10 Times Companies Have Dropped The Ball With Sting

10. Total Non-Stop Apathy

One constant criticism levied at TNA is that the company fail to register much interest outside of their core audience, even when they hire in talent which possesses a rich history and fan structure of their own. Sting is the perfect example of such problems - even though he had a successful, title-laden tenure in TNA from 2003-2014, the Stinger couldn't shift momentum with the company itself, and PPV buyrates, TV ratings and merchandise sales stayed largely the same throughout his run. Is this a failing of Sting himself? Possibly, although he isn't the only example of this worrying level of apathy from wrestling fans towards TNA. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Booker T, Kevin Nash, DDP and Jeff Hardy are other cases, amongst others, where nothing changed in TNA following their arrivals. Some of this blame must be put on TNA's creative team, who didn't use Sting in the best manner they could have. Booking him to defeat rising talent who could help carry the promotion forward in the future, such as Samoa Joe, in short Pay-Per-View main events didn't do anything for anybody. Perhaps a far better strategy would have been to use Sting to elevate these younger wrestlers, instead of dominate.