Sting

Steve Borden (born March 20, 1959), better known by the ring name Sting, is an American retired professional wrestler.

Borden started his career in 1985 as Flash in the independent promotion All-California Championship Wrestling, where he was in a tag team with Jim "Justice" Hellwig (who would later become famously known as The Ultimate Warrior) as members of the Power Team USA stable, before he and Hellwig joined the CWA as the Freedom Fighters.

In 1986, they joined the UWF as the Blade Runners, with Borden changing his ring name to Sting.

His association with JCP and its successor WCW began in 1987, which saw him win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in 1990.

He rose to main event status and is described as the WCW counterpart to the WWF's Hulk Hogan.

Dubbed "The Franchise of WCW", he held 15 championships in the promotion, including six reigns with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and two reigns with the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship, and made more pay-per-view (PPV) appearances than any other.

Borden is known for his time spent as the face of two American professional wrestling promotions: World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1988 to 2001 and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2006 to 2014.

Prior to WCW, he wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP)—which became WCW in 1988—the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), and the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA).

Borden wore face-paint throughout his career, and in 1996, changed from the multi-colored paint of his "Surfer" persona to the monochromatic paint of the "Crow" gimmick; he also incorporated elements of The Joker in the later part of his time in TNA.

Against Hogan, Borden headlined WCW's highest-grossing PPV event, Starrcade, in December 1997.

Upon the WWF's acquisition of WCW in March 2001, Borden and rival Ric Flair were chosen for the main event of the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro.

Borden would later face Hogan and Flair in their last televised matches, which occurred in TNA, defeating both, although Flair would later have one final match in 2022.

Although the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; renamed WWE in 2002) purchased WCW in 2001, Borden did not sign with them at the time.

Following the expiration of his contract with WCW's parent company AOL Time Warner in March 2002, Borden held talks with the WWF, but did not join the promotion and instead toured with World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA), winning the WWA World Heavyweight Championship, before joining the then-upstart TNA in 2003.

Over the following 11 years, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on one further occasion and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship four times.

As a result, he became the only wrestler to have won the NWA, WCW, and TNA world titles.

He was also the inaugural inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2012 before leaving the company in early 2014.

Previously described by WWE as the greatest wrestler never to have performed for that promotion, Borden finally joined the company in late 2014, making his first appearance at Survivor Series and having his debut match at WrestleMania 31 the following year.

His last match in WWE came at Night of Champions in September 2015, which also marked his sole WWE pay-per-view main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort.

Borden headlined the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016 on April 2, where he announced his first retirement; he remained with the company under a legends contract until early 2020.

In late 2020, Borden signed with AEW, making his first appearance at Dynamite: Winter Is Coming, subsequently coming out of retirement where he had his first match in over five years at the promotion's pay-per-view, Revolution, on March 7, 2021, a tag team victory with partner Darby Allin.

Borden and Allin would continue to work as a team, going undefeated and winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship in February 2024.

Sting then had his official retirement match at Revolution on March 3, 2024, retiring both as an undefeated tag team with Allin and as champion.

Borden held 26 total championships throughout his career, including 22 between WCW, TNA, and AEW.

Readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated named him "Most Popular Wrestler of the Year" on four occasions, a record he shares with John Cena.

In 2016, Borden was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

Slam! Sports wrote that he holds "a lofty level of prestige that few will ever touch".

Borden was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Southern California.

He played football and basketball in high school and later embarked on a career in bodybuilding, once co-owning a Gold's Gym health club.

Borden had no interest in professional wrestling and no television access to it within his home community, but decided to pursue a career in the industry after being taken to an "incredible" World Wrestling Federation (WWF) event in Los Angeles where he saw Hulk Hogan, The Iron Sheik, The British Bulldogs, André the Giant and others perform.

Borden, originally wrestling under the ring name Flash, teamed with Jim "Justice" Hellwig (who would later gain fame as The Ultimate Warrior in the WWF) as two members of Power Team USA in independent All-California Championship Wrestling.

Power Team USA was a four-man unit also featuring Garland "Glory" Donahoe and Mark "Commando" Miller, plus manager Rick Bassman.

Hellwig and Borden later moved to the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), a wrestling company based in Memphis, Tennessee, and became known as the Freedom Fighters.

Fans were slow to respond to the lumbering hulks, so the team turned heel under "coach" Buddy Wayne and soon afterwards manager Dutch Mantel.

The Freedom Fighters left the CWA after an uneventful run, the highlight of which was an angle in which they broke the leg of veteran wrestler Phil Hickerson.

The duo surfaced in the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), an organization run by Bill Watts and based in Alexandria, Louisiana, where they were known as the Blade Runners.

Borden changed his ring name from Flash to Sting, while Hellwig became known as Rock.

They soon joined Hotstuff & Hyatt International, a heel stable headed by "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt.

Together with "Russian" wrestler Kortsia Korchenko, the Blade Runners became henchmen in Gilbert's on-screen feud with Watts.

He last performed in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2020 to 2024 before retiring.