Not good sadly. Rollins was doing back-to-back matches with Cena and Sting that night.

The Cena match was the match of the night from memory whereas the Sting match was slow and plodding and I thought really showed Sting's age.

I preferred the HHH/Sting match. If accepted for the nonsense it was, it was great fun in my view.

That said Sting/Taker should definetely have happened over HHH/Sting.
And while I preferred the HHH match, was refreshing to see a legend feud with someone not named HHH or Cena.

Up until the match itself I genuinely thought Sting had it in the bag.

Unfortunately, as soon as the match started, the commentary team started selling him as "the last warrior of wCw". I, and I think everybody else watching, knew then that HHH was going over.

15 years later and Vince McMahon still had to get one over the competition. Very sad.

I think Sting should have faced Taker. He would have lost (and rightfully so) but it would have made much more sense logically than the HHH match, which was quite clearly a McMahon-Helmsley ego trip. I enjoyed the match, but it's sad that his career has ended with a whimper rather than a bang. I genuinely believe Sting/Taker would have been the plan this year.

Sting deserves a proper send off in the middle of the Ring at Wrestlemania

What happened to Sting was unfortunately one of the fundamental issues WWE has right now and that's having the wrong people agenting the matches. People like Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury should not be telling ANYONE how to wrestle a match and neither should Road Dogg for that matter.

Like Vince Russo says and had to do many times himself, you need to protect the wrestlers from themselves. Wrestlers want to save face. They want to top each other. They want to show they can do anything. Sting no doubt did not want Seth Rollins or anyone else backstage to think he couldn't hang with the young guys when a man Sting's age should not have took that table bump at all to begin with. The problem is you have those kind of people I just mentioned agenting the matches, you don't have a Bret Hart or a Ric Flair or a Shawn Michaels agenting or even a Vince Russo, someone who can tell Steve Borden to his face, Steve you're too old to be doing things like that, you don't have to do that and likewise none of them going to Seth Rollins and telling him, you're in your 20's, you should be old enough to know he can't take bumps like that but of course wrestlers want to get themselves over, he will be thinking of his own career at such a young age which is why you need someone who knows what they're talking about to spell it out for him and then with all the adrenaline they have in the ring suddenly this 29 year old kid is throwing around a 55 year old man with a bit more strength than he normally would due to the adrenaline, you do the table spot and then you're flinging him across the ring into a turnbuckle and injuring the guy.

But of course there isn't anyone at WWE like that and you all know that Vince McMahon and Triple H couldn't care less if he got hurted at all, they don't care about Steve Borden, they probably gave Seth a pat on the back. The irony being many top stars are out injured now, in a business that is supposed to be a work, where you are supposed to playfight, that's including your Randy Orton's and your John Cena's, the kind of people that WWE would step in and advise not to take certain bumps or spots.


It's just sad all round really. I think collectively all of Sting's fans probably would have preferred, in hindsight that he just stayed at TNA and retired gracefully. Vince will always try to get one more dig in at WCW but unfortunately for VInce, i don't think he realises the WCW fans stopped watching in 2001, the Raw rating didn't get any boost at all and with the arenas being full of women and children, i don't even think they know what WCW is. All the old wrestling fans that knew about Sting and the history and wrestling and everything, many of them haven't watched in 15 years and probably don't know he's in WWE and probably wouldn't watch anyway.


I just think it's part of the many reasons wrestling can't be fixed. It's just retreading old ground. I used to sit and think about and rant about how to change things but they can't be changed, it's done.

What I would like to do though is get the entire McMahon family at home for a week in front of the TV and have every member of the WWE Creative Team at home all week, Monday through Sunday. Get the main officials backstage and agents. We'll use the Raw timeslot as an example so that is 8pm - 11pm eastern time which is the main timezone in America.

I would love them all for an entire week, from Monday to Sunday to sit at home from 8pm - 11pm with a basic cable or basic satelite subscription. Nothing fancy or PPV. Nothing like HBO or Showtime. Just your basic cable or basic satelite subscription channels and just watch. I would love them to sit with the remote in their hands every day from 8pm - 11pm on basic cable or basic satelite and look at what is on TV at that time and look at the language that is on programs, look at the violence that is on programs, look at the sexuality, look at the nudity, look at the tone of the shows, racial tones, sexuality, the level of violence that is show on programs.

I would love them all at that time of night, the same time Raw is on TV, for an entire week to live in reality and look at what your average TV viewer is watching and when they have seen the language that is allowed and the violence, the sex, the nudity, the tone of the shows, the overall tone and content that is shown in that timeslot. I would then like them on Day 8, to sit and watch the latest episode of Raw and see if the penny drops and see if they realise where all the viewers and fans went. When they look at what they put out from 8pm - 11pm and compare that with every other basic cable/satelite channel that is on at the same time all week long. It's night and day. It's not even comparable. It's Saturday morning wrestling on at night.

