You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. The man, the myth, the legend, the icon. No, I'm not talking about the singer Sting.
But I am talking about the wrestler, the stinger, Jethoita. It's time to man up. I probably say this on every single show, but I actually mean it. When I say it's a joy, it's a pleasure, it's an honor to have each and every guest on each week. And this is another special one.
This is one very close to my heart. A special man that I know you are going to really enjoy this interview today. This show, as mentioned at the top of the show in the opening, someone who has had an iconic career in professional wrestling. Of course, I am speaking to and with today and welcoming to the show Sting. Welcome, my friend.
Hey, Nick. Wow, what an introduction. I don't know if I'm worthy of all that.
I know I'm not. But hey, thanks for having me. Well, thank you. And I really am very appreciative. I know your schedule is always very full and very hectic. And I really, truly mean it. It's an honor to have you on, a privilege to have you on. Especially with your recent debut back into the mainstream wrestling. So thank you for just taking some time out of your schedule to be a part of the show. Oh, man, Nick, it's my pleasure for sure.
I mean, anytime I get a chance to talk about the great things God has done in my life, I'd like to capitalize on it. And thankfully, it's with a buddy of mine. Well, I appreciate it. Speaking of that, I mean, I was trying to think the other day, and you can probably help me out as well, as I was preparing for this interview, that our relationship, I'll just start with that, our relationship, I believe, goes back, I think, around 33 years, back to 1987 when we first met. And we're going to kind of talk about your journey in professional wrestling. But that relationship, I believe that's about when our relationship started and then morphed into or transformed into what I consider to be you, one of my dearest, closest friends in today's world.
It definitely didn't start out that way. I mean, I was the curtain-jerker kind of a guy, and you were a main event kind of a guy. And so, yeah, we knew each other, but we didn't really run in the same circles at that particular time. It took some time for a lot to happen in your life and in mine and in wrestling in general before we got close.
But anyway. Well, and on that note, and again, we'll let this unfold here in just a minute, but it didn't take you long to go from, as you just quote, curtain-jerker, to main event star status. So speaking of that, let's back up because we have a lot of similarities, you and I. I mean, for one thing, we're only 11 days apart in age, like literally 11 days apart.
We're almost born on the same day, but we were born in the same year. But that said, if I'm not mistaken, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, but like myself, you didn't really grow up with wrestling on your radar of dreaming, like many of these guys do, and it's okay, of dreaming of being a pro wrestler, right? That is correct. I grew up in an area in Southern California about 50 miles northeast of L.A. and the Little Valley, well, it's not so little, the Santa Clarita Valley at that time, we had just a few channels on the television, and wrestling was not one of them. We didn't have any pro wrestling on TV, so I didn't even know what it was until I matured into a young man and bought into a, didn't buy into, but I became partners with a guy named Ed Connors, who was the treasurer of Gold's Gym in Venice Beach, who bought a sister gym to that one in the San Fernando Valley, which was just south of Santa Clarita where I was, and I owned this gym and a big guy with blonde hair would come in and the whole gym would freak out and, you know, don't you even know who that is?
No, I have no idea who that is. That's Hulk Hogan. And I said, I don't know who Hulk Hogan is. I've never even heard the name Hulk Hogan. And they'd say, well, the guy from the Rocky movie. And I knew him from the Rocky movie, but I did not know anything about pro wrestling. And it's funny because, you know, that happened in that gym, but I was also approached by a guy named Rick Bassman maybe a year later to get into pro wrestling. So, it's funny how things work.
It is. And again, that kind of, I'm reminded as you share that story, Hulk who? Hulk Hogan who? You know, again, now I did see a little bit of wrestling growing up, you know, the AAW, at Vern Ganya and the AAW and, you know, surfing our three TV channels.
