10 Origin Stories Of Awesome Wrestlers

7. Crow Sting

Dominik WWE
WWE.com

Scott Hall was a bright, enterprising talent in his nineties heyday. Revolutionising the WWF's in-ring oeuvre in his famous WrestleMania X ladder match opposite Shawn Michaels, Hall also stole the affectations of Scarface's Tony Montana to legitimise his Razor Ramon act. Vince McMahon, who can rarely be accused of mainlining into the mainstream conscience, had not seen the film.

Hall also bestowed Sting with the look for which he'd become WCW's premier babyface in its most successful era. Hall had stripped himself of the WWF DayGlo aesthetic in order to portray an edgier, reality-based extension of his own personality in 1996, paving the way for a vital component of the WWF's Attitude Era. He implored Sting to follow suit.

In 1996, the cumulative effects of a decade of peroxide abuse had wreaked havoc on Sting's brittle hair. He decided to grow it out in its natural colour - at which point Hall questioned if he was also planning on shelving the "happy guy tights". Sting, who hadn't planned to, was intrigued - and elected to follow Hall's subsequent suggestion to adopt a character influenced by the 1994 film The Crow. This was only 50% of the inspiration.

"I'm not telling you to rip off 'Taker," Hall feigned. "But rip off 'Taker."

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!