Who is Better: HBK vs. Sting

[It's Damn Real!]

Easily Shawn Michaels and it's not even close. Simply because he's proven himself in the biggest organization of all, on the grandest stage of them all. All of Sting's accolades have come in secondary organizations such as WCW or TNA. Until you prove yourself in the big times, your accomplishments have to be viewed as less significant.

That's not to say that Sting was not good, because he was (past tense). But he has to have proven it at the highest level against the top pro wrestlers of his era, which he has not. Just like you cannot compare a CFL'er to an NFL player, or a AAA baseball player to a MLB star, or a AHL player to a NHL calibre star, you cannot compare Sting to HBK, you are not comparing apples to apples if you do so.

I question how Sting's legacy would have played out had he come to the WWF/WWE in his heyday and faced the top echelon of his profession, rather than staying in the minor leagues for us all to wonder "what if." Maybe he would have accomplished just as much, maybe even more.

But maybe not, and now we'll never know. So there's no comparison. The Heartbreak Kid in a landslide.

Second-rate? That same company that smashed the WWF for weeks and almost put them out of business, you mean? Yeah, I dunno about that, buddy.

IMO, Sting is bigger, by by a hair. He is far and away the greatest "homegrow" talent any company has ever groomed IMO, and his popularity is unrivaled among wrestling fans as a whole.

If WCW is minor league, as was Sting's career there, what does that say of Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair, Arn Anderson, Vader, Luger, etc? They all minor-league too?

 

[hatehabsforever]

Second-rate? That same company that smashed the WWF for weeks and almost put them out of business, you mean? Yeah, I dunno about that, buddy.

IMO, Sting is bigger, by by a hair. He is far and away the greatest "homegrow" talent any company has ever groomed IMO, and his popularity is unrivaled among wrestling fans as a whole.

If WCW is minor league, as was Sting's career there, what does that say of Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair, Arn Anderson, Vader, Luger, etc? They all minor-league too?

The company that "smashed" WWF for weeks blew their load doing so and soon thereafter were defunct. To say that they nearly put the WWE out of business is a gross overstatement, even though I realize Vince McMahon has publicly said so in the past. I would rather have a company pose a slower and more sustained competition for the WWE, rather than have one succeed for about a year and a half and then cease to exist.

I'm not criticizing Sting, I did state that he was (past tense) very good as well. But if you haven't done it in the WWE, you career accomplishments are not quite as impressive.

And come on now, Hogan's greatest accomplishments were in the WWF. He was a legend in the organization and in the business long before going to WCW. Same can be said for Hall and Nash as well. If there had been no Diesel or Razor Ramon, therre would have been no Hall or Nash to speak of. All of the other names you mentioned (possibly with the exception of Anderson) all had success outside of the WWE, but they all spent significant time there as well and accomplished much while there to pad their resumes. They did perform and excel in the WWF/WWE, so I don't get your point. I said you had to have proven yourself in the WWE to be fully recognized as a legend. I didn't say exclusively, I just said you had to excel in the WWE at some point.

Sting's legacy will always be lessened in my eyes by never having appeared at all in the WWE. He should never belong to their Hall of Fame. And if guys like AJ Styles don't realize this, when it's time for them to hang up their boots, I'll say the same about them.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

The company that "smashed" WWF for weeks blew their load doing so and soon thereafter were defunct. To say that they nearly put the WWE out of business is a gross overstatement, even though I realize Vince McMahon has publicly said so in the past. I would rather have a company pose a slower and more sustained competition for the WWE, rather than have one succeed for about a year and a half and then cease to exist.

I'm not criticizing Sting, I did state that he was (past tense) very good as well. But if you haven't done it in the WWE, you career accomplishments are not quite as impressive.

And come on now, Hogan's greatest accomplishments were in the WWF. He was a legend in the organization and in the business long before going to WCW. Same can be said for Hall and Nash as well. If there had been no Diesel or Razor Ramon, therre would have been no Hall or Nash to speak of. All of the other names you mentioned (possibly with the exception of Anderson) all had success outside of the WWE, but they all spent significant time there as well and accomplished much while there to pad their resumes. They did perform and excel in the WWF/WWE, so I don't get your point. I said you had to have proven yourself in the WWE to be fully recognized as a legend. I didn't say exclusively, I just said you had to excel in the WWE at some point.

