I feel like Sting is dragging Darby down.

[Deleted]

I mean, it was a cool way to give him a rub in the short term, but after several months of it it just feels like it's completely undercutting your cool edgy loner to have him continually hanging out with his grandpa for no real reason. It's just not the kind of act meant for having someone constantly hanging around him.

[Harry The Arrow was Wrong!]

I love Sting but I completely agree. Darby hanging out with him really doesn't work anymore. Like you said, it was cool at first but it's time to move on. It honestly doesn't feel natural seeing Sting with him.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Yup, agreed. It's something that everyone saw coming, and Sting being the guy who clears out outside interference is a decent role for him, but it's really not clicking with Darby. Sting just steals the spotlight every time he and Darby are together.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

The natural parting point I think was after the cinematic match, unless they want to do a Darby/Sting match.

If there weren't so many stables already I could see a thing with Sting, Darby, Lance Archer and maybe some other weirdos.

[Deleted]

Agreed. He feels like way less of a star than he did pre-Sting. Michael Cole would call him Sting's buddy.

The interminable Tazz feud didn't do anyone any favors either. God that sucked and it sucked for so long.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

They've kinda been drifting apart naturally imo. Sting's focusing on Lance, Darby's been focusing on his title. Sting's kind of becoming more involved with Dark Order lately than he is Darby. There's simply a lot going on where Darby and Sting haven't been shackled together for the betterment of both characters. Don't see the "Little buddy" thing or the "Robbing him of star power" thing as others have said in this thread. When everyone saw them together something clicked, I don't think that's gone away.

[Deleted]

I like the pairing but I think they'd be better served by having Sting take more of an obvious mentor role to Darby, like Taz with Team Taz or Tully with The Pinnacle. Also, we need way more "Sting appearing in Darby's art school video packages" and way less "Sting's interview with Tony Schiavone is interrupted for the millionth time."

[Deleted]

I think it's obvious at this point that Sting must have signed a really big money contract and they feel the need to justify that by putting him on TV every week but it really would be best for all concerned if he was more of a special attraction. TNA actually used him well in that regard. They used him sparingly enough that he felt special but he also never felt like a complete outsider like Brock Lesnar in WWE showing up 2-3 years a year.

He signed a multi-year contract too. I'm not even sure what they can do with him for all that time if they keep using him every week. He said that cinematic match he had recently took a lot of out of him physically and I recall Undertaker saying the same about the boneyard match. I think a lot of us thought at first that these cinematic matches would be great for extending the careers of older wrestlers but maybe that's not quite the case. If you're broken down you're broken down and if anything in those matches you probably take more bumps when you're filming multiple takes of certain things to get it perfect.

[kingoftheindies]

I dont think he is dragging him down its just kind of like oh yeah Sting and Darby are alliea

[The Trashman]

It doesn't help that they keep doing the stupid thing where they announce an interview with Sting, have Tony do the "It's Sting!!!!" and then never let him really talk. He should be cutting promos as vignettes every time.

[bog]

Yeah totally agree. They seem like they're going in different directions now but Sting just hanging around him for no other reason than "hey I like that guy he wears facepaint in the rafters" is lame.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Apr 9, 2021 18:25:47 GMT -5 bog said:

Yeah totally agree. They seem like they're going in different directions now but Sting just hanging around him for no other reason than "hey I like that guy he wears facepaint in the rafters" is lame.

Sting's trying to mentor him, and judging how he talked to Archer it's not just Darby, he just wants them to succeed and maybe do things better than he did.

[mrbananagrabber]

I genuinely don’t know what the f*** they’re going to do with Sting in this “multi year” signing.

[Hurbster]

I'm guessing that Sting is just in shock that no one has betrayed him.

[Deleted]

Apr 9, 2021 21:41:27 GMT -5 Hurbster said:

I'm guessing that Sting is just in shock that no one has betrayed him.

They need to have him and Cody team up, it'd be the most unpredictable storyline ever.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Apr 9, 2021 20:21:53 GMT -5 mrbananagrabber said:

I genuinely don’t know what the f*** they’re going to do with Sting in this “multi year” signing.

Attraction Matches, Manager, Backstage Coach.

It's not hard.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I can see why some might feel that way but I feel like they've used him better in recent weeks. Having him ringside putting over him and Silver was an awesome visual.

[Instant Classic]

Agree. I would rather see Sting interact with Cody.

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

It's another symptom of AEW's holding pattern they've been in since Revolution.


There are other things both men could be doing.

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

Apr 9, 2021 12:24:22 GMT -5 The Trashman said:

It doesn't help that they keep doing the stupid thing where they announce an interview with Sting, have Tony do the "It's Sting!!!!" and then never let him really talk. He should be cutting promos as vignettes every time.

That was old weeks ago. It reminds me of how WWE takes one thing that was cool once and then running it into the ground because "if it worked once, it must work every single time we do it."