"Career/History" - 1985 to 1995 - People - http://maxpages.com/stingcentral/1985_to

Steve Borden's career began in 1985 when he and Jim Hellwig joined two other wrestlers and formed Power Team USA. In early 1986, Power Team USA dissolved but Hellwig and Borden remained together and came to the UWF. At that time Hellwig took the name Rock while Borden took the name Justice. There they turned heel and became the Bladerunners. Together, they tore up the scene until a mutual split. At that time, Rock left for World Class Championship Wrestling and became the Dingo Warrior, later the Ultimate Warrior. Meanwhile, Justice changed his name to Sting. So the Sting saga had begun.

While in the UWF, Sting formed a friendship with Rick Steiner and won the UWF tag team titles. This relationship did not last, and the two became entangled in a heated feud and they left for NWA. Sting waited until a title opportunity came and he defeated Mike Rotunda on March 30, 1989 to win the TV title. He held the belt for a few months until the Great Muta won it by controversy.

After the TV title loss, Sting was befriended by the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Two months after Halloween Havoc '89, where Sting and Ric Flair fought Terry Funk and the Great Muta, Sting defeated Flair in the finals of the Iron Man competition at Starrcade to receive a World title shot at Flair. In order to avoid giving Sting the shot, Flair invited him into the Four Horsemen, but Sting still wanted the shot. On Feb. 6, 1990, the Horsemen kicked Sting out of the group. Later the same night, Sting injured his knee trying to climb a cage to get at Flair. That injury would require surgery and keep Sting out for four months.

Later on July 7, 1990, Sting came back from the injury to defeat Ric Flair for the World title at the Great American Bash '90 in Baltimore. Sting immediately became the focus of the fans; he had comics written about him, his merchandise became top-sellers, and he sold out arenas everywhere. In short, Sting became the man!

Flair eventually reclaimed the crown on Jan. 11, 1991 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Still, Sting was the hero of the fans, despite the title loss. 1991 would prove to be a pivotal year in the career of Sting. He parted ways with his best friend Lex Luger and then won the United States title with a tournament victory over Steve Austin while Luger won the World title. Finally Luger cost Sting his U.S. title by injuring Sting's knee before a defence with Rick Rude. In December, WCW held its first ever BattleBowl, a two-ring tag-team elimination tournament followed by a battle royal amongst the tag winning teams. The last two left in the battle royal were Luger and Sting, which Sting won.

On February 29, 1992, Sting would meet Luger at SuperBrawl II for the WCW World title. Luger dominated a lot of the match, but then Sting took over. Sting hit Luger with everything and eventually won the title with a flying bodypress off the top rope. Sting was the Man once again. He eventually lost the title on July 12, to the hands of Big Van Vader. Right after the loss to Vader Sting began a feud with Jake "the Snake" Roberts which culminated in the two meeting in a "Spin the Wheel, make the Deal" match at Halloween Havoc of 1992. At the end of that Coal Miners Glove match, Jake brought out a cobra and tried to bite Sting with it, but instead Jake's own snake bit him!! WCW banned all animals from ringside after that incident. Early in 1993, Sting won back the World title from Vader, but lost it back to him six days later. For the rest of 93 and early 94, Sting remained in the hunt for titles but never won any, until April of 94.

WCW held their first ever Spring Stampede PPV that year, and Sting was involved in a feud with WCW International champ Ric Rude. Rude would not give Sting a shot at the belt until a young woman asked Rude for an autograph during a TV taping. What Rude actually signed was a contract to face Sting at the Stampede, and it was there that Sting won the WCW International title. Also around the same time, Hulk Hogan was signing to compete in WCW and he wanted the World title. So in June of 94 at the Clash of Champions, WCW unified the WCW World and International titles when Sting met Ric Flair. Flair cheated his way to victory over his rival Sting that night, and Sting disappeared from the title picture for about a year.

Though not in the hunt for a title belt, Sting did manage to win the one and only "King of Cable" tournament at Starrcade in 94 with one of his few pinfall victories over Vader. Early in 1995, the U.S. title was declared vacant and once again a tournament would determine a new champion. Sting gained the right to wear the U.S. title again be defeating Meng at the Great American Bash. Sting would hold the title until October when he was upset by Japanese sensation Kensuke Sasaki. Down but not out, Sting rebounded and gained revenge on Sasaki at Starrcade. Though the title was not up for grabs, pride was as WCW faces new Japan in the World Series of Wrestling, a best of seven between WCW stars and new Japan stars. Sting won the deciding seventh match over Sasaki, thus claiming WCW as the best Wrestling in the world.

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