10 Times WWE Hurt Sting's Momentum

1. Losing To Triple H At WrestleMania 31

By and large, the Sting vs. Triple H feud was built fairly well going into WrestleMania 31. The WWE vs. WCW narrative they were trying to tell was slightly flawed, but other than that, fans were looking forward to seeing Sting wrestle in a WWE ring for the first time. The fact the match went on third on the card wasn't the primary problem. The fact it featured as much outside interference as it did wasn't the primary problem. Heck, the bout itself was thoroughly entertaining for the most part. Rather, it was the extremely asinine finish that saw Triple H hitting The Icon with his signature sledgehammer before beating him. Sure, WWE "swerved" the fans by having him lose, but it was by far the dumbest decision they could have made with Sting. It would have been one thing if he was facing an up-and-comer like Bray Wyatt or Seth Rollins, but he wasn't; his opponent was Triple H, the perfect person for Sting to defeat in his premier WWE outing. WWE's logic must have been that WWE won the Monday Night Wars so they needed to have Triple H to win this match, too, but that was the last thing on fans' minds when the bell rang. All they were thinking about was how The Vigilante was made out to look like a loser on the grand stage. Sting and Triple H shaking hands afterward didn't make the least bit of sense, either, considering the latter was back to being a heel later that evening. Of all the ways WWE has mishandled Sting in the last year, this was undoubtedly the biggest setback he suffered, and whether he can ever recover remains to be seen.