And if that worked i'd do the same with the wrestlers. Sit them down, never mind the wrestling bubble and airports and hotels and shaking hands. You know what you do in the ring, now look at what your average American family is sitting watching every night of the week on TV and ask yourself could I be doing better. Could i make it look more realistic, could i be more believable, could i make this work.


It's different for UK fans because most of you watch the next day or you DVR it and you watch it at all times of the day, i'd love for the WWE staff do that, everyone, get out this fantasy world for a week and live like a normal person and sit and watch cable TV from 8pm - 11pm every night and have a real good hard look at what is on TV and realise what you're up against. It's like night and day.

It was absolute garbage. It was like a weird play acting out what Vince and HHH thought happened in the 90s. I half expected them all to bow to the audience at the end.

The story was so obvious - Sting steps in to stop the corrupt Authority like he tried to stop the NWO - and yet they bungled it so badly even in the build. They just kept talking about WCW over and over. Even when Sting came out and cut a promo and said that the idea that he was fighting for WCW was stupid, Stephanie came out and started talking about WCW all over again. So stupid.

And then they had JBL screaming absolute nonsense on commentary about how Sting tried to put them out of a job. So now HHH is the babyface? I love this idea of poor plucky underdog Vince having to fight against the evil business that was trying to run him out of town. What exactly did he do the 1980s again? Oh yeah....

The new NXT DVD is great!!!! Half way through disc 1 and i love it!

It still amazes me how wrestling fans don't seem to read wrestler interviews. Sting said within 24 hours of that Rollins match what his injury was and that he'd have to retire. Still the last few months I've had to read all these people speculating what his match would be at 'Mania!

It's worth saying that if Sting had sustained this injury in a TNA match the internet would have crucified them. But since it's a WWE match it's 'one of those things', or his fault. The double standards are laughable. FWIW I'm sure both Rollins, Sting, and as Hazy points out, the agents, realise it's all of their faults to some degree.

Sting's run in WWE tragically exemplifies everything wrong with the company. The worst booked run of a major star in any promotion ever.

This weird TNA paranoia makes no sense. Why would anyone fault them for him getting injured?

But interviews don't matter to people who are willing to convince themselves that anything and everything could be a work. It's just part of wrestling fan mentality, or at least for a lot of people. It's stupid, but it's not going away.

Dunno about worst booked run of a major star in any promotion ever. It was complete garbage yes, but I don't know about that. I would almost suggest that Reigns main event push is a better example simply because the stakes are higher.

I'll agree that WWE agents suck though. The absolute state of the Royal Rumbles in recent years is a testament to that.

On Monday’s RAW it was advertised that the WWE Network will feature 7 hours of WrestleMania coverage and the Hall of Fame ceremony, but NXT Takeover: Dallas got no mention. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that a lot of people within the company are openly unhappy that the NXT event was not promoted on RAW.

Either someone simply forgot to include NXT Takeover in their WrestleMania week lineup, or someone in WWE felt it wasn’t important enough. One conspiracy theory is that Kevin Dunn may have made the decision to leave Takeover off the promotional video on RAW. NXT is considered to be Triple H’s project, and Dunn has nothing to do with the NXT product.

Meltzer noted that the feeling within WWE is that Dunn will likely be let go when Triple H and Stephanie McMahon eventually take over the company.

NXT Takeover: Dallas will take place on April 1 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, and will feature Shinsuke Nakamura’s debut.

Perhaps not on this forum! This place was relatively sane for the whole anti-TNA thing, which is one of the reasons it's probably the best place to talk about wrestling on the web. There are places where Sting's retirement from a TNA injury would have produced six months of LOLTNA gifs etc, and those same forums now are busily revising history to make out Sting was never that great, his injury is his own fault etc.

One of the many boring things about modern WWE is that you can very easily work out what's a work and what's a shoot because there are so many things their suffocating shareholder culture prevents them having works about. Neck / head injuries is one of them.

I would say Sting's WWE run is the worst ever because it was the biggest open goal in the history of wrestling. Even more so than the Invasion, which was actually made tricky by the contract situations of all the major WCW stars.

Sting in WWE booked itself. The pops he got were insane: Go back and look again at his first appearance. Use his classic WCW music, which you own. Build him up as a threat with a few upper-midcard / main event feuds, which he wins. Let his immense charisma and likeability shine through. Look after him physically. Build to an Undertaker match - maybe make it a career-ending match or retirement match for one or both men. It could and should have been headlining this year's Wrestlemania, selling it out easily. We'd all be beside ourselves with anticipation.

Instead: Give Sting weird inferior music. Call him 'the vigilante'. Waste his debut match in a nonsensical ego-driven pantomime where you settle old scores nobody cares about but yourself. Highlight his weaknesses. Hardly let him speak. Make sure nobody could possibly see him as a threat. Book him in a highly physical match with your high flying world champion who had already wrestled that night. Make sure he takes big, risky bumps.