Sting's legacy will always be lessened in my eyes by never having appeared at all in the WWE. He should never belong to their Hall of Fame. And if guys like AJ Styles don't realize this, when it's time for them to hang up their boots, I'll say the same about them.

So guys like Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, and Curt Hennig who never won a world title in the WWE are better than Sting who has won numerous world titles and was the face of a company that was beating the WWE week in and week out?

 

[hatehabsforever]

So guys like Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, and Curt Hennig who never won a world title in the WWE are better than Sting who has won numerous world titles and was the face of a company that was beating the WWE week in and week out?

I cannot understand why when someone posts something in these forums, guys feel a need to misquote people and to put words in their mouths that they didn't say.

Did I say that guys like Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, or Curt Hennig were better than Sting? No I did not. Did I say that Sting was anything other than an excellent wrestler? No, I didn't say that either. In fact I said on several occasions that I think Sting was a very accomplished wrestler.

I am not suggesting that every wrestler who ever participated in the WWF/WWE was better than Sting because they were in the WWE and Sting was not. That is not what I am saying at all. I'm not saying that Hennig, DiBiase, or Roberts were better than Sting. I'm not saying that the Brooklyn Brawler was better than Sting simply because he wrestled in WWF.

The question was who was better, Sting or HBK, to which I responded that HBK was better and that his legacy will be more significant because he did what he did in the WWE rather than in the minor leagues. If I were to compare Sting to any of the WWE's more notable big names I'd say the same thing. Undertaker, Triple H, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, upper echelon guys like this who have experienced success in WWE, I'd give the nod to any of them over Sting for the reasons stated. Not secondary guys as you suggest.

If you're going to argue with me, that's great, I am actually enjoying discussing this with yourself and IDR, you're both excellent posters. But don't put words in my mouth that are clearly untrue and which I didn't say.

 

[Reddannihilation]

The question was who was better, Sting or HBK, to which I responded that HBK was better and that his legacy will be more significant because he did what he did in the WWE rather than in the minor leagues.

My God you are a Vince mark. Please explain to me how WCW and the NWA were the minor leagues in the 80's and 90's?

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Shawn Michaels is truly the showstopper- I can only think of Kurt, AJ and Punk as rivalling his consistency in recent years (I'm sure there is more guys in RoH, the indies, Japan & Mexico, but I only have exposure to WWe & TNA).

However, to quantify my feelings on this topic- I'm going to pick the period the two boys were going head-to-head in the big two 1988-1998. For eight years of this period NWA/WCW was regarded as the poorer relative to the 'bully boy' WWF.

Despite this Sting still accomplished 8 individual PWI rewards (ie fans voted for Sting alone, as opposed to a feud or match, where credit must be shared). Over the same period Shawn had 3. (On a side note they shared Most Popular Wrestler between them for all but one year of the '91-'97 period).

Also during this period there was no reports of Sting throwing his rattle out of the pram as his buddies were jumping to Vince and WWF's older stars like Hogan and Savage were coming in to steal his thunder. Shawn was a complete brat- between the infamous curtain call to wearing nWo Ts when not allowed to jump ship with the cliq to taking sabaticals when a job was required to his well reported attitude ('F you, I'm Shawn Michaels').

My third and final reason for picking the Stinger is that he successfully did one thing Shawn never managed, he reinvented himself... from the moment Shawn threw Marty through that Barber Shop Window, until that final thumb across his throat, he was the cocky brash sexy boy (the Rockers where vanilla wrestlers). Sting was getting to an age that surfer dude didn't suit so the predatory Sting was born (and won his final Most Popular in the process).

In short Shawn might've (and did on 4 occasions) won match of the year but which guy was MVP? Sorry Hickenbottomers but Sting was the rock WCW was built on- it's just a pity the architects and the renovators ballsed up such a good base!