An Icon Turned into a Joke

[Skairipa Matrix]

at first i thought the joker gimmick was just stupid but now i really like it i find him to be funny and his promos are more entertaining now and i enjoy watching sting now because of it plus when he had fortune as evil clowns that was genius imo sting is gonna keep the gimmick for awhile sense dixie loves it and im sure sting has a say and clearly hes fine with this gimmick its doing good for him and better then the same old boring sting thats been around for many years

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

Holly shit, people complaining about sting are dumb. Look as so many others said before me, everything is a rip-off in the world we live in. Look at news reports, movies, tv shows and even in the music industry. For satan's, Megadeth is a blatant rip-off of Metallica, but do you hear metalheads complaining? Hell no, because people enjoy the music. See the point i'm making, is that so what if Sting is copying the joker? If you don't like it, don't watch it and shut the fuck up.

 

[The Death Rattle]

There is a significant difference between being inspired by something and "ripping it off". For the people claiming that Sting is ripping off Joker, I ask have you actually watched The Dark Knight? With the exception of the make-up and using Fortune as the clowns, Sting hasn't done anything remotely close to Ledger's portrayal. The Joker was a muck darker character, an "agent of chaos" according to the film's dialogue. I simply don't understand how people are reaching their conclusions.

Sting is playing a character to rattle Hogan, using mind games to help restore Dixie Carter to power in TNA. That is a far cry from what Joker was aiming to do. You must look deeper than Sting's make-up, which is has changed multiple times throughout his career anyways, before making outrageous claims of him stealing from a movie. The character motivations are completely different, their goals are completely different, their means of achieving those goals are completely different.

Sting is fresh again, which is a credit to him and TNA's creative team. He has added intrigue to the show and got people talking about him, and by extension, TNA. That must be one of the goals of any character introduced to a wrestling show. Be it positive or negative, as long as people react to the character then it must be qualified as a success. The fact is everyone here has watched TNA at some point to have formed an opinion on the character, which of course meant they have watched the show. Which is exactly what TNA wanted. I salute them, and Sting, for going with something new that we haven't seen multiple times already.

 

[Sarsip]

I'm really surprised with the amount of support this Joker Sting is receiving. Somebody mentioned that it's good to see TNA change up an iconic character like Sting and I would agree with that... A big complaint that I have about TNA is that they don't differentiate themselves from WWE nearly enough, and a big part of that is importing the gimmicks of the WWE stars when they show up in TNA. And before anyone mentions it, I'll admit that I didn't have a problem with Sting's Crow gimmick being a ripoff.

I don't think the Joker gimmick has been executed well at all though. I don't watch a great deal of TNA, but I don't recall any real descent into madness by the character... his makeup just sort of changed one day. The Crow worked for me because the story leading up to the evolution of the character worked. The Sting character felt abandoned by the company and disappeared; the nWo, lead by Hogan, subsequently started to gain power over WCW, which had no real figurehead at the time. Crow Sting acted as a great foil for a rogue group running roughshod over a noble group in disarray. Dark, unpredictable and able to instill uneasiness in the entire rogue group. It was well executed.

This just comes off as the bullet points of the Crow presentation, like seemingly all of TNA's stolen gimmicks (i.e. Crimson's Goldberg, Anderson's Stone Cold); Sting = interesting cult movie character = Crow = Joker, Crimson = big new non-descript quiet intense guy = winning streak = Goldberg, Anderson = swearing redneck = Stone Cold. I don't have any problem with parody done well, or 'stolen gimmicks.' But the lack of effectiveness really speaks to creative's limitations. I don't think very many people are tuning in to see what crazy Joker Sting will do next week, partly because only a fraction of those who tuned into WCW back in the late 90s care to see a feud between Sting and Hogan in 2011. Saving that, the conditions don't exist to have Sting act in such a way.

From personal taste, I don't think the Joker Sting is well portrayed either. Heath Ledger did a fantastic job of transforming that character from the Cesar Romero/Jack Nicholson cartoon into a dark, deranged, somewhat human antihero that people were emotionally invested in. THAT is something from which TNA and Sting could have benefitted: character development. This seems like another band-aid type quick fix to a problem (character staleness). This character is not believable and not interesting. I am not emotionally involved and I will not tune in to see what he does next. I feel bad for Sting, because it's more creative's issue than anything. Then again, he's continually cited wanting to feud with Hogan and Flair before he retires, so I guess he gets what he deserves in a way.

 

[GrandSword]

@ Dizzy: You really do go by your name?, because every time I hear you talk, I fell nauseous.

All the names that you have mentioned of supposed ripoffs are only to stupid wcw and tngay fans. Nobody else thinks they are ripoffs.

Alberto Del Rio is a ripoff of JBL. You stupidity is quite apparent with this point that you make. JBL was made by WWE, they have every right to copy their own gimmick.

Sting doesn't own the crow, joker or the name sting. They are all owned by a talentless hack who couldn't come up with something of his own.

He is only icon to dumbass Wcw fans who are still bitter about seeing WWE putting them out of business. Same trend is being followed by dumbass tna fans because they know in their wildest dreams, they couldn't come close to WWE in any way possible.

Wrong! Sting trademarked his name many years ago. He owns the name outright.

So therefore your opinion holds no water because you obviously are just making stuff up as you go and throwing out statements which you deem are correct.

Next time get your facts straight. Only a hater would say Sting isn't an Icon. He has been one of the biggest draw cards in the history of the business and WCW's Starrcade 1997 event, to this day is still one of the highest purchased of all time.

Sorry to everyone else for feeding the troll.