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Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?
Wrestling feuds. We all know, or I hope we all at least can appreciate, that good storylines and good feuds are what separates an “emotional connection” to matches from just, as Bully Ray would put it, “an athletic conquest.” Something that I’ve been thinking about more recently is what was the feud that hooked me as fan? It didn’t take long to think of it, and it actually is a good twist of story between old school and new school. Between the history, and what I had to get some education on, and the current story that was being told. Ladies and gentlemen, IT’S STING!
The Icon versus The Authority
That’s right, the feud that hooked me as a, “OMG, I can never look back, I am a forever fan,” was the feud between Sting and Seth Rollins.
It was 2015. I believe it was August. If you recall, I had just begun watching Monday Night RAW regularly, and just began figuring out how things work around the WWE. I did not know who The Shield was. I barely knew who Sting was. But, I had become a fan of Seth Rollins.
I loved that he was worked in such a way with The Authority, because who doesn’t love to hate someone who’s such a suck up? So there we were, watching in awe as Sting entered the ring. The Icon. The man whose intro had never played at a WWF/WWE event. The man who had never set foot into that branded ring finally made his WWE debut after 30 active years (and I know he actually debuted in 2014 at Survivor Series, a little before my time, so bear with me).
The Build
The story was pretty simple. Seth was on the side of The Authority and Sting is a vigilante, and obviously against The Authority. The Authority, represented by Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, had hand picked Seth Rollins and were going to honor him and his achievements with a statue. At the time, Seth was a dual champion and the first ever to hold both the WWE World Heavyweight and United States Championships. If you have not seen the video, or even if you have, watch it here, and then watch it again…amazing!
For nearly a year, Sting would feud with The Authority and Seth Rollins, destroying Seth’s actually statue until a match at Night of Champions became their last match.
How it ended
During the match at Night of Champions, Sting was thrown into the turnbuckle pretty hard. In an interview with wwe.com, he insists that he was fine, just a little stiff afterwards. That was the last time we saw Sting in a WWE ring. We cannot be sure that Sting will not be seen again, but I can be sure that that was the feud and the story that hooked me as a fan.
What’s yours?
If you’d like to read that interview with wwe.com, you can find it here.
