10 Wrestlers Too Big To Fail (That Failed Anyway)
3. Sting (WWE, 2014-2015)
When the WWF purchased WCW in Spring 2001, Sting was one of the holdouts - his contract didn’t come with the package. Over the following years he’d resolutely refuse to consider joining the WWE, despite being on good terms with Vince McMahon, who offered him generous terms.
Part of the reason for his hesitance was the company’s notorious travel schedule, of course. The rest? With McMahon’s monopoly on creative in the WWE and urge to prove that his product was better than WCW’s had been, the legend was concerned that he’d be treated like Booker T had been: buried and forced to prove himself all over again.
Still, once his stint as a main event mainstay in TNA had wound down, Sting finally signed with WWE in April 2014. It would be seven months before he would make an appearance, beginning a feud with Triple H that culminated in a match at WrestleMania in 2015.
That should have been a warning sign on its own: Triple H was a WWE guy through and through, and as determined as McMahon to prove the WWE’s superiority over old Turner product like Sting. The match was a disaster near the bottom of the card, ruined with interference from decrepit old men D-Generation X and the NWO and a pinfall loss to the Game.
Sting’s rep with the WWE crowd never really recovered: his next match involved a loss to Seth Rollins that also, with an injury to his neck, effectively ended his career on a disappointing low.