Sting turns heel on Luger… or does he?
For the second straight week on Nitro, a surprising turn appeared to have taken place. Sting, who has never been a heel, appeared to have
attacked Lex Luger in the arena parking lot. It wasn’t actually Sting, but Cobra dressed as Sting.
Early in Nitro, Gene Okerlund interviewed Lex Luger, Ric Flair, and Arn Anderson. Flair and Arn wanted to know where Sting was. Luger said
someone saw him backstage and not to worry because this was only an interview and that he’d be there at WarGames. That foreshadowed that
Sting may have been preoccupied with other matters and perhaps not on the side of Luger and the Horsemen.
During the first match of the second hour of Nitro between Luger and Rick Steiner, Nick Patrik urged Luger to follow him to the back. As Luger
ran to the back (and therefore lost by countout), the camera approached DiBiase talking to a person in the limo. Sting’s voice could be heard
coming from the limo. The voice was that of Sting, but it had an echo quality to it. He spoke in gibberish and didn’t actually converse with DiBiase.
He said: “I’m tired of this stuff, this DTA stuff, don’t trust anybody. He’s gotta go. You know why? You better learn to trust somebody right now.
We’ve got no way out. It’s either you trust him or you don’t. Looking me in the eye, you know I’m… Look at you guys and you know you can trust
him.” It will turn out to be a spliced recording of Sting when it is revealed he didn’t actually turn.
Luger then made his way out to the parking lot and met DiBiase. He asked DiBiase if Sting was out there. DiBiase said he had no idea where Sting was and said, “What would I be doing talking to Sting?” The phony Sting then stepped out of the limo and attacked Luger. Hulk Hogan, DiBiase, Hall, and Nash joined in. Even the chauffeur (Marco Canales) joined in. Giant stood by and watched. Cobra was dressed in Sting make-up and with one of his robes, but was quite a bit shorter than Luger and Ramon; Sting is just a tad shorter. He also had shorter black hair and sideburns.
But it was by no means obviously not the real Sting. The NWO quickly shuffled the impostor Sting back into the limo and drove off. Luger got up
and chased after the limo.
Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan called the next match in solemn tones, expressing disbelief in what had just happened. Bischoff said it was the most disappointing and shocking moment of his six years with WCW.
The apparent turn threw a wrench into WarGames. Later in the show the Horsemen were interviewed, including a show-ending interview that
suggested either Chris Benoit or Steve McMichael would take Sting’s spot. It was never explicitly said that Sting would be the fourth member of the NWO.
Sean Waltman (formerly 1-2-3 Kid) was backstage at the event and will likely turn out to be the surprise fourth member of the NWO WarGames
team after all. It won’t be Sting, although WCW may not make that known until the actual pay-per-view starts. Unlike in the past where there was a one hour live pre-game show, WCW Pro now airs an hour early and it’s not expected they’ll be broadcasting live from the site of the pay-per-view.
While the WWF’s credibility is facing its toughest test in a while, WCW may have a little explaining to do also. Although this angle was a reasonable part of an ongoing storyline, if WCW wants people to think Sting turned going into next Sunday night’s pay-per-view, they would need to explain why over the course of six days, Sting didn’t tell Luger or the Horsemen or WCW officials or announcers that he really didn’t turn. The only way for that to happen is if he is held captive for an entire week by the NWO.
There is virtually no chance WCW will have the real Sting be a heel after all (unless they secretly have Bret Hart secured to come in and represent
WCW and anchor the babyface squad).
