He was the Golden Boy of WCW, who became its dark defender. The face of an industry and loyal to the company right up until its demise. A legend, a hero, an Icon; he is the Man called Sting! Steve “Sting” Borden earlier this week was named as the first entrant into the WWE Hall of Fame 2016 class. Now we can debate whether or not he should be in the “WWE”  Hall of Fame – actually we already discuss it here –  but there is no denying the indelible footprint he leaves behind in the history of Sports Entertainment. So PCU’s top Wrestling Writers decided to come together and present to you what we felt as Sting’s  most Iconic Matches.

 

Ben’s Pick:

Sting vs Ric Flair: Clash of Champions I – March 27, 1988

This match was, arguably, the arrival of Sting. Yes, he had been around and had matches and other angles, but this is where he planted both of his feet in the main event and really didn’t leave again.

Flair was riding high in his 5th World title reign then along comes this young, chiseled upstart with a blond wannabe-flattop, brightly painted face and bucket and buckets of charisma, add into this JJ Dillon being suspended in a cage during the match so that he could not interfere with the match and you have a hell of a set up.

Sting and Flair stepped between the ropes that night and something magical happened. To try and put it into words is pointless, but what you can say is Sting was made a star as he stepped into a ring with The Nature Boy and hung with him to a 45 minute draw, which came down to a panel of celebrity judges at ringside (that my now cynical self would have seen as a telltale sign we would have been going broadway.)

But that night Sting began his journey to become the Icon and Flair/Sting became one of wrestling’s longest, best and most profitable feuds of all time.

 

Brett’s Pick:

Sting vs “Hollywood” Hogan: WCW Starrcade 1997 – December 28, 1997

While this isn’t the best technical match Sting had, the build up and story might be the most important. After the New World Order took over in the summer of 1996, WCW was more or less at their mercy. The like of Lex Luger, Roddy Piper, and DDP were more or less falling short on getting the upper hand on the NWO and their leader “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan. But WCW had a savior. After descending from the rafters at Souled Out 1997, Sting gave WCW a face to rally behind, and build up, arguably, WCW’s biggest match of all time. The match itself isn’t anything to write home about; Sting looks miles ahead in-ring work compared to Hogan, and there is some weirdness with the newly debuted Bret Hart. However, the feeling of this match is absolutely electric, with Sting coming out on top the WCW finally got the upper hand on the NWO, and the crowd went nuts. There’s also the fact that Sting gained the crowd’s support, when the cool thing to do at the time was cheering the villainous NWO. The new “Crow” inspired Sting gave that late 90s crowd that fell in love with anti-heroes like Stone Cold Steve Austin a true hero that was cool to be cheering. Sting remade himself here and a lot of fans know him more for this than the epic matches he had with Flair in the earlier part of the decade.

 

Mansa’s Pick:

Sting vs. Flair: WCW Monday Nitro – March 26, 2001

Ok, before getting into this match some background is needed: this was the last episode of Monday Nitro, the WCW had over the weekend been purchased by Vince McMahon.  So the fates of all of the WCW talent were in jeopardy. All previous story lines went out the window as Ric Flair come to the ring to call out Sting for one last match. Sting and Flair’s rivalry was one of the most Historic Rivalries in wrestling and was a cornerstone in the WCW lineage. Sting, of course, accepted. What made this match so Iconic was the idea that this was probably the last time Sting would face Flair so each wrestler put their heart into the match.

It was glorious as Flair looked like he was having fun in the ring again. For weeks Ric Flair looked burnt out on Nitro but this match rejuvenated him. Sting, though clad in his black and white face paint of the dark avenger, in this match became the Sting of old returning to the Golden Boy persona in action within the ring. It was a great match with Sting picking up the victory over Flair (of course) and culminated with a hug at the end. It solidified to the fans and even the wrestlers that the era of WCW had truly ended. Yet, this one last hurrah was just for the fans to remember what came before and to give everyone closure with the feud and the company itself.

 

These are our picks for Sting’s most iconic matches, whether you agree or disagree let us know in the comments. If you want to watch any of these wonderful matches and more from Sting’s illustrious career you can catch them on the WWE Network.

Image courtesy of WWE.