Jeff Farmer

Jeffrey Farmer (born August 14, 1962) is an American retired professional wrestler.

He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as The nWo Sting, an impostor version of the original Sting aligned to the New World Order stable.

Farmer started wrestling late in 1991 at 29 years old as Lightning in the tag team of "Thunder and Lightning" in the IWF promotion in Florida.

In August 1993, the team toured All Japan Pro Wrestling, facing teams such as Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas, Jun Akiyama & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and Mighty Inoue & Takao Omori.

While in the promotion, they wrestled as "Lightning & Thunder".

In 1993, Thunder and Lightning were signed by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

They made their first appearance at a WCW Worldwide taping in Orlando, FL on July 10, 1993 (in an episode that would not air until November 13 of that year), defeating Billy Brooks and Rhett Blair.

Their first actual television appearance came on August 29, 1993, on WCW's The Main Event, where they upset Chris Benoit and Bobby Eaton.

Thunder & Lightning's next match saw their first defeat, as they fell to Yoshi Kwan (Chris Champion) and Bobby Eaton at a house show in Kennesaw, GA on September 28.

Although WCW had cut back severely on house shows in Eric Bischoff's first year helming the company, they did continue to tour smaller locations to give new, younger wrestlers experience.

Thunder & Lightning would wrestle on several of these events in the fall of 1993 and engaged in a house show program with Tex Slazinger and Shanghai Pierce.

On the December 11th, 1993 edition of WCW Saturday Night the team called out WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys, as well as several other teams.

Thunder and Lightning entered 1994 continuing to come out victorious on television against preliminary level competition, but suffered their first loss when they were defeated on February 20, 1994, by Pretty Wonderful on The Main Event.

They made their first PPV appearance at SuperBrawl IV where they lost to Harlem Heat.

Their losing streak on television continued into April as they suffered defeats to Bad Attitude (Steve Keirn & Bobby Eaton) and Pretty Wonderful.

Thunder & Lightning's final match however was a win; they teamed with Terry Taylor to defeat Tex Slazenger, Shanghai Pierce, and Dallas Page on WCW Pro on April 30, 1994.

Farmer left WCW in the spring of 1994.

In July 1994, Farmer wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance territories in Tennessee and the Carolinas.

In February 1995, he and fellow former WCW wrestler Jim Steele wrestled a dark match for the World Wrestling Federation.

Farmer returned to WCW in July 1995 as Cobra to feud with Craig Pittman.

Cobra made his WCW debut on September 9, 1995, edition of WCW Worldwide, defeating Bobby Starr with his Cobra clutch slam finisher.

Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and "Mean" Gene Okerlund explained Cobra's kayfabe back story of having served in the Gulf War.

Sgt. Craig Pittman, a legit Marine sergeant, abandoned Cobra in the Jungle, then reported him AWOL back at camp.

Cobra lost all rank and respect, learned to wrestle, and came to WCW seeking revenge on Pittman.

The feud was short-lived, with Pittman defeating Cobra by submission in a very short match, although in a rematch the following week, Cobra won.

They then would go back and forth and trade victories for a few months before the feud ended.

The nWo had been battling Sting, one of WCW’s most loyal supporters, since its inception in July 1996.

As part of an elaborate plan, Farmer made his debut as “Sting” on the September 9, 1996, edition of Monday Nitro when he attacked Lex Luger, appearing from the nWo limousine after a tape recording of Sting speaking had been played.

This led Luger, Sting's longtime ally, friend and tag team partner, to publicly question Sting’s loyalty.

At Fall Brawl, as Team WCW was being interviewed, Sting came in and told his teammates that he had nothing to do with the attack.

Luger told Sting rather bluntly that he did not believe him.

Later during the War Games match, the last man out for Team nWo was “Sting” (Farmer), leading viewers (including the broadcast team) to believe that Sting was part of the nWo.

However, the real Sting showed up as the last man for Team WCW.

After single-handedly taking out Team nWo, Sting walked over to Luger, shoved him, and said, "Is that good enough for ya?"

and left the ring.

Farmer picked up the victory in the match for Team nWo when he forced Luger to submit with the Scorpion death lock.

After the War Games match, the real Sting began to evolve into a much darker Crow-like character, with Farmer’s imposter character serving as the catalyst.

Farmer, now adopting the ring name of nWo Sting, became more of a comedy act in WCW, mimicking Sting’s classic mannerisms, while dressed as the dark Sting.

He would also copy the loyalty tests and began carrying a baseball bat as the real Sting did.

On occasion, nWo Sting would try to appease the real Sting when both were in the ring.