But I never was, you know, I wasn't one of those who was just fascinated by it or any of that. You know, I watched it, of course, you know, worked out in my college days at the Jesse the Body, Ventura's gym. And so, like yourself, actually crazy enough as it might sound, my debut in wrestling in Raleigh, North Carolina at the Dorton Arena, they're introducing me to a bunch of guys and I'm like, your name's Dusty what? Oh, Dusty Rhodes.
Rhodes? Oh, okay. And yeah, you're King Kong who? Oh, King Kong Bundy.
Yeah. So, there is a lot of parallel there. So, you're introduced to professional wrestling as you just described. And what happened from there? I mean, now you know who Hulk Hogan is.
What happens? Well, like I said, I was approached by a guy named Rick Bassman who I'm still in contact with to this day. He came into the Gold's Gym that I had in the San Fernando Valley there.
It was actually in Reseda. And he came in and he was trying to break into pro wrestling as a manager of four guys. And he had three. He was trying to recruit a fourth. So, he asked if he could put a poster up in the gym and I said, yeah, go ahead. And so, the guys worked out in there. And one day, oh probably a month later, two months later even, because he didn't have any bites at all, he said, you know, what about you?
You ever think about this? And he had pictures of magazines and you were mentioning Dusty Rhodes. And, you know, I saw a picture of Dusty Rhodes on this magazine Wrestling Illustrated and going through and thumbing through all these, you know, pages and just thinking, you know, I don't have an interest in getting into this. And he talked me into going with these three guys to the sports arena in L.A. And I saw a wrestling event, Hulk Hogan, it was a live event, non-televised, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, The Iron Sheik, The British Bulldogs, Adrian Adonis, Big John Studd, I mean all the big names.
And so, and it was, you know, I always tell the story the same exact way. It was pandemonium. The 80s phrase and, you know, red and yellow bandanas everywhere and, you know, the crowd chanting for Hulk Hogan. And I mean, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I honestly, I couldn't believe it. It was almost deafening.
The noise was so loud. And I thought, okay, you know, for me, I saw a way to potentially travel and make money. And that's what it was all about for me in the very beginning. And so, you know, we ended up doing it. We had four guys. One guy ended up leaving. We had to recruit another one about halfway through a wrestling camp with Red Bastine. Red Bastine was the, he was under Vince McMahon's senior years ago and living in California and had a wrestling camp out there.
It was short lived. I think we were the only one that he ever did, but we needed to replace this big guy. And I remembered meeting Jim Helwick.
And so I called Jim and had him come out from Atlanta and, you know, about eight of us in all. And it ended up just Jim and I were the only two that ended up, you know, finishing completely and moving on in wrestling. Well, and once again, kind of a parallel there in that when I stepped into the world of professional, like yourself, again, I didn't go in because I was a fanboy growing up.
I went in because I saw it as a business, as an opportunity to travel, make money. It's exactly what you said. And from day one, that was my mindset up until the day I retired and left wrestling. So, well, let's fast forward from there. So you and Jim Helwick are the last two standing.
And if I'm not mistaken, Tennessee and eventually Mid-South is kind of where you guys got your start then, right? The Blade Runners or what? Well, no, it was before the Blade Runners, we were the freedom fighters, okay?
We need that now. And I was Flash Borden and, you know, the red, white and blue. We were so green, we were horrible. But Jerry Jarrett, you know, he saw a picture.
We sent out press kits all over, even into Japan at the time. We got one phone call from all those promoters, Jerry Jarrett, and he said, yeah, I see four guys in this picture. Jim Helwick's on one line, I'm on the other line in my house in California. And, okay, well, which two do you want?
Well, I like the two guys to the far left. I said, okay, well, you're talking to both of us. He says, get in your car and come on out, you know, to Tennessee. So Thanksgiving Day 1985, Channel 5 in Memphis, Tennessee with Lance Russell. And we started our career that day. Destiny, man.
Destiny is involved in that. So Tennessee, you eventually go down to Bill Watts in the Mid-South. And I'm kind of fast-forwarding here because, man, the time goes so fast and your story is so fascinating.
