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Sting Interview

Posted: Jun 23rd 2006 By: mikeiles

This interview originally appeared on WrestlingObserver.com on January 13, 2006

The most high-profile signing in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling history is set to make his debut, as Steve ?Sting? Borden teams with Christian Cage to face Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown on Sunday night?s Final Resolution pay-per-view show emanating from Orlando. In the following interview, Borden talks about his time away from wrestling, why he returned for a one-year TNA deal worth a reported $500,000, and about the impact becoming a born-again Christian in August 1998 has made in his life.

Q: What was your first taste of TNA like at the Orlando tapings last week?

Borden: ?I do have a level of anticipation and excitement. As you know, in WCW we were second-class citizens for a long, long time. Then we had the Monday Nitro show and suddenly we became a force to be reckoned with. We created a huge machine. There?s potential for the same thing to happen here. I know some pretty big thing have to fall into place to make this possible. But we?ve got a bunch of guys who are young and very hungry and really want to make a name not only for themselves but for TNA. I thought the camaraderie in the locker room was pretty good. I had a very small taste of it. Everyone was real friendly and treated me great, although I?m sure some guys were not too happy to see me here. But that goes with the territory. I?m ready for that and have embraced this opportunity.?

Q: Besides the money, why did you take this opportunity?

Borden: ?Jeff and Jerry (Jarrett) called me originally and wanted me to be a part of this. I did a few shows for them. When they landed on Spike, Jeff called me and said they had some pretty exciting things happening and would I be willing to talk. Jeff?s dad hired me in November 1985 when I first started, so I feel like I?ve kind of come full circle. This is really a good way to give back to the fans and an avenue to say goodbye.
?Wrestling ended in an abrupt way for me. It was just suddenly done and gone. People wondered what happened with Sting. I think it really meant something to the fans that I did stay and remained loyal to WCW all those years. I almost feel like TNA is an extension of WCW because there was always a certain flavor (to promotions) in the Northeast and the South. I feel like I?m back in the flavor where I was designed to be.
?I never believed I would be going back because each year that goes by at my age, it?s like, ?Oh my God! The door is closing here.? I thought last year that if something doesn?t happen I would be pretty much done. When they called me this year, it took me some time before making the commitment. In the meantime, they made a commitment to me, Dixie and the whole Carter family and [TNA parent company] Panda. I haven?t met anyone specifically from Spike yet, but the word I get from Dixie and Jeff is that the people from Spike are excited about having me come and I guess they want me to be involved in some other stuff. The whole package just seemed to kind of come together. It was like, ?Wow, I can do this once every two weeks, fly to Orlando and do one or two TV tapings, and a once-a-month pay-per-view (show).?

Q: How strongly did you consider signing with WWE?

Borden: ?In 1990s, I talked to them a couple of times and the reason I was never able to work things out with Vince is they not offering the right kind of monetary contract. I was raising my family. I had two boys at home and I was pretty well set in Atlanta. I had two health clubs. Lex (Luger) had all that too, but he left (to WWE). That was his choice. My choice was to stay because every time we would have to renegotiate a new contract with WCW they always ended up giving pretty much what I wanted. I told them I was going to talk to Vince or had talked to him and I would take my chances up in New York. The other thing is I always believed Vince wanted me more to undermine WCW than me as a talent.?
?I?ve talked to Vince a few times since WCW was purchased by him. The first time we talked, we were real close to a deal. But he wanted it now and we were trying to put this thing together. It was three weeks before Wrestlemania that particular year and he just said, ?I need to know whether you can do this. Let?s try to hash this out.? He was accommodating and gracious and said he would try to do just about whatever to make it work. But by the time WWE attorneys start talking to my attorney, it just doesn?t go quickly enough. They talked almost every day for a week, and at the end of the week, I had to call Vince and say, ?We can?t do this as quickly as you want to do it. I feel I can?t give you the most bang for your buck right now and I am not ready physically. I need more than three weeks.? He said I?m the only guy who always manages to slip through his fingers. It was funny to hear him say that. He?s always been good to me. I?ve never worked for him, but in the conversations we?ve had over the years, he?s been really good to me.
?We talked again recently. I think they got wind I was talking with TNA. Every time you hear or read about something on the internet quoting Eric Bischoff or Jim Ross or whoever, it?s always, ?We believe his religious beliefs will stop him from ever going back into wrestling.? It?s funny because I?ve always said I would never close the door on it and it?s something I would consider.
?The problem was I could not make the commitment they needed. They wanted to go all the way with the Sting character. Whether you?re on the Raw or Smackdown schedule, both are about the same. It boils down to 12 to 15 days a month approximately on the road. That doesn?t include dark days, travel days, etc. In 2006, they?re going to leave the country more times than they ever have. I talked to Shawn (Michaels) a few weeks ago when they just got back from Iraq. He had been out of the country three times in four weeks. I had my day where I ran really hard and did 300-something days a year. At my age, I cannot do it. I don?t want to make that kind of commitment. My oldest son is 15 and I have another who is 13 and a daughter who is five. There?s too many things I?m doing here where I have a life outside of wrestling.?

