There’s no such factor as a simple goodbye — particularly when you recognize it’s ceaselessly. As Sting stood in the course of the ring, face paint half-worn off, doing his finest to carry again tears, wrestling followers who acquired to witness the legend’s closing match got here to the belief that this wasn’t simply the shut of a performer’s profession, however the finish of an period.
Wrestlers hardly ever get the ship off they deserve. Tragically it’s a sport too typically concluding with an athlete’s downward spiral, moderately than going out on prime. A sport the place good guys hardly ever end first — and but, Sting managed get the proper retirement, within the excellent place, on the excellent time, surrounded by those that matter to him probably the most. Flanked by his two grownup sons, his tag crew accomplice in Darby Allin, who Sting was tasked with mentoring, and your complete AEW roster standing on the stage applauding him, Sting thanked the followers in Greensboro, North Carolina for supporting a profession spanning 39 years.
The true story of Sting isn’t the unimaginable matches, or the industry-defining moments — however by what was absent in that 39-year profession. No one, at any level of the wrestler’s time in NWA, WCW, TNA, WWE, or AEW had a single unhealthy factor to say in regards to the man below the paint, Steve Borden.
Sting was the wrestling fan’s wrestler. He by no means managed to crack the mainstream to the extent of different legendary wrestlers of his period. Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Stone Chilly Steve Austin, The Rock — guys whose names are recognized world over. Not Sting, and this was by design. Each time there was a alternative between precept and private glory, Sting selected the previous.
In so some ways Sting got here to be a mirrored image of his most notable run, descending from the rafters to tackle the nWo throughout WCW’s largest growth interval within the late 90s. The stalwart hero, the defender in opposition to the chances. Not simply in opposition to a faction pretending to tear an organization aside, however desperately swimming in opposition to a tide in wrestling which mandated that to get to the highest you needed to put ruthlessness over all the things else. The place athletes would typically throw anybody of their method below the bus to climb the ladder, taking part in backstage politics to curry favor.
Steve Borden didn’t do that. When the selection got here all the way down to going to WWE, the corporate that killed WCW, or strolling away — he walked. Fame ready for him if he wished it, as a substitute the wrestler determined to take a two 12 months break and be a part of TNA, to put in writing his subsequent wrestling chapter by serving to to construct up a rival firm.
It’s unclear what would have occurred if Sting took a distinct path. Former WCW stars who joined WWE had combined outcomes. Booker T managed to climate the storm, however predominantly the celebs of WCW had been become jokes as a closing twist of the knife by Vince McMahon over the corporate he defeated. Maybe Sting would have prevailed, and develop into a star on-par with The Rock or Austin, however we’ll by no means know as a result of he selected his personal path.
Did Borden have his demons? Definitely. He was open about his abuse of anabolic steroids and his substance abuse points within the Nineteen Eighties, however discovered peace although his religion and making amends together with his household within the late Nineteen Nineties. The subsequent 20 years had been dominated by fixing errors, whereas additionally approaching the wrestling enterprise his method, the Sting method, and that was with final respect for the artwork {of professional} wrestling — even when that meant taking a private hit due to it.
No one knew what we had been in for when Sting arrived in AEW for his career-ending run in 2020. Logic tells us {that a} 60-year-old man shouldn’t be capable of carry out at a excessive stage, and initially the sensation was that he can be in a mentorship position — and whereas that definitely occurred, Sting additionally managed to beat again father time with a baseball bat, throwing himself via tables, capturing a crowd, and searching like he’d barely misplaced a step over 30+ years or wrestling.
A timeless, ageless surprise, Sting redefined what a closing run in wrestling might seem like. A profession that closed with a bang, not a whimper. Not solely did Sting handle to get all his flowers over his three-plus 12 months run in AEW, however propelled his protege Darby Allin to new heights, now leaving the corporate with the 31-year-old Allin ready to hold his mantle.
“You’ve nonetheless acquired it!” echoed off the partitions of the Greensboro Coliseum as Sting thanked AEW for his closing run. It wasn’t lip service. It wasn’t a hole chant. Followers simply witnessed a 64-year-old man get suplexed off a stage via a desk, thrown via plate glass, hit with a baseball bat — and nonetheless managed to inform a narrative of preventing adversity to win his personal method.
I’d wish to hope we might see this once more. That we would see somebody defy the minimize throat world of wrestling to win whereas being a genuinely great particular person to everybody round them. I’d wish to imagine it’s attainable for the good man to complete first. If it does occur it is going to be as a result of the brand new technology of wrestlers noticed Sting lead by instance. Witnessed first hand as he linked with the gang, acquired his slice of fame, however by no means needed to compromise his morals to realize it. Is it the straightforward method? No, however nothing Steve Borden ever did was about reaching issues the straightforward method. The subsequent technology of wrestling is unsure, however one factor is chiseled in stone:
There’ll by no means, ever be one other Sting.
