Anyone else kinda bummed by watered-down Sting?

[Lionheart]

Does anybody else think that Sting's character has been kind of undercut by showing him without the face paint so many times and giving us glimpses of his life with his family and everything?

I mean, he's not this mysterious gothic warrior anymore, he's just an average guy who wears face paint for some reason when he wrestles.

I understand the entire angle when he came back was that Jarret and his lackeys wouldn't just leave him alone and let him live a normal life, but now it's like they're doing it all over again with Kurt, and it's kinda watered down his mystique, you know?

This isn't a "crap on TNA" thead, really it's not. But does anybody else feel this way?

[thestinger]

As a Sting mark, I don't really mind it TOO much. My problem is that Sting is never the aggressor in his TNA feuds. He's always getting jumped, and savagely beaten.

So many impact segments have ended with Sting getting the hell beaten out of him.

He was most over in WCW, when he was considered a total lunatic, who would come out of nowhere, feared absolutely no one and guy who did the ambushing, as opposed to the guy who can't go three minutes without GETTING ambushed.

I thought this would change a few weeks ago. I LOVED the segment where Nash warned Angle, "No, you don't want to piss off Sting -- once he goes off the deep end there's no stopping him!"

But last night, instead of Kurt and Karen jumping at shadows, nervously waiting for Sting to appear from nowhere, Kurt has the upper hand in the feud as usual. Kurt even MENTIONS that this Sting isn't the same one who had the nWo running scared!

[erisi236]

It does seem weird that he's "Steve" sometimes and "Sting" at other times, he should always be "Sting" dammit.

[-Lithium-]

Sting has never been the same since he joined The Wolfpac...

[The Ichi]

Eh, they did the same with Undertaker and he recovered from it.

[zombrad]

He was a regular guy who wore face paint for some reason before he was the "gothic warrior".

He's pretty much old sting disguised as Crow Sting.

[Mongo & Pepe: Back in Black]

Even back in the '80s, Sting frequently did promos without wearing facepaint. He would always wear sunglasses when he wasn't wearing the paint.

[zombrad]

Sting appeared on Nitro during the "powers that be" years without paint. I think it may have been the first Nitro that Russo and Ferrera were there. Sting was pissed because, I think, he lost the title, so came out called out JJ Dillon, and then put him in a scorpion deathlock. It was pretty badass.

[@TenaciousBe]

I miss the old Sting too, but the old Sting wouldn't have ever happened had it not been for the NWO. Not that he couldn't have played that character, but it was "Sting vs. the NWO" that made the character what it was. Now that there's no big evil faction to go up against, he's just... there.

And great point about ambusher vs. ambushee -- Sting needs to be on the top of these things to make it work.

I still mark for the guy, he's my favorite of all time, but I, too, miss the old Sting.

[zombrad]

I miss Crow Sting too. I wished he had went back to it when he was feuding with Vampire in 2000. I hated that Vampiro kept one upping him. I hate that he constantly gets ambushed now, but I've gotten used to it from the Vampiro feud. Atleast Sting's doing what Hogan couldn't and putting younger guys over.

[AriadosMan]

I'm not bummed about occasionally seeing him without makeup. I am VERY bummed when his own peripheral family who have nothing to do with pro wrestling somehow become the focus of a two-hour show.


The only way those skits could have been cheesier last night is if they had made Pedo Kurt* wear a moustache and a monacle for the full Snidely Whiplash effect.

*I know he's not really a perv, but those segments with him stalking Sting's son made him look like one.