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Recalling Sting's Last Main Event PPV World Championship Match

Posted: Sep 2nd 2015 By: Ryan Dilbert - BleacherReport.com

Sting stands ready to take down the alpha male of a dominant, villainous faction and snatch away his world championship, all under a main event spotlight.

That narrative will sound awfully familiar to TNA fans. It was just over two years ago that Sting challenged Bully Ray (Bubba Ray Dudley in WWE) for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary XI. Despite the differences in opponent and venue, the parallels between that pay-per-view title bout and his upcoming clash with Seth Rollins at Night of Champions are plentiful.

Bully Ray headed Aces & Eights, a group of lawless biker thugs intent on controlling TNA.

Sting continued his history of playing the lone wolf going up against the pack by standing up to that faction and Bully Ray. The group had spent months ambushing wrestlers, cracking them over the head with hammers and disrupting the natural order of the company.

As he had done in his battles with NWO at WCW, The Icon refused to back down. He ignored the dangers assured him and demanded that TNA's world champ and the Aces & Eights president face him at Slammiversary in a No Holds Barred match.

Bully Ray only agreed after he added the stipulation that a loss would prevent Sting from ever challenging for the TNA title again.

Even with that risk hanging over his head, with the knowledge that Aces & Eights would be lurking in the darkness, Stinger was defiant as ever. He told the champion, "I'm going to make you bleed in Boston."

No such stipulation awaits Sting when he faces Rollins, but the resemblance of the two narratives lies in Sting going it alone against the pack leader of a heel stable. At Night of Champions, he's not only after championship gold but will be continuing his fight to bring down The Authority.

On June 2, 2013, in Boston's Agganis Arena, Sting tried to do just that by cutting off the serpent's head. Defeating Bully Ray and becoming TNA champ would signal a major shift in power.

By the time the PPV had reached its main event, it looked as if a turning point was upon us. The Aces & Eights faction was reeling somewhat after Abyss had knocked off Devon for the TNA TV title.

And in the moments after the opening bell, Sting peppered Bully Ray with right hands, leaving the champion unable to get settled. Despite being the older man and the clear underdog, it was The Stinger who controlled the action in the early going. He whipped his dastardly foe with the title belt that he hoped to win that night.

This Sting was slower and more limited than the one who had been a whirlwind that tore into the NWO.

Still, this was a compelling brawl. And it's always fulfilling to see the superhero make his enemy pay.

Brooke Hogan, who was (storyline) married to Bully Ray at the time, was so disturbed by what she saw that she wandered out on the entrance ramp. Sting begged for her to go away. He had grisly work to do.

Eventually Bully Ray altered the arc of the story. He withstood Sting's best shots and then delivered his own. He clubbed Sting with clotheslines and then cracked a chair across his back to the point that the weapon lay bent and misshapen in his hands.

This was no longer about comeuppance; this was about survival.

Bully Ray beat on his challenger with no mercy. Nothing he did could keep the veteran down, though. The champ hit him with a piledriver and powerbombed him through a table. It all netted him only near-falls.

At one point, the villain cut the canvas from off the ring to expose the wood underneath. Even in a No Holds Barred matchup, this seemed to cross a line. Bully Ray drove Sting's head into that wood, but still couldn't get a three-count.

Sting was superhuman here.

And soon it took a whole army to bring him down. The Aces & Eights crew pounced. Even outnumbered and weary, though, Sting looked much like did against the NWO years before and opposite The Authority years afterward as he fought them off valiantly.

Injustice won out, however. Bully Ray bashed Sting with a hammer across his brow and defeated him.

The announcers cursed the result. Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net called it "a weak finish to a crowd-pleasing brawl." The crowd chanted in disapproval.

The audience had seen TNA lean heavily on Aces & Eights interference to close out matches for a long time before this. A promising storyline had turned repetitive. Climaxes never came. An Aces & Eights ambush to cap things off became a crutch for the writers.

That's been a complaint levied at the WWE today. The Authority are corporate scum not rebel outsiders, but their tactics are largely the same. And again and again, fans have watched big matches peter out thanks to overuse of the interference angle.

Slammiversary marked one of Sting's last TNA matches.

Sting wasn't sure what was next for him at this point. In an interview with VOC Nation Radio (h/t F4WOnline), he reflected on his title match with Bully Ray and his place in TNA. He said, "When I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, I asked Dixie if she was putting me out to pasture and she said 'absolutely not.' I'm giving you a straight-up answer: It makes me wonder."

Just over six months later, Sting's TNA tenure was over.

Although he would later face Magnus and Ethan Carter III, the loss to Bully Ray felt like his real swan song. The hero had given everything of him, but couldn't overcome the mob that controlled the company. He was the gunslinger firing every last one of his bullets as the outlaws surrounded him.

Few would have predicted that over two years after Slammiversary that Sting would have not only moved into the WWE world but be set to headline a PPV with a chance to become world champion.

Again, he's the underdog in a battle with a younger, more vicious opponent. Again, he plays the man who swoops in with his target set on the central figure in the nefarious group in control.

Chances are he ends that tale just as he did the one against Bully Ray?on his back, titleless, with just how much heart he has on full display.