I stand by it: Sting's run is easily the worst ever, and confirms WWE are completely incapable of adapting IP. In contrast: Why is AJ Style's run decent (so far)? Because they actually swallowed their pride and used his pre-WWE persona wholesale. When they mess with stuff they didn't invent, WWE seem to have a brain bypass. And Sting is the very worst example of that.

I think there's perhaps a little too much being read into that. I don't really remember other NXT Takeovers being heavily promoted on RAW so I don't see why Dallas should be the exception. WWE are doing a good job of promoting the Takeover event elsewhere.

Though to address the second part of the message, I do hope that Kevin Dunn is shown the door once control passes. The look of WWE, which is Dunn's department, is badly in need of a refresh, His production in terms of camera angles and capturing what's going on is really slipping and the set design is bland and uninspiring apart from when it comes to Wrestlemania. Even there, the entrances haven't felt as special in the last few years. The only really memorable one for me was Bray Wyatt's with the scarecrows last year.

The sad thing with Sting is most people wont argue his case about what happened and most are just reduced to saying, if he's happy then i'm happy. That's what it comes down to. There's nothing good anywhere, everything they did made him look the fool and I think most of the wrestlers outside WWE that have been asked about it have said much the same thing, it wasn't good but out of respect for him don't say too much about it and just say if he's happy i'm happy and that's the best way to look at it.

I never thought from everything the WWF went through in the 1990s and the things they experienced and then the HIGHS they experienced when they finally changed their ways and did things right that they would end up back at square 1 and just doing the same mistakes over with the same arrogant attitudes. And even on pro WWE websites and forums, much like this one, even in WWE's own collective, there seems to be a lot of negativity, a lot of bad vibes coming from people. I just feel like wrestling has completely lost it's way and the people in charge of wrestling companies have lost their way and sadly I think there's nothing else left to do. It's just a neverending bad bad state of affairs and there's nothing there for people to watch.

If you're not a wrestling fan why would you watch it? There's literally nothing there that the common man and woman, the working class can even relate to. Middle aged men and women barking at you about what's best for business. I said that the other night during Raw. Is that meant to get me mad? Is a millionaire telling me i'm poor meant to get me upset lol. Is there anybody really sitting at home getting angry or mad? Who cares? Really who cares? 3 guys with unicorns overacting. Samoan wrestlers with facepaint and loose fighting clothes flying all over the place. Regular skinny guys with regular sounding names, regular fat guys for that matter just talking like regular people about belts and matches and i want this match and i want this belt...........if you're not a fan of actual wrestling, as in wrestling matches, why would you watch that?


And the really sad thing is everybody outside the wrestling bubble can see this. TNA and ROH are just as guilty. But of course out of respect for the business all these retired wrestlers don't speak up and air publicly how they feel and the fans that do just get ignored. Everyone can see it bar them. Everyone can see how bad it is apart from those in the business. There's just no self awareness and there's nothing there to appeal to non wrestling fans.

Holy shit jury gave Hogan ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN MILLION dollars.

And under Florida law Gawker have to post a $50 million bond while they appeal.

Every wrestler getting jealous now. That's probably more than The Rock has once you add the money Hogan already has lol.

Gawker seems like a horrible organisation. Getting what they deserve.

Lets hope they don't ask Bret Harts views on Hulk getting $115 million dollars lol.

Well done to Hulk though, despite not being his biggest fan, there is no doubting his place in wrestling history. I still think wiping him from the HOF was wrong and hope to see him back

That sure is one heck of a victory for Hulk, wow!

Who's idea were those stupid "zoom in and out" things they keep doing when there's a run in? It's barmy.

I can see Hulk's lawyer being in demand after that payout.

I think Hulk's got enough to get by on. I mean even Ric Flair would struggle to get through that amount of cash.

I hate that! Ruins the moment.

He'll probably buy out TNA

I mean who wouldn't want to work with Dixie Carter?

From what I've read about TNA, the Lockbox Challenge sounds hilarious. Basically a face winning a title via 'Deal or No Deal'.

And before anyone inevitably replies, WWE also have their fair share of silly ideas at times (Million Dollar Mania anyone?).

I also hate how the camera man has a bloody fit when ever someone close by is getting a beat down. I can't see a bloody thing when he goes all over the place.

The whole of Raw and all PPV's (bar WM) need a big overhaul. The set design is very boring and the fact it looks the same for ever PPV does not help.

He deserves it! After all that shit they put out on Hulk the past year that ruined his career I hope he gets every dollar earned. Least it will show places like TMZ they cant get away with this shit dishing dirt and ruining celebs careers. They wouldnt like it if someone did it to them so dont do it to others.

He deserves it all. I've always hoped one of my sex tapes didn't leak out on the internet.