STING SPEAKS
A Career Remembered Through PWI’s Pages
Forty years. Two-dozen championships.
Countless words about him in wrestling magazines.
“The Icon” reflects on a career well-spent.
TEXT BY COLETTE ARRAND
AS ONE OF THE MOST widely respected wrestlers of the “PWI Years”—1979 to the present—Sting has earned every bit of coverage in this publication and others like it. Leading up to his announced retirement at All Elite Wrestling’s Revolution 2024, it made perfect sense to revisit some of the highlights of his legendary career by way of coverage in this very magazine. And so, we are pleased to present this conversation with the 2023 Stanley Weston Award winner, the 12-time world heavyweight champion, “The Icon” himself … Sting.
ARRAND: Your first appearance on the cover of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was the “Supercards ’88” issue, after winning the third annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tournament with Lex Luger. You’re known as a singles wrestler, but especially now that your career is concluding with a stellar run as Darby Allin’s partner, it feels as if tag wrestling serves as a bookend to the story of your life in professional wrestling.
STING: Until this last stint with AEW, tag wrestling was pretty much a part-time thing for me. I did have the Crockett Cup and matches like the one Lex and I had against the Steiner Brothers at the first SuperBrawl, which was tag match of the year. I started out with Jim Hellwig, who later became The Ultimate Warrior, and we were a tag team, with Eddie Gilbert as our manager. I thought I was going to be a tag team wrestler throughout my whole career. It wasn’t until I finally ended up in the NWA, where Dusty Rhodes wanted to put me with Ric Flair, that I really started out as a singles wrestler. I’m grateful for those teams, but I never thought that I’d be here all these years later finishing as a tag team wrestler—it’s a very cool thing.
ARRAND: When it comes to Allin, how do you think your association with him will mark both of your legacies? Would you classify your relationship as a kind of mentorship, or as being something of kindred spirits?
STING: I hope, for Darby, that he’ll be remembered for being in a tag team with Sting, one of the veterans who pretty much did everything under the sun in wrestling for so many different wrestling organizations. And that was the goal, to try to elevate him, but I’m telling you, he elevated me. It went both ways. And I want to be remembered for this time as Darby’s tag team partner, for sure. I don’t know if we’re kindred spirits, per se, but we have a lot in common in the wrestling world, with how our careers started. We didn’t have a way to get into wrestling. We didn’t have an uncle or a father or a friend; we both slept in our cars, and that was our address. We both know what it’s like to get the tiny little payoffs and pretty much starve out there while making a name for yourself. And then there’s what we have in common, like the painted face and the willingness to take risks. Darby blows me out of the water, but I was one of the first guys my size to take running dives over the top rope and to the floor.
ARRAND: You’re in what is perhaps the most fascinating stage of a career that’s been characterized by change, from Surfer Sting to Crow Sting to TNA and WWE, and now AEW, with the later half of your career in particular marked by your ability to figure out how the legend of Sting fits into the current wrestling landscape. Relatively little of that has relied on straight-up playing to nostalgia, like reappearing in Surfer Sting regalia. Has that been a conscious decision?
STING: Oh, I could never pull that off again. There’s just no way. I did an appearance for somebody a few years ago and they really wanted me to do the surfer paint, you know? “Do you still have the jacket you wore against Flair? The 1980s blue tights?” I tried to say no, but he kept at it until I said alright and tried it. But it felt ridiculous. Fans love it, but I can’t do it justice, and I wouldn’t want fans to remember me trying and failing to be a version of myself from 35 years ago.
ARRAND: The April 1992 cover of PWI predicted that you’d end Lex Luger’s reign as WCW World heavyweight champion, saying that your forecast was “bright and sunny.” They were right about the title, but those years also featured some of your most famous feuds outside of your long-running one against Flair—against the likes of Cactus Jack, Vader, and the Dangerous Alliance, when you were the franchise star of the company, right up until Hulk Hogan’s arrival in 1994. What from that period are you particularly fond of?
