WWE Is Dropping the Ball with Sting's Build to WrestleMania 31
At WrestleMania 31, wrestling fans are finally going to be able to see Sting compete in a WWE ring for the first time ever.
This is something that has been anticipated ever since the Monday Night Wars, when Sting was a mainstay for WCW.
Over the years, everyone has speculated over the details. Could Sting fit into WWE's atmosphere? Who would he feud with? How would WWE debut him?
But when you consider all of the advanced planning that could have been done in the long road to get to this point, how is it that the Road to WrestleMania is still so bumpy?
If you tout a match as being 14 years in the making, the build shouldn't feel like a backup plan with not a lot of substance to it, which is the scenario WWE has created for this program.
Fans should be so riled up for such an epic match, but Triple H vs. Sting is falling flatter than it should, and the blame lies solely in the lap of WWE's creative team.
This should be simple, as most of the work is already done for you. Sting has built up a reputation for over two decades, so all that needs to be done is to re-educate the younger fans about his past rather than create a character from the ground up.
To an extent, WWE hasn't failed in that regard, but that is only the backbone of the setup. It must be followed with a storyline that has strong enough foundations and the right twists and turns to continue the slow climb to the inevitable explosion.
Instead of laying it all out on the table, WWE has been playing around with the bare minimum. For whatever reasonāwhether it be laziness, cost, lack of creative inspiration or just an attitude of this being good enoughāthis feud has been as generic as it could possibly be.
Essentially, this feud boils down to Triple H being a bully and Sting being a thorn in his side twice for some reason.
We're only a little over a week away from WrestleMania, and the first time Sting has uttered a word about what his motivations are for doing this was seen as an extra bonus feature following Monday Night Raw on the WWE Networkānot on the show itself.
If WWE can go in-depth on why Triple H has a grudge against Sting, but won't give Sting time to talk and give his side of the story, it becomes a one-sided debate.
While the head of The Authority gets to explain that he wants to kill WCW, Sting points at the WrestleMania sign multiple times. Triple H gets a promo with Ric Flair, and Sting has a couple of crow sound effects go off now and again. Amazing, right?
John Cena has explained why defeating Rusev and winning the United States Championship means so much to him. Likewise, Roman Reigns has expressed his motivations for proving his doubters wrong when he takes the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar.
So why is Sting screwing with Triple H? If it's just because he's a good guy and doesn't like to see cheating, why is he not helping out in other matches? If it's specific to Triple H, why isn't he showing up more often to foil his plans?
One of the key reasons why this feud is not as good as it should be is the pure lack of Sting in it in general.
For this year's WrestleMania, there are three major players that are basically missing in action. When Lesnar is your world champion and he's been on television only a handful of times in nine months, and Undertaker hasn't been seen at all for an entire year, why do the same with Sting?
He's being billed as The Vigilante now, but even Batman has a signal that alerts criminals that he's out there every night fighting crime. Meanwhile, WWE uses an impostor version of Sting who is smaller and much less intimidating.
That quick shot of Sting popping up to frighten Triple H is supposed to be memorable and awesome, but being able to tell that it is not the real man just comes off hokey and sad. Would it not have been worth the money to pay for Steve Borden's plane ticket to get the real deal?
Even when Sting does show up, WWE has neutered two of the things that made him cool back in the 1990s that are constantly being referred to.
Do you remember when Sting used to come down from the rafters? Well, he comes out from the backstage area now, because he's just hanging out with the guys in catering.
What about that dark, mysterious theme he used to have? That's been replaced with a generic droning tune that nobody could recognize because it sounds like background filler music from the start menu of any run-of-the-mill modern video game.
This just reeks WWE trying to skate by with as little effort as possible, which is a shame as it is robbing the audience of a much better experience.
With just a few tweaks to the details, more development to the story itself and some additional appearances by the real Sting himself in person instead of just in video packages, this could have become a much more memorable feud.
By default, out of its historical importance, this program will no doubt be remembered. However, it will be considered great more so just because it happened rather than for how it happened.
Similarly, everyone remembers Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant, but nobody talks about the rest of the match leading up to it, and the same logic will probably apply here.
Sting deserved a better introduction to WWE, and the WWE Universe deserved a better introduction to Sting. Now that the build is just about done and over with, it will be up to the two men themselves to put on a great enough performance to make up for it and not drop the ball like the creative team has been doing for months.
What do you think about how WWE has been using Sting? Are they utilizing him to the best of their abilities, or has this been a disappointment?
Tell us what you're thinking in the comments below!
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling websiteĀ Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
