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WWE Hall of Fame News
On his recent podcast, Ric Flair confirmed that he would be inducting Sting to the WWE Hall of Fame. Sting and Flair were rivals for years in the NWA/WCW and it was Flair who Sting defeated to win his first World Heavyweight Title, which transpired at the 1990 Great American Bash. With the possible exception of Lex Luger, it is near impossible to come up with a better inductor for Sting.
Earlier this week, it was also confirmed that Kevin Von Erich will be inducting the Fabulous Freebirds. Kevin, the lone surviving member of the Von Erich Clan, was part of the early 80’s feud between the siblings and the Freebirds, which propelled the World Class territory to huge business.
The Godfather will be inducted by JBL and Ron Simmons, who were longtime road partners of the man known personally as Charles Wright. As JBL has been announced is an inductor, the speculation that JBL will be inducted himself appears to be negated.
Who else will be selected?
A leak had indicated that Regis Philbin will enter in the celebrity wing and Jacqueline will be this year’s female inductee.
We will certainly be watching to see if this will be the case and as always we will have our eyes on this intensely.
Sting named to the WWE Hall of Fame
From Southern California, Steve Borden would break into the business under the guidance of Rick Bassman as part of Power Team U.S.A., which also included Jim Hellwig, who would gain fame as the Ultimate Warrior. Borden and Hellwig would team as the “Blade Runners”, but both would strike out on their own, with Borden, now known as Sting competing in Mid-South, and then later the NWA, when the latter bought out the former.
The NWA would later become WCW, but prior to that name change, Sting would be put on the map with a forty-five minute draw with the then World Heavyweight Champion, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair on the first Clash of the Champions. Sting was now a bona fide star and three years later at the WCW Great American Bash, Sting would defeat Flair for the Heavyweight Championship.
Sting would be a fixture at the top of the card in WCW for the remainder of that promotion’s run, feuding with Lex Luger, Vader and Ric Flair for the championship. As much as Flair was his most common opponent, it was his feud with the New World Order, which would see him generate his most watched match.
Sting would change his look to the “Crow” paint, and would hang around in the rafters, seemingly not sided with WCW, nor the NWO. After sixteen months of not wrestling, Sting successfully challenged Hulk Hogan for the WCW Heavyweight Title at Straccade 1997, which would be the highest ordered pay per view in that company’s history.
Following the fall of WCW, Sting would wrestle for TNA, and it was beginning to appear that he was never going to wrestle a match for the WWE, but this would change when at the age of 56 he went against Triple H at Wrestlemania, and more recently in September, he challenged Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Title, though he would suffer a severe back injury in the match.
The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will take place the night before Wrestlemania in Dallas, Texas.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com will be watching and would like to congratulate Sting for receiving this prestigious honor.
397. Sting
Already in with the Police, Sting had carved a very successful career as a solo artist. Too many fans however, Sting’s solo work went too far down the Adult Contemporary road and lacked a lot of the substance that the Police had. This isn’t to say, that his songwriting as a solo artist was sub par, because it wasn’t. However, it just wasn’t as clever as his previous work, and this is a weird case of being in the shadow of one’s self.
Sting
As of this writing (Spring 2013) Sting is still very much an active competitor in TNA Wrestling, but as he is well into his 50’s, we feel comfortable with ranking him at this time. When it is all said and done, Sting may never wrestle a match under the WWE banner, and though that will disappoint many fans, this is the guy who helped carry World Championship Wrestling in their lean years, and was the good guy opposition against the initial run of the New World Order.
Overall, Sting may very well be one of the greatest babyfaces in wrestling history. More importantly he was able to have great matches with monsters (like Vader), brawlers (like Mick Foley) and technical wonders (like Ric Flair) and though he is respected as a worker, he is very much undervalued. The WWE has inducted performers who did very little in a WWE ring, but never anybody in the current era. Sting will likely be the first.