I don't want to, you know, miss out on anything here. You go down to the Mid-South, eventually Jim Crockett Promotions buys the Mid-South. And the Stinger from Louisiana territory into the Carolinas as part of the NWA and as you mentioned, you know, opening matches. But ultimately, I mean, it's amazing, from the NWA to WCW to TNA to WWE to now AEW, it's amazing your career, Stinger. So you come to the NWA and your career, as I said, doesn't take long. I mean, it catapults to stardom in a pretty short time.
Yeah, it was pretty quick. As a matter of fact, I told this story on national TV, you know, through AEW on TNT last week. It's a true story and, you know, we all love to imitate Dusty Rhodes.
But I'll never forget, you know, being that young guy and we were at a house show somewhere, I don't remember where, somewhere in the mid-Atlantic area. And I'm watching through the curtains, somebody's wrestling and Dusty and I are watching. And I think Ricky Morton was set to do a program with Flair, but Ricky got hurt. So Dusty was in a panic trying to find somebody to, you know, wrestle Rick or do some kind of storyline.
Which in Dorton Arena, by the way, is where it all began for me, similar with yours, another parallel there. Dusty and I are watching and Dusty said, Stinger baby, we gonna, we gonna, cause at the time I was still kind of Blade Runner-ish, just black paint, just a little bit of black paint on my face with black tights. You know, Stinger baby, we gonna put some color on you. We gonna put some color on your face and color on your boots and your tats. And I want you to glow in the dark and we gonna get funky like a monkey if you will. I'm gonna put you with the nature boy Rick Flair.
You know, Ricky's hurt, so I'm gonna put you with Rick Flair. Come on. So anyway, we did a storyline there in Dorton Arena with, you know, the four horsemen and JJ Dillon is the manager. He threw champagne in my face and it was, it all started right there, believe it or not.
It was great. Well, hold that thought. When we come back, we're gonna continue on with that story.
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It's time to man up. We're talking, of course, the one and only, the icon, Stinger, and gosh, we're just in the midst of his journey from Tennessee to Mid-South to the NWA, eventually to WCW. He was just sharing how his career was really catapulted into stardom through the American dream death of Ruth. I like to imitate him, too.
You're right. We all like to imitate him. So he puts you with Ric Flair and, I mean, gosh, things just explode from there, right, Stinger? Yeah, Dorton Arena. We did a quick little storyline, Ric Flair Day. And next thing you know, I'm wrestling Ric as the first class champions, March of 1988.
And 45 minute commercial free, first time any sporting event of any kind ever went that long without commercial interruption. And we got an incredible rating and that match literally put me on the map. And to this day, I give so much credit to Ric. He was sort of mentoring me without knowing that he was mentoring me.
I mean, I learned so much from him. But to say that you were in the ring against Ric Flair, not to mention for the world title, was as big as it could get. I felt like, wow, I've arrived now. I get it. Go ahead.
No, I was just going to say, no, I get it. Because once again, I mean, it's just uncanny how similar our stories are in a sense because only 13 months into the business, I was thrust into main event with Ric at the very first ever Great American Bash. Same as you. I have the same feeling and so grateful and thankful to Ric teaching me and mentoring me without knowing, really in a sense, without knowing he was.
And yeah, it just and I know, like I said, your story just takes off really from there. Quick question. I'm curious, who came up with the Scorpion finish? Just curiosity, random question. Yeah, you know, Ricky Choshu.
Ricky Choshu from Japan. I had gone to Japan on a trip there while I was still working for Bill Watts. It was my very first trip over there. I went over there by myself. I didn't know anybody and didn't know what to expect. But I went there and learned a lot. It was nine days.
I wrestled Danny Spivey in Budokan and I saw Ricky Choshu wrestle and I loved his finishing move and the way the crowd reacted to him. And I thought, you know, I think I'm going to use that. Yup. Yup.
Okay. That's where it came from. That's where it came from. And I too remember he was quite an avid, he was quite the wrestler as well.
