Stings lack of evolution post wcw!

[The Gaffer]

37 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

He's a old man who shows up part time. He's not meant to be innovative. He's meant to look close to how he looked when he was most over. People want to see KISS breathing fire and spitting blood in those 1970s outfits. They dont want to see them doing the can-can in tracksuit bottoms.

This sums it up. 

Sting's not on that much. Not even in retrospect. He doesn't get that Rolls-Royce Network treatment. I'm pretty much always happy to see him come out doing the Sting thing. 

On the subject of that Nitro book, it was interesting to read in it that part of the booking uncertainty in the hours before Starrcade 97 allegedly had to do with Sting not exactly showing up in the best of shape. I'd never really noticed it watching before (it's been years) because of how crap everything else is in that match. He's managed to keep his dark days under pretty respectful wraps. You end up landing on Christian news websites trying to hear a word from him on it. 

I mean, unless you're counting the video of him in the room with Hawk and Luger doing blow. Which I can only find linked via Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/7ss4fm/road_warrior_hawk_doing_cocaine_with_sting_and/

Edited December 8, 2020 by Gay as FOOK

[Your Fight Site]

I don’t really understand this thread. Sting could have been a billionaire if he had changed his face paint (apart from the times he did)…? OK, then.

Sting’s had a pretty cushy career, all things considered. I’m a huge Sting fan, but showing up in AEW last week it’s kinda amazing that he’s probably a multimillionaire from a career of being top dog in second-place wrestling promotions.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

So basically he wasn't reinventing himself when he wasn't wrestling?

Nah come on. I don't Sting is that guilty to be honest.

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 hours ago, JakeRobertsParoleOfficer said:

That was my point. 

Did his lack of "oopmh" in that dept cost him a big wwf Contract earlier? 

All those other changes lasted a very short time, either 1 event or a couple of months at most... In 23 years! 

At the least it must have hurt merchandising, fan interest and potential options. 

 

 

 

No

[Chili]

So what was Sting's deal at the time. Problems with the pills? I've never heard a word about this.

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 minutes ago, Chili said:

So what was Sting's deal at the time. Problems with the pills? I've never heard a word about this.

Painkillers. I believe it’s discussed in his own movie 

 

[DavidB6937]

If anything needs reinventing it's this topic.

[Guest]

On the microphone at least I found Sting improved post-WCW. Granted, there wasn't a lot to judge him on while silently stalking the nWo, but in TNA he was (for me) one of the most engaging speakers in wrestling at the time. No particular standout promos but he lent excitement to any angle he was working with.

9 hours ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

People dont want to see KISS doing the can-can in tracksuit bottoms.

Speak for yourself.

[AVM]

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I'm feeling lazy.. How has Sting and his employers over the years been able to get away with riding so close to the Crow I.P.?

[The Gaffer]

25 minutes ago, AVM said:

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I'm feeling lazy.. How has Sting and his employers over the years been able to get away with riding so close to the Crow I.P.?

There's huge artistic license in inspiration, I imagine, as long as you're not using specific trademarks. 

Think of the amount of metal bands rocking corpse paint and inverted pentagrams in their stage backdrops. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Gay as FOOK

[Tommy!]

My understanding was always that they never said or claimed any relationship to the crow, it's only fans who do that, so it's on the owner of the crow as an IP to 1st prove they have exclusive rights to profit from the character and 2nd that sting and or wcw was profiting directly from people based on that character or that sting is causing direct confusion in a shared market for the average consumer. 

The costs involved in trying a claim from Turner wouldn't have been worth the effort and sting himself wouldn't be financially viable. 

[The Cutting Edge]

Sting look is so simple he could shake it up more but there really hasn't been a need and don't think he's too interested at this stage, and can you imagine the backlash if anything about his image changed when he went to WWE.

His merch pretty designs itself these days too "black and white face, baseball bat, scorpion" unless you're an AEW/prowresltingtees super mark that think they've done something super creative despite TNA and WWE doing almost same designs for past 15yrs 

[unfitfinlay]

11 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

This sums it up. 

