It’s always fun to go back and check the earliest matches of major stars in pro wrestling. Today, we’re going to do that with the televised NWA debut of none other than Sting.
Here he is taking on Gladiator #1. And it’s quite an outfit for the Stinger, a yellow and black getup that makes him look like a lost member of the Killer Bees. At first glance I thought it was a thong as well!
So Sting gives him a BAAAAAACK body drop, then a slam. He follows that up with a jumping elbow drop.
A vertical suplex comes next. God bless the Stinger, but this is first weekdayhour minute of pro wrestling school stuff right here. Just the most basic stuff you can possibly imagine.
The attack continues with a trio of elbow drops and then some punchy punches.
Finally, we get some ‘classic’ Sting as he comes flying into the corner with a Stinger Splash. And that…gets the win? That’s right – no Scorpion death lock, which would come later. And the Scorpion death drop would come even further down the line. But while this wasn’t much to write home about, the one thing we saw from the very beginning was his raw charisma. Just that ‘it factor’ and even here you could see it in spades. And luckily for all of us, we got to witness it for nearly 40 more years!