I had a number of matches against him in Japan myself. And so, I mean, and your character Stinger, your character, I like to phrase it this way. It's like timeless, really. I mean, we only have so much time on the show today. I guess one day I'm going to have to have you back. We'll talk more about your journey through, you know, as it went through WCW.
In fact, I will mention this though as well. You know, speaking of Ric Flair, you had the very last concluding match of WCW's history against The Nature Boy. And eventually, you know, you headed off into TNA and eventually WWE, as I mentioned now AEW, which your character is timeless. And what I mean by that is, I mean, with the face paint, the trench coat, your Stinger regalia, you know, I'm thinking you could be the next Lou Thes, Stinger.
This is funny because so many people don't even know who Lou Thes is now. I mean, he's, I understand your point, which, and then by the way, you know, we should just do a two-part radio thing here, you know? I mean, I'm just throwing it out there. Okay.
Well, that. Okay. Well, Steve, I'll produce my show. You do your thing and I'll ask the questions, all right? No, actually, a couple of people said, dude, you're going to like do two parts with him, right?
I'm like, I wouldn't be if, you know, if he has the time. So if you're offering the time, uh, yeah, we could make that happen. Of course, Nick. I mean, yeah, let's, let's do it the way you'd like to do it.
And let's do a two parter. All right. Well, that fair enough. All right. Fair enough.
So, well, let's, let's then let's talk. You said you understood, you know, a lot of people maybe don't know who Lou Thes is, but so who, uh, uh, share with our listeners what I mean by that. When I say you could have a career like Lou Thes. Well, Lou, Lou, Lou Thes was, uh, wasn't he an amateur wrestler as well?
I can't remember that. He was. And I mean, he had, he had, he had vice grip type, you know, grip. Uh, I mean, he got literally, I guess he could squeeze an apple and break it. He could, uh, grab a pair of pliers and break the pliers. Uh, but you may, he, he was around for decades, seven decades.
In fact, his last match was in Japan, uh, in his eighties, seven decades, Lou wrestled and won many NWA world championships. Yeah. Well, Lord, please don't allow me to be, no, thank you. I'm just saying, I mean, you know, you keep your look, you keep yourself in shape. I mean, on a serious note, you keep yourself in, in really great shape.
And, uh, just say with the advancement of technology and cinematic and all of that, I mean, there's no telling what, what else you could accomplish Stinger. Yeah. Well, you know, at 80, I guess you just have a bunch of young guys running into your fist and that's about all you're going to do. I don't know Lou. Hey, Lou is either that or just do a lot of good talk. Right, right, right, right, right.
Good to get him. Well, Lou, I mean, he was amazing. I mean, and, and I, you know, I'm good friends with his wife, Charlie, who, who, uh, you know, is, uh, his widow and, and, uh, and so many incredible stories about Lou and how he kept himself, like literally kept himself in shape, even into his eighties and was able to go in there. And of course he was a, he was a grappler, right? So, you know, I didn't have an amateur background.
Did you, did you ever, you didn't wrestle in high school or amateur, did you? No, I did not. Okay. Yeah.
See, I didn't either. So the guys who did that, I said like Steiner brothers and some of the micro Tondo and others, I said, Hey, you start doing any chicken wings or single legs and stuff. You know, you'll find me in the, in the dressing room, you'll, you can get your hand raised. I don't care, but don't be pulling none of that amateur stuff on me. I'm here for the entertainment side of this thinking to make some money.
Absolutely. But, so, so, so you have this progression of, of, you know, working your way up, up into, and again, as I mentioned, you know, you, you have the very last match on, on, on WCW. There's, there's a break in the action there for you. You come back to TNA, you have an amazing run with, with, with TNA. Any, any highlight that you would mention from, from TNA that, that comes to mind? Man, uh, you know, I, I, I had a lot of fun, you know, actually wrestling with TNA and, um, you know, I changed my character a few times over the years and one of them was during my time with TNA. Okay. And I did, I did a little, uh, what, what they call the joker sting, you know, so you got surfer sting, crow sting, wolf back sting, joker sting. And, and, you know, uh, so I, I had a lot of fun because I kind of came out of character, I broke character and just turned into, well, a joker type character.
