Hulk Hogan: "I begged to bring Sting to the WWF"

[Testify]

In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Hulk Hogan revealed a major business proposal he pitched to Vince McMahon to try to bring Sting to the WWF during the 1980s.

"I have unbelievable respect for Sting - he doesn’t realise how good he really is. Sting should have already had his New York (WWE) run. I’ll tell you something; when I got red-hot after WrestleMania III, I was begging Vince (McMahon) to get Sting in the WWF so I could turn heel at some point. He had the blond hair, he was 10 times more athletic than me, and I believed this guy could have the same run as Hulkamania, but take it 10 times bigger.

"I was telling Vince, ‘Let me get this guy over’, because after beating Andre, if they’d brought Sting in and had him beat me, it would have made him this tall (gestures with his hand above his head).

"But Sting wouldn’t come; we tried and tried, but he just would not jump. Vince even talked to him last year, but still Sting wouldn’t go. He would have been, and still would be, great wherever he goes. I watch him, and listen to him, and there’s still so much potential in him that I don’t care if he’s 50 or 60 years old, he’s got so much more to give. I hope he never quits."

 

[Senhor Perfect]

The perfect time for him to jump would've been after WWF bought WCW. It would give so much more credibility to the Alliance group and Austin wouldn't have had to switch sides. Then we could have seen Sting/Taker at WM, Sting/Rock, Sting/Edge, etc. Really a shame, I don't see how people can say it's a good thing he never jumped. WWE/F is the biggest wrestling company in the world, sticking to WCW with it's NWA history was one thing, but we missed out on a lot of good angles due to his decision to not come over. He also missed out on some huge paydays. It really is too bad :downer:

 

[seabs]

Wowza this would have been interesting, I've never considered Surfer Sting in the E. I'm sceptical of Hulk putting him over however, look at Starcade.

 

[Lockard 23]

Sting could have been a bigger name in the business with the huge WWF marketing machine behind him, but he preferred being a big fish in a little pond, so he wasn't.

He probably could have taken Warrior's place (his former partner starting out in the business, coincidentally) at Wrestlemania 6 as the guy Hogan passed the torch to.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Sting could have been a bigger name in the business with the huge WWF marketing machine behind him, but he preferred being a big fish in a little pond, so he wasn't.

He probably could have taken Warrior's place (his former partner starting out in the business, coincidentally) at Wrestlemania 6 as the guy Hogan passed the torch to.

WCW wasn't exactly a "small pond" in the 90s...

 

[Lockard 23]

WCW wasn't exactly a "small pond" in the 90s...

Compared to WWF, it was. I'm referring to before their big two year run, of course.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Compared to WWF, it was. I'm referring to before their big two year run, of course.

It was a smaller pond, but not a small pond. Hell way before Hogan or Savage even signed with WCW they had Sting, Flair, Road Warriors, Luger, Steiners, Freebirds, Vader, Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Arn Anderson..

I'll stop as I'm not telling you anything you don't know.. but as a NWA/WCW guy in the late 80s early 90s I don't see it as a no brainer that you would have jumped ship.

The only time I "blame" Sting for not jumping (selfishly blame, sting is free to do what he wants and has had a great run in TNA) is after WWF bought WCW out. He has his reasons for not wanting to jump to WWE, however, so we should all respect that.

Personally I think he gets off on being the biggest name to not work under Vince's circus tent.

 

[Lockard 23]

It was a smaller pond, but not a small pond. Hell way before Hogan or Savage even signed with WCW they had Sting, Flair, Road Warriors, Luger, Steiners, Freebirds, Vader, Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Arn Anderson..

I'll stop as I'm not telling you anything you don't know.. but as a NWA/WCW guy in the late 80s early 90s I don't see it as a no brainer that you would have jumped ship.

The only time I "blame" Sting for not jumping (selfishly blame, sting is free to do what he wants and has had a great run in TNA) is after WWF bought WCW out. He has his reasons for not wanting to jump to WWE, however, so we should all respect that.

Personally I think he gets off on being the biggest name to not work under Vince's circus tent.

They had a lot of talent, but because of bad booking, politics and some pretty questionable decisions made by the people in charge - namely Jim Herd and Bill Watts, the latter which came up with some pretty outdated rules - the company was inferior to the WWF (they were never on the same level as them until WCW got huge in the late 90's) and never even made a profit until 1994 when Hogan arrived. I think there's still an objective point in saying that with Vince having a clear vision of things unlike some of his opponents (especially back then when he wasn't on the brink of being insane) that Sting's career would have greatly benefited by making the jump. The negative is he would have been slapped with a different gimmick as Harley Race and Dusty Rhodes were, or perhaps he would have been treated as Ric Flair was and left alone as he was, but even Flair suffered the whole WWF>NWA/WCW treatment to an extent, as his world title match at Wrestlemania of all places got slapped right dab in the middle of the show, and his second world title was both won and lost at house shows.

It all depends really. Flair and the Road Warriors were three guys Vince wanted badly in the 80's, and when he couldn't get them (although he almost snagged Flair in '88), he had gimmicks created as the WWF counterparts of those guys (DiBiase's Million Dollar Man gimmick was supposed to be the WWF's version of Flair, and Demolition were the WWF's version of the Road Warriors.) My point being, that Sting may have been treated fairly upon his arrival. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard weren't exactly treated too badly that I remember. They were put in a pretty good position to reflect their talent, as the tag team The Brain Busters.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Even if they weren't financially successful they were still very popular. And even if the company wasn't a money making machine, it doesn't mean the guys weren't well taken care of. Sting was making BANK. And that is part of the problem with the company not making money.

I still think it's a little preposterous that you basically seem like you expect Sting HAD to jump to WWE. He had friends in WCW, made good money, enjoyed the lifestyle and wasn't sure about WWF as I'm sure he had heard about guys who were promised a lot and never received it. WWF might have been a more popular company on a national scale but it's not like WCW was anything less than a large national company pulling in good crowds most nights

I think you are looking at it from the perspective of a WWE fan who wanted to see Sting in your favorite promotion. I'm looking at it from Sting's perspective. What does he really stand to gain? It is low reward/high risk. He has it good in WCW. Maybe a little more money, a few more eyes on his work? Sting had nothing to prove by going to WWE

 

[Lockard 23]

Never said Sting had to do anything, which is why I brought up a possible negative to Sting jumping. Just agreeing with Hogan that him jumping would probably have been a wiser decision. We are talking about a company that just came off a huge boom (if we're talking at least 1989/1990.) TNA doesn't have the exposure that WCW did but from what I hear, the people there make good money as well (they should, given who owns the company) and you'd be silly to think that most there wouldn't take a contract with WWE at the very first chance it was offered. Austin Aries already tried once, even though given his size, he probably wouldn't have the same chances of making it to the top as he's had in TNA.

EDIT: Of course I'm looking at it from my own perspective, but I'm being objective as well.

 

[Leo C]

Would've been nice, but I supposed it ended up well for Sting so alright.

 

[Swift]

Hulk says a lot of things..