Sting

Steve Borden, born on March 20, 1959, is an American retired professional wrestler best known by his ring name Sting. Trained by Red Bastien and Rick Bassman, he began his career in 1985 under the name Flash in All-California Championship Wrestling, forming a tag team with Jim Hellwig. The two later joined the Universal Wrestling Federation as the Blade Runners, during which time Borden adopted the Sting name. He became a cornerstone of World Championship Wrestling from 1988 to 2001, earning the nickname "The Franchise of WCW." During his tenure he held 15 championships in the promotion, including six reigns with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and headlined WCW's highest-grossing pay-per-view event, Starrcade, in December 1997. Throughout his career he wore distinctive face paint, shifting in 1996 from his colorful "Surfer" persona to the monochromatic "Crow" gimmick.

After WCW's closure, Sting joined TNA in 2003, where he won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship four times and became the only wrestler to hold the NWA, WCW, and TNA world titles. He was the inaugural inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2012. Borden eventually signed with WWE in late 2014 and was headlined into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016, announcing his first retirement at that ceremony. He later signed with All Elite Wrestling in 2020, coming out of retirement and winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship alongside Darby Allin before officially retiring at Revolution on March 3, 2024.