STING: The matches against Vader always come up at autograph sessions and when people recognize me in public, more than almost anyone. I loved working with Rick Rude at that time, too, and The Great Muta. It was really the beginning stages of me coming into my own, doing the main events after I had my run with Flair, seeing if I could draw money and TV ratings with other people. To be the figurehead back then was rough, but the work ethic it required is one of the reasons for my longevity.
ARRAND: Speaking of Hogan, your 1996- 1997 feud against him culminated in the Starrcade 1997 match PWI billed as “The Match Of The Century.” It was something of a singular moment in pop culture. In retrospect, a lot of the shine of that era goes to the Steve Austin/ Vince McMahon feud happening in the WWF, but Sting chasing Hulk Hogan was a ratings juggernaut for a reason. What was it like being at the center of one of wrestling’s hottest angles of all-time while it was happening?
STING: It was amazing then and it’s amazing to think about now, because we were the second-class citizens of wrestling. I’ve always talked about that, and how much it sucked, but then we had Monday Nitro launch with Lex Luger showing up. Then, we had (Scott) Hall and (Kevin) Nash show up, then Hulk’s character changed and my character changed, and all of the sudden we’re #1, almost putting WWE out of business. It’s amazing to think that I was an integral part of that. Kudos to what Steve Austin did over there, but what WCW did was just as big—it took two different companies with entirely different approaches to do that.
ARRAND: Over the course of your career, you consistently took on a leadership role for promotions perceived as the underdog against the WWE juggernaut: WCW, TNA, and AEW. Who do you see carrying that torch into the future?
STING: I’ve been saying it for three years, since I started with AEW, but, to me, it’s Darby Allin. He has a mind for this business, not just for himself. So much of what we’ve done together started as Darby’s idea—he pitches and produces the videos we do, for example. He has the work ethic and the creative mind, and he cares about what wrestling fans think. He never goes out there and dogs it, he’s the kind of guy who would go balls to the wall even if the house wasn’t that good. And I’m not just saying that as his partner. He has great leadership ability, no fear, and a lot of compassion.
ARRAND: I think a lot of wrestling fans expected that you’d maybe wrestle Allin one-on-one, but that never panned out. If you were to have had a singles match during your AEW run, who would you have wanted to wrestle against?
STING: A lot of wrestling fans thought for sure that Darby was going to turn on me, or that I was going to turn on him! But you know, I would have loved to have had a match against Kenny Omega. Kenny is legitimate world champ material. Obviously, he’s been AEW World champion, but, to me, sometimes how good he is goes underappreciated because he’s never been with WWE; some people think he doesn’t deserve his accolades. But he is one of the best all-around world heavyweight champions I’ve ever seen, one of the best in the wrestling industry. And then there are some of the new guys coming up, the big guys—thinking about my matches with Vader—what a talent a guy like Big Bill is. He’s got the goods. He’s got the fire. Satnam (Singh) is another one. He moves really, really good, but you’ve got to utilize guys like him ASAP because big men don’t last as long, unfortunately. Let’s try to get as much as we can out of him while he’s young.
ARRAND: Why end your career now?
STING: It’s funny, because I was the guy who did not want to get into pro wrestling. I didn’t even know what pro wrestling was when I got started. But I ended up being a pro wrestler, and at the beginning, I was an introvert, the last guy that you’d want to get up there and entertain in front of hordes of people. But it blossomed into what it blossomed into. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed the fans and cannot thank them enough. But after all of these years, having walked through the curtain thousands of times, I’m still a nervous wreck when I go out there, and it gets pretty overwhelming to try to perform at a high level at my age, even in a short match, even if it’s a six- or eight-man tag. Tony (Khan) was actually trying to get me to stay longer, maybe retire at Wembley. But it gets tougher and tougher every time you go out there, and you have all of these young guys who are ready to play—there’s only so far you can push it. It’s kind of sad, of course, but, at some point, you just have to do it. There’s a part of me that’s sad, but there’s another part of me that’s relieved. It’s bittersweet, but I’m looking forward to it.
This interview was first published in the May 2024 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine, available in stores beginning Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Individual print and digital copies can also be purchased here.
