All right, let's put some of these arguments to rest..
It's quite clear you don't know your history. Jericho, Mysterio and Benoit defected to WWE long before he bought WCW. We are talking about guys who showed up after he bought the WCW. He squashed them one at a time and made many of us quit watching.
Booker T shows up as the WCW Champion only to have The Rock come out and make fun of him and ask who he was. They then proceeded to remove the belt from Booker T and give it to Rock his first night in the WWE/F. Booker was the 5 time WCW champion but wasn't good enough for Vince he had to give the belt to The Rock. That was a nice premier wasn't it? Booker then got to do a program where he spent most of his time running from Stone Cold.
DDP shows up playing the part of Undertakers Stalker and begs the Undertaker to make him famous as if he needed that because he was some little chump from WCW. The undertaker then began smashing him at every turn with him getting almost no offensive moves in. Throw in Booker T for a few matches vs Taker and Kane and they got to squish them both with few offensive moves against them. Then perhaps the biggest demolition of DDP's character. The undertakers wife pins him in the ring for the three count.
The invasion angle pitted 25 to 30 wrestlers attacking the ring and being beat down by 3 or 4 WWE/F guys. All to stoke Vince's ego and say WWE/F is superior to anything the WCW has. He then went to adding WWE/F guys like Stone Cold and Kurt Angle to the WCW/ECW side because these poor guys need help against the big bad WWE/F..
I know others debuted after that but I quit watching because I would rather watch no wrestling at all then anything McMahon put out which I did until TNA finally got on Fox Sports.
Now say you're Sting and you see your friends being squashed and made to look bad every week would you want to go there and trust Vince not to just use your character the same way to make his guys look better too?
You can really blame the beginnings of WCW's misfortune on Buff Bagwell. Remember that the original plan was for WCW to have Monday Nitro and WWF would keep Smackdown. He had a horrible match with Booker T on RAW and made every wrestler look bad with WCW's style. That plus the backstage arguments made the WCW crew really seem second rate. What's interesting is that all of the WCW wrestlers that had any merit stayed with the company and got repackaged. McMahon did a lot of burying, I admit, but it's not like he planned on beating WCW even further into the ground due to a petty bias.
But I digress...
How about this.
Those vignettes were always meant to be the Undertaker and the only people who thought it was Sting was the internet wrestling fans. The WWE never hinted at Sting and every new promo we saw became more and more obvious it was always Taker. To sit here and blame the man for not giving you want you wanted and calling him a scared coward without knowing the full circumstances is a shallow move. That goes towards anyone who has something negative to say about it.
1. We don't know if the WWE even contacted Sting and we will never know most likely
2. If he was contacted and didn't want to go to the WWE that doesn't make him a coward. It makes him a man of his word.
3. Sting is an icon and has done nothing wrong on or off screen to warrant any backlash for what didn't happen. All this was was the IWC assuming one thing and they ended up being wrong.
Blame yourselves and not Sting.
He's right. Actually I remember after reading the initial reports there were new items that the WWE never even tried to contact Sting until way later. You'd think that if they signed Sting he would either appeared at the Royal Rumble or at least had more blatant videos.
Hmmm maybe it's because Sting is actually LOYAL to TNA. I know that is a hard concept to fathom. Sting is living proof that loyalty, honor, and dignity still exists in a sport that has lost so much of it. Like Sting has said so many times, TNA is his brand. He loves TNA.
He is scared to go to WWE? What a bunch of bullshit.
Loyalty? His contract expired. It's not like he was trying to leave in the middle of his terms. Kevin Nash's contract expired and Booker T was gone for awhile. It's not betrayal if your contract expires and you decide not to re-sign. Was it betrayal when Hogan and Flair signed with TNA? When RVD, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson all came in? It's either both or not at all.
So, I have mentioned a few times on various forums about my feelings concerning Sting and how I believe he is playing the "Big Fish in a Small Pond" role by choosing to stay in TNA. First of all, I can't ever tell a man what to do with his money and/or his family. He's earning a paycheck legally, so that's great for him. However, I think Sting ala, Charlie from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, found a golden ticket to WWE-Land and decided to not go, instead IMO, played it safe and stayed in TNA.
Keep in mind he only signed a one-year deal. How much do you wanna bet we'll be doing this again next year?
Here's my gripe. Sting stays in TNA where he knows he's never going to be fully appreciated for who he is as a star. Sure, TNA has it's followers and fans, but they are NO WWE fans. I think Sting decided to play it safe and face guys whom he's faced hundreds of times and where he can still keep his persona in check without truly being tested. Men like HHH, The Undertaker, John Cena, Edge and Randy Orton all were and are waiting in the WWE for someone like Sting to come along. Fans too. The fans would like to see prehaps the last Dream Match and any of those mentioned above vs. Sting would be an awesome Dream Match, especially Sting vs. HHH or The Undertaker.
So, I ask, is/was Sting scared to go to WWE? His complaint before was the fact that he didn't like the content in WWE after the whole merger of WCW went down, along with a few other things. It's been 10 years later (THIS MONTH actually) and yet no sign of Sting anywhere. In 10 years the content has certainly melted away and instead TNA's content is almost how WWE's was 10-12 years ago. Hell, even Goldberg went to WWE, and he's no Sting. Again, do you feel Sting is scared or just complacent now? I doubt we will ever see him in a WWE ring. It's sad. But Sting used to spout off "This is Where The Big Boys Play" in WCW a long time ago. Still feel that way now Sting? Or are you just happy being the biggest BOY instead of a bigger man and stepping foot in front of WWE fans and seeing if you are who we always thought you were?
He is absolutely NOT scared. There's nothing to be scared of, really. The WWE would not bring him in just to bury him. A guy like that would have some creative control, and despite what you might think, Goldberg didn't have it that bad in the WWE. Goldberg went, he wrestled there, didn't like it and left. The end. It doesn't take away from his legacy.
To say he's complacent is an insult to Sting. A legend like Sting could easily sign a one year deal with the WWE and do what Nash is doing right now, only making a hell of a lot more money. He went back to TNA more than likely because he loves the locker room and is familiar with everyone. Did you ever think Sting doesn't want to go through introductions and initiation rites and other such garbage? Think about it: who does Sting know in the WWE? Only Booker, T, Kevin Nash, and Christian. Everyone else is so far removed from his old days that it may not matter much. It's like Brett Favre going to the Jets and Vikings: old established veteran meeting new, young stars and having to establish himself to a new life.
Yeah, there's lots of new guys for Sting to face in the WWE, but he doesn't need to face them. True, as a WWE fan, I'd love to see Sting be Undertaker's 20th victim at Wrestlemania, but I'll get over it if I don't see it.
I think Sting made the right choice. Sting will most likely succeed on TNA rather then in the WWE. Personally I think that Sting would be overlooked if he was in the WWE compared to some of the guys pushed in there. He probably be just another pure talent superstar who is underrated.
Well, he's the TNA World Heavyweight Champion so he obviously made the right choice.
Besides, in TNA, Sting being TNA World Champion makes sense and is very credible. Wasn't the IWC up in arms when Lawler even got a WWE Title shot? Sting can be TNA Champion without backlash, while anyone under 40 winning the belt in the WWE gets criticized like crazy. Sting still apparently has a lot in him, and if I were Sting, I wouldn't go near the WWE until I was nearly done and get the fat paycheck. Sting has more integrity than I do, so we'll see in a year's time.
In the end, Sting wasn't scared and he wasn't complacent. I think Sting has a good life where he is now and why ruin that for the unknowns of the WWE?