Sting's not on that much. Not even in retrospect. He doesn't get that Rolls-Royce Network treatment. I'm pretty much always happy to see him come out doing the Sting thing. 

On the subject of that Nitro book, it was interesting to read in it that part of the booking uncertainty in the hours before Starrcade 97 allegedly had to do with Sting not exactly showing up in the best of shape. I'd never really noticed it watching before (it's been years) because of how crap everything else is in that match. He's managed to keep his dark days under pretty respectful wraps. You end up landing on Christian news websites trying to hear a word from him on it. 

Bischoff talks about that on 83 Weeks all the time. They even sell a T-Shirt based on it. 

He doesn't go into much detail about what Sting's issues actually were but it doesn't come across like it was a drug problem. It was more that he was literally out of shape. He hadn't wrestled in years, hadn't been going to the gym, wasn't tanned and generally didn't look like he was" mentally ready" to carry the company

Of course that reasoning kind of lacks credibility since they still put the title on him and gave him a run. They just decided to cut his balls off first, and took Bret's too just for good measure.

1 hour ago, AVM said:

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I'm feeling lazy.. How has Sting and his employers over the years been able to get away with riding so close to the Crow I.P.?

Depends on the company. A lot of them just don't give a shit. Konnan got his name off Conan The Barbarian, and even used the full name in Mexico, but the only time he heard anything about it was when he tried to trademark it. Even then he just got told not to take the piss.

Plus, as Tommy said, it would also have involved a long, costly, legal battle against Turner that they might not have won. Sting was obviously inspired by The Crow but there's enough unique characteristics (the baseball bat, the scorpion motif, not talking, descending to the ring from the roof, etc) to argue that it was a distinct character in it's own right.

[Tommy!]

31 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

Of course that reasoning kind of lacks credibility since they still put the title on him and gave him a run

They never planned to give sting a run in any real terms, just the belt. Nash was pushing for the main focus from Jan 98 to be an internal nWo war between him & hogan. Hogan said it wasn't the right time, let sting be the man brother, before starting it himself with Savage.

No one was looking at long term booking plans for sting past Starrcade even before the event, it was all about hogan, Nash and the NWO still. They had to put the belt on him but it was always a short term thing in the minds of anyone with booking clout. 

The myth of sting isn't really as written either as I've understood, they planned to have him back in ring around Uncensored by some accountants but saw more money to be milked from Piper. It was only past that point they decided to hold back to Starrcade. It was for the best, as Uncensored smoked wrestlemania and Starrcade was their biggest buy rate, but that wasn't the plan when they started in mid 96.

I've seen the Nitro book mentioned a few times, I assume it's well worth picking up? 

[Liam O'Rourke]

55 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

Bischoff talks about that on 83 Weeks all the time. They even sell a T-Shirt based on it. 

He doesn't go into much detail about what Sting's issues actually were but it doesn't come across like it was a drug problem. It was more that he was literally out of shape. He hadn't wrestled in years, hadn't been going to the gym, wasn't tanned and generally didn't look like he was" mentally ready" to carry the company

Of course that reasoning kind of lacks credibility since they still put the title on him and gave him a run. They just decided to cut his balls off first, and took Bret's too just for good measure.

Depends on the company. A lot of them just don't give a shit. Konnan got his name off Conan The Barbarian, and even used the full name in Mexico, but the only time he heard anything about it was when he tried to trademark it. Even then he just got told not to take the piss.

Plus, as Tommy said, it would also have involved a long, costly, legal battle against Turner that they might not have won. Sting was obviously inspired by The Crow but there's enough unique characteristics (the baseball bat, the scorpion motif, not talking, descending to the ring from the roof, etc) to argue that it was a distinct character in it's own right.

Yeah, hopefully nobody falls for any of that bollocks. They were looking for reasons not to veer away from Hogan. That's all it is.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Liam O'Rourke