anyone can say that Sting is hogging the spotlight when he hasn't had the world title in almost two years. As opposed to Cena, whose feuds were made to be bigger than the title itself. I honestly can't say that Sting has ever done that.

[MCMG]

Originally Posted by Papa Pillman

Are you implying that Hernandez is a better choice to headline a PPV than Sting?


Well he wasn't at the "top" of the Lockdown card, or the BFG card, or any PPV in the last 2 years aside from Slammiversary last year where he did the job to Roode in a non-title match.

Basically none of the criticism you have for Sting holds water. He is not treated as a Cena-like entity. He does not routinely main event PPVs. His programs are not inflated to seem bigger than the other storylines. He is still a very good worker for his age. He puts people over on a regular basis. No one inside the business says a bad word about him. He takes time off to keep in shape so that when he is around he can perform well and work a regular schedule. Unlike most his age he still works tv matches consistently, instead of just being built up for a few PPV fueds a year. etc. etc. etc.

The OP is a hater. That is what has been made most clear here.

Slammeversary, Bound for Glory and Lockdown. Sting has been in a world title match or involved in the big-name feud in each card for his whole TNA career. Literally two or three exceptions in 6/7 years of his TNA career. Surely its time to move on? Is Sting the way forward.

I can't see how TNA are massively benefiting from this. Excuse my ignorance, but at this moment is Sting such a massive draw. I get he is a legend of the business and, to an extent I am a fan of Sting but I just don't see it. Is he bringing in buy-rates like crazy?

Moreover, in all that time surely TNA could have built some major stars. Hence my Hernandez comment. I'm not saying that Hernandez is better than Sting but a spot in the main event of the major ppvs (or at least at the top of the card) for the last few years would at least help make him a star. Same applies for others, Hernandez was merely an example.

[Papa Pillman]

Originally Posted by MCMG

Slammeversary, Bound for Glory and Lockdown. Sting has been in a world title match or involved in the big-name feud in each card for his whole TNA career. Literally two or three exceptions in 6/7 years of his TNA career. Surely its time to move on? Is Sting the way forward.

I get where it is that you're coming from. But I think that your criticism is dated. If you were making this argument two or three years ago it would hold more water. Hell, you could even have made a similar argument as it pertained to Kurt Angle. But at this point Sting, and Kurt as well, are no longer taking up spots in the main events of PPVs. Each has moved a little down the card and shifted their primary focuses from being the ones carrying the company to being the ones helping give rubs to guys that will be the main players when they are gone. Look at the last year and a half and you don't need an enitre hand to count the number of times that Sting has main evented any PPV, not just the major ones that remain.

I can't see how TNA are massively benefiting from this. Excuse my ignorance, but at this moment is Sting such a massive draw. I get he is a legend of the business and, to an extent I am a fan of Sting but I just don't see it. Is he bringing in buy-rates like crazy?

Again a criticism that would have been valid when the cards were being built around Sting. Building one or two PPV main event spots a year for a guy of Sting's caliber who can still go is not an aggregious mistake. He is still the biggest and most recognizable star they have. Now that Sting is mostly working the upper mid-card, can he really be a hindrance to the card? At that point his presence can only help to prop up some non-world title related angles, and give the guys he working against the chance to work with one of the top five or six guys of the last 25 years.

Moreover, in all that time surely TNA could have built some major stars. Hence my Hernandez comment. I'm not saying that Hernandez is better than Sting but a spot in the main event of the major ppvs (or at least at the top of the card) for the last few years would at least help make him a star. Same applies for others, Hernandez was merely an example.

But I think they have built stars as best they can for a company their size. When Sting and Angle were a bit younger and regularly main eventing they were helping to build the likes of AJ and Joe into stars. AJ and Joe became about as big as they could get considering the relative exposure of TNA.

And more recently they have started to create more stars to be the guys once Kurt and Sting are gone. Guys like Aries who was in and out of the company and never more then a midcard X-division guy has become a main event talent in his latest run. And also Bobby Roode, people had annointed Bobby a future world champion for years, but he bided his time for his chance, and the established guys like Kurt, Sting, and even AJ and Jeff Hardy all did their parts to help to get Bobby into the position he finally deserved to reach. Those two are two more recent examples of guys whose only national exposure has ever been through TNA, yet by TNA standards they are over main event level workers. Alot of that is due to rubs from more established main eventers who made their names in larger companies.

As for the Hernandez example, the guy simply is no where near main event level. And no amount of trying to force into the main event is going to change that. The guys who are main event caliber have, and will continue to, get a chance to prove it. Hernandez simply is not one of those guys. Forcing a guy into the main event just to see of he sticks even though he doesn't belong there is not a smart strategy. TNA has made this same mistake a couple of times with Matt Morgan already. Morgan has been given multiple chances to be a main event guy, but he has never stuck there, that is simply because he not talented enough or interesting enough to be a consistent main eventer.

[Ovaltine]

I actually think TNA doesn't use Sting right. He should (for the most part) only wrestle on PPV's and if and when he does wrestle on TV it should be a BIG deal and promoted for weeks leading up to the event. Not too long ago when he was gone for a month or two (I can't remember exactly what month that it was) TNA promoted his return and it spiked the ratings a bit. Now imagine if they did that every time he came back or whenever he was in a match. When Sting wrestles it should be treated as a special event. His matches shouldn't be given away on free TV all that often.

