A look at Sting’s road to the WWE Hall of Fame

WWE officially announced today that Sting will headline its 2016 Hall of Fame Class to be inducted Wrestlemania weekend in Dallas, TX. He was expected to be the lead inductee this year given he lives near Dallas and that the timing worked out.

Steve “Sting” Borden was one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling during the 1990s with WCW, where he was a six-time WCW world champion and two time International world champion.  He was also a two-time NWA champion and four time TNA champion.

Borden started his career working for Jerry Jarrett in late 1985 after only a few weeks of training under Red Bastien and Billy Anderson, as Power Team USA. He was discovered working in a Southern California gym by Rick Bassman, who was trying to put together a group of bodybuilders to capitalize on the popularity of the Road Warriors. Borden and Jim Hellwig, who became the Ultimate Warrior, left the camp and Bassman on their own after sending photos to all the different promotions.  Only Jarrett responded, but the team only lasted a few weeks before Jarrett got rid of them.

Bill Watts hired the two based on potential.  Watts had trouble with Hellwig, who quit and went to work for World Class wrestling, and then found his way to WWF.  Sting started as a heel and was put under the wing of Eddie Gilbert, who turned him face just as the UWF was being sold to Jim Crockett Promotions.  Most of the UWF talent got buried, but Sting was kept on as a prelim guy, who started gaining popularity.

His star exploded in one night when he was booked to do a 45 minute draw with Ric Flair on the first Clash of the Champions in 1988.  From that day on, he was always considered a major star, and when Crockett Promotions told to Turner Broadcasting in 1989, Sting was considered the heir apparent as the company’s top star after Flair. The decision was to change the title in February 1990, ironically, on Flair’s 41st birthday in Greensboro. However, Sting suffered a bad knee injury in an angle building up the match, and the title change was moved to Baltimore and the Great American Bash that summer.

He remained as a top star with WCW until the promotion closed.  He retired after not making a deal with WWF, but then came back for a lucrative deal with TNA.  He agreed to come in 2006 and every year, he expected it to be his last. And every year, Dixie Carter offered him a new deal and he remained with the company until his last contract expired in early 2014.  At that point, TNA could no longer afford him, and he opened up talks with WWE, later debuting at the 2014 Survivor Series in the show-closing angle.

Sting wrestled a few matches with WWE until suffering a neck injury at the 2015 Night of Champions after taking a power bomb into the turnbuckles in a match with then-World Champion Seth Rollins.  He noted when talking with Ric Flair that he requires neck surgery, although has not gotten surgery yet.

He is also a TNA Hall-of-Famer.