Okay. And, uh, you know, I did storylines with, you know, Hulk, Hulk, again, whole came on the TNA. Uh, the hope was that if I came on board there, there'd be a lot of other guys that would come and sure enough, you know, all in Nash and Hogan and, you know, a lot of the big names that, uh, uh, a lot of guys came in and so it was, uh, an exciting time, but you know, I, I think honestly one of the highlights was, uh, was changing that character. I'll never forget being at Wembley in London and, you know, the crowd, so many of them were painted up like me and like the joker sting and, you know, in, in England and all over the UK or in Europe.
I mean, they just, they love that joker character, not so much here in the United States. It was sort of hit and miss here, but I had a lot of fun doing it. Out of all of the different ones. So you just described a number of different ones out of all the different ones, uh, which it was the one that was your favorite.
It's a, it's a tough one that, you know, I, there, there's a tie. I mean, you know, surface thing is where it all began pretty much. And then Crow sting is, you know, when I, I, I kind of came into my own, you know, uh, after all the years. And, you know, the, the maturity level was there and the, I was seasoned just enough to sort of kind of become my own character, my own, you know, I brought my own material, my own ideas, my own innovation, a lot of it, you know, not all of it.
I mean, some of it was given to me as well, but, um, it was just a real good, creative, innovative time for me in my career. Well, and, and certainly, you know, whether it's back in, as, as fans have said, the golden, what they've, what many have said to me, and perhaps to you as well is, you know, that era that, that we were a part of back in the eighties and, you know, early nineties. And, you know, the goal, what they call the golden era of wrestling.
Right. And so many, as you know, so many loyal, wonderful fans that, that are, are still out there that, that remember those days, but you're, you know, you're touching a whole new audience now. Cause you eventually out of all the amazing matches and guys that you've wrestled through the years and TNA, and then eventually into, to WWE and any highlight from WWE that you would mention to our listeners today?
A couple of things, you know, number one, the first time I stepped foot into a WWE audience, it's like, how are they going to take to me? You know, after the Monday night wars, you know, how are they going to receive you? Right. Right. You have loyal WWE fans, you have WCW fans, and, you know, it's all these years later.
I mean, how are they going to react? And, and, uh, boy, I was, I was just blown away at the reaction. And so that, that was amazing.
The very first initial. And then also, of course, I mean, you know, to say that you did a WrestleMania, you know, that's, that's, uh, that's pretty big. It's a big deal.
Absolutely. And so, yeah, to, you know, wrestle Triple H, one of the greatest ever, you know, that's, that's big. And, you know, even a world title match against Seth Rollins, there's a few highlights there. I mean, and again, I mean, some of the guys that you've, you've wrestled, I mean, honestly, the best of the best of the past.
I mean, you've put just on this short time and we were almost out of time on part one already. Um, but, uh, gosh, some of the names you've mentioned, uh, over the, over the years that you've been able to step in the ring with, uh, I know it's hard to really kind of narrow it down or, or pinpoint, uh, any, any one, but we are gonna, so we're gonna do this. Um, we're gonna take a break here, uh, and, and bring you back for, for part two. And when we come back for part two, we're gonna talk about, uh, your recent debut and AEW wrestling and, and what that entails or what you envisioned there and for the listeners out there.
So you're gonna want to tune in when we continue our conversation with the one and only Sting, the icon of professional wrestling. And as I like to conclude each and every show and, and say this, uh, if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, man, today would be such a good day to make that decision. Wherever you're at, wherever you're listening, you know, pull off to the side of the road, close your eyes.
Don't be driving, but pull off the side and just surrender your heart. If you're in a hotel room or wherever you're listening, surrender your heart to Jesus. God bless you. Stay tuned. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today. If you are enjoying the man up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the man up show now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Koloff here.
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