One of the most legendary pro wrestlers is getting ready for his final match before retirement at age 64 after 39 years in the ring.
Before his last big fight with All Elite Wrestling, better known as AEW, let’s look back on his storied career’s highlights and see how he made it to this point.
Steve Borden, better known by his stage name, Sting, started wrestling in 1985 but didn’t start making waves in the industry until 1987, thanks to established superstar Dusty Rhodes.
The following year he challenged Ric Flair for the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship. Later that year, he and Rhodes would challenge the Road Warriors for the tag team championship at Starrcade ‘88.
With some help from Flair, the two of them were able to propel each other into further success throughout the late 1980’s with their feuds and occasional team-ups.
In 1991, Sting became the first wrestler to win the “Battlebowl” at Starrcade ‘91. Throughout the early 90’s, Sting feuded with Vader over the World Championship Wrestling’s World Heavyweight Championship title, before reigniting his feud with Flair.
In 1996 Sting started to transform his image into what we’ve come to expect from him. His colorful and over-the-top Ultimate Warrior-esque appearance shifted to black tights with scorpion designs, along with growing out long dark hair instead of his short blonde cut.
He appeared in an iconic arc, standing up for the WCW against Hulk Hogan’s New World Order—or nWo— when he made his first heel turn in close to 15 years, which in pro-wrestling means to shift from being framed as one of the heroes to being one of the villains. Afterward, an imposter of Sting showed up to back the nWo, which culminated in a frustrated rant from the wrestler and his departure from the WCW for around two years.
When he finally made his return, it was in dramatic and ominous fashion. He started appearing up in the rafters at events with a baseball bat, donning white and black corpse paint, drawing direct inspiration from the film “The Crow.”
Sting teamed up with Macho Man Randy Savage briefly, united against the nWo, before Savage betrayed him and joined Hogan. At Uncensored in 1997, Sting attacked Savage and the nWo, as well as Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman after propelling down from a zip-line.
For a while, he continued to terrorize the nWo by emerging from under the ring or propelling down from the ceiling to attack individual members. All of this turned Sting into a people’s champion, anti-hero figure.
He made his official return to the ring to fight Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship title at Starrcade, but after winning, Hogan weaseled his way back to retaining the title. This caused Sting to speak on the show for the first time since late in 1996, telling the commissioner, “You’ve got no guts!” Then, he threatened Hogan, saying, “And you… you’re a dead man!”
The nWo soon split in half, so naturally, Sting joined the opposing side to Hogan, donning new black and red corpse paint to show his allegiance to the “Wolfpac.”
He moved on from the WCW officially after his contract expired in early 2002, reducing his appearances as he wrestled for NWA and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. His noteworthy feuds during this period of his career were with Jeff Jarrett and Christian Cage. He also teamed up with Booker T sporadically here and there.
Throughout 2010-2011 he once again feuded with Hogan, turning heel this time around, as well as feuding with Jeff Hardy.
Sting made his WWE debut in late 2014 when he attacked Triple H during the main event match of Survivor Series, after which he continued to feud with him up until their match at Wrestlemania.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016. His contract with them ended in 2020, at which point he debuted with their rival company AEW.
In recent years, Sting has had a tag team run with young superstar Darby Allin, appearing in his first fight with a live audience since 2015 in May of 2021. He’s also reignited his classic feud with Christian Cage.
Sting’s final match will take place on March 3 on AEW Revolution with Darby Allin against Matthew and Nicholas Jackson.