[shalliin]

Originally Posted by JASONIGHTMARE

The fact that wrestling fans will always find some reason to complain about. You can't compare john semen to Steve Borden. Sting puts guys over all the time compared to cena.cena wants special treatment, a loss to him means the end of the world to him. John is selfish, egotistical, careless, heartless and is not a true sportsman. It's all profitship for him unlike sting who is a true sportsman in my eyes and rest of the wrestling fan's eyes. Money is not an issue for Steve. Let me remind you all he declined wwes Disney stars for lotsa money cause he did it for Sportsmanship not profitship. Jc will continue to be the goofy star of wwe Disney superstars u

No, he denied it because he knew he would never be 'the guy' in WWE. He'd be only another old timer brought in to complete Vince's Collection of stars who had worked for him. Money is an issue or he wouldn't still be working, but spending time with his family. Sure, he has the urge to perform, but until recently TNA was somewhat of a local company rarely traveling with a much lighter schedule, but still more work then a WWE Legends contract. With WWE he would either of had to work more then he physically could handle, or less then his ego would allow. So it was more about ego then about money that he didn't sign with WWE. He didn't want to be someone Vince could point out and say "my company made him'. Even though Sting's best years were late 80's early to mid 90's, Vince had always tried to stake a claim to talent that worked for companies he owned, even if it was before he owned them and he had nothing to do with their stardom directly.

As for all the Cena/Sting comparisons it's hard to justify them. Cena has put people over and worked with lower cards to elevate them. Even a gang beating by Nexus showed how dangerous all of Nexus was as a group and individually. His being left knocked iout in the ring after a Big Show WMD, His matches with Punk. Sure he's kept pretty exlusively in the top tier, but its a broader pool of talent and he's come out on the losing end as often as the winning end. They have tried to take the focus off him a little with Punk's run, trying to push Alberto, even Lesnar/HHH have all tried to draw the spotlight from Cena, but no matter what the ICW complains about, the crowds and fans want to see Cena in Main events, win or lose, he draws them in. He's the flip side of the coin to how Austin worked in the attitude era, but the results are the same: People come ot the shows to see him, his fans to support him and his haters to complain about him, not realising the irony of them paying to go to an event to complain about how often he is the star of the event, which draws more attention to him and his matches then if they were smart and simply shut up during his matches and showed disinterest instead of hate.

People who down play Cena forget that Cena isn't doing this by himself, but has the whole of WWE creative and Vince himself pushing Cena at us. Yes Cena has main evented a lot in recent years but it's not like he's won everything. As someone but it, he's main evener 8 or 9 'Mania's and only lost three, but that still means he's only WON 5 or 6 or those. Aside from Taker how many of the top stars lose most of their Mania matches? All of them. HHH, HBK, Vince himself, very few of the top stars have massive winning records at Mania. The nearest is probably Edge, who at the time of their Mania match was 7-0 himself.

TNA has focused a lot of attention on Hogan and Sting, too much for guys that 'work' as little as they do and it isn't helping them the way they expected, considering buyrates and ratings haven't expanded in the way they likely anticipated. TNA pushes Sting and Hogan since they don't have any really recognizable stars outside of wrestling. They have few names that would be recognized to a casual prerson on the street. No matter how talented they are, AJ, Roode, Ray, and others just don't have the exposure and media relationships to garner attention from nonfans. They can't bring up the ratins since everyone who knows who they are and how good they can be are likely already watching.

So comparing Sting to Cena in terms of status as main events is nuts. WWE amolst has no choice but to make Cena the main event as fans and haters alike react too strongly to him, and TNA has no one else with the draw to fill that role that can be reliable enough to support the effort.

I agree that Sting is too old for the role but who else can they push? No one else is any healthier or more bankable.

[waylon p]

I remember back in the eighties when the blade runners showed in mid-south. I remember when sting showed up on TBS. I remember the first clash of champions, and a 45 minute time limit draw against Ric Flair for the NWA world title, and the epic program against the Four Horsemen followed a few years later.

I remember Sting defeating Steve Austin for the WCW US title. I remember when Paul Heyman was Pauly Dangerously and was trying to destroy Sting with his Dangerous Alliance.

And I remember when WCW turned its collective back on him, causing the darker "crow Sting" to appear.

Sting has been a big part of my wrestling history for a very long time. After Rick flair, more than any wrestler. At his age, he is giving more to TNA than I should expect. If I think he's been a little over the top on the microphone, I am willing to overlook that. Sting loves the business, and has proven he will do whatever it takes to help a promotion succeed. He is a team player, and worthy of respect. But I am biased. I almost feel like I know the guy.

[SpecialFNK]

he's Sting, and he can still put on a show. enough said.
I think his age number is irrelevant.

what certain guys in TNA have done or not done for ratings I think is flawed, because no one has helping noticeable for ratings, which shouldn't be used to judge/value the product anyway.

Sting doesn't need to be in a wrestling match to be entertaining. he can do a lot of what he has done, talking on the mic for weeks setting up a match, and that's still enough for the TV show that is Impact Wrestling.

I hope what I read on the 1st page wasn't comparing Hernandez to Sting. that's a joke. Hernandez has talent, but he is nowhere near Sting.

I'm glad Sting hasn't gone to WWE in recent years. why would he want to? just to lose at Wrestlemania to an overrated Undertaker and become another number in a streak. Sting is better than that and deserves more for his legendary career.

[MaverickMeyer]

Let me end this now:

STING IS BIG DRAW
PEOPLE LIKE STING
PEOPLE PAY MONEY TO SEE STING
PEOPLE WANT STING TO BE CHAMPION BECAUSE THEY LIKE HIM, SO THEY PAY MONEY TO SEE HIM IN MATCH WHERE HE CAN WIN CHAMPIONSHIP

That is why he's been in so many title matches in TNA. Also, Bobby Roode definitely benefited from his feud with Sting, as he had already beaten all of the top faces, and winning a feud with a legend was fantastic for him. From there, we could also say Sting helped Aries, as Aries beat Roode, who beat Sting. Same for Hardy, same for Bubba. It's a cycle.