4. Neon Sting To Crow Sting
Sting had been a headliner in WCW since wrestling Ric Flair to a time limit draw at the very first Clash of the Champions in 1988. Throughout all his time in the company, he had always been a babyface, often the no 1 babyface in the company, winning the WCW World Heavyweight title on two occasions by the mid 1990s. His image stayed the same throughout: blond, flat-top hair, multi-coloured facepaint and bright tights and boots in a multitude of colours. He was the fluorescent kids favourite, reasonably similar to John Cena today. However, by 1996, Steve Borden, the man behind the facepaint, was clearly wanting a change of image himself. He stopped dying his hair blond, reverting to his natural brown, and let it grow out. The fluorescent colours started to be replaced by black, with a colourful scorpion on the side. But the face paint remained. When the Outsiders of Scott Hall & Kevin Nash invaded WCW, kicking off the NWO angle, Sting fought for WCW. But a fake Sting, planted by the NWO, put doubts in the minds of Stings WCW allies and he quit the company, declaring himself to be a free agent. Sting did not wrestle a match again for well over a year. However, he did start appearing mysteriously in the rafters, with a new image. His colourful facepaint was replaced by a new look, mostly white, with some black around his eyes. This evolved into a design that was modelled after Brandon Lee in
The Crow. The colourful coats were replaced with a long black leather trenchcoat. When Sting finally returned to the ring to face NWO leader Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997, he won the WCW World title from him. More importantly, the event did the best pay-per-view buy rate in the history of WCW. Sting had been reinvented and the fans wanted to see him back more than ever. Sting continued to wrestle in WCW until its demise and then moved on to TNA, where he wrestled until earlier this year. All signs point to him turning up soon in the WWE, where he will likely be using the Crow gimmick that has added another couple of decades onto his already stellar career.