Q: What are those things?

Borden: ?I?m really involved with my church. My brother Jeff is my pastor. God does things in funny ways. My whole family lives in Santa Clarita Valley in California and we all go to the same church. All my nieces and nephews are there. Everyone is happy and healthy. I have a 90-acre piece of property I own in Southern California that I have slowly but surely been developing, not for residential housing but where you could see cabins and it could serve as some kind of retreat for youth, especially with extreme sports and all that cool stuff. In the meantime, what I?ve done is put a huge multipurpose field on there. The Christian school where my three kids go is right around the corner and they?ve never had a football field. Now they do. The last three years, they?ve used it as a practice field and scrimmage against other schools. It?s an amazing thing to drive down that hill and see referees and yellow flags and whistles and a bunch of people with pop-up tents and ice chests watching the action.
?I?m really involved in trying to develop that and my church. I?ve been speaking at churches and conventions and events of all different sorts. I do an illustrated sermon where I will be Sting the wrestler and then just Steve Borden. I?ve done a few of those with Ted DiBiase and Nikita (Koloff). I show a three-minute presentation. You see me repel out of the rafters and wrestle some of the biggest names. I then share my testimony. I?ve also written my book and filmed my movie about it.?

Q: You?ve gone public with your battle with alcohol and painkiller abuse. What are your thoughts on the rash of drug-related deaths than have hit the industry in recent years and do you think you can serve as a role model with your return?

Borden: ?That?s a great question and I?m glad you asked. I believe that?s one reason why I might be going back. Not because there?s a bunch of dysfunctional loser drug addicts at TNA, but just in wrestling overall, I really don?t understand it. I think USA Today did some sort of article that showed something like 60 or 65 guys dying in the last 10 years. That?s unbelievable. I know many of them and the names are getting bigger and bigger. It?s sad. It really bothers me because I was on that track and going down that path. I believe that unless I turned my life around when I did that in the worst-case scenario I would be dead and the best-case scenario would be me being divorced and visiting my kids once a month or whatever. I would probably be like some guys you hear about now who are really lost after all these years of being in the limelight and making money and now having nothing. That?s mind-boggling. I believe I have the answer, and that?s the Bible.
?In WCW, I let my example be my testimony. But if anyone asked how I did it, I tell them. I did have guys say, ?How do you do it? How did you stop taking pills and drinking and get your wife back? How do I do it?? I tell then it was not as easy as saying, ?Jesus Christ is the answer.? ? People also have asked me, ?How do you know God is really there?? I haven?t heard or seen him but I?ve experienced one miracle after another in my life where something supernatural had to have happened. It couldn?t have happened any other way.
?I hope some of the guys might take notice of that and want to know and ask questions, especially guys who are struggling. I was talking to a big-name guy just before Christmas and he was suicidal. I think he called me out of desperation, not because we have a long-term friendship. He asked me how I did it and I told him. Some of the guys respond and actually listen to it and turn their lives around. For others, it?s just really a rough deal because they?re surrounded by it all the time in the business. People say going into the wrestling arena is like what it?s like walking into the devil?s den every week.?

Q: I remember you tried to help Lex Luger with his problems back in 2003 by bringing him with you to TNA.

Borden: ?He did one TNA show with me. I was trying to come up with a way to make something exciting and asked, ?What about Lex?? Jeff said he had tried before and was unsuccessful. I said I think I can get him, It required me to literally fly to Atlanta, grab him and drag him along with me. It was an ordeal but we got him there. It didn?t turn out the way I wanted it to. I just hope somehow that he comes around and just humbles himself.?

Q: As a Christian, how much of a conflict is it returning to wrestling considering the contest now being pushed by WWE?

Borden: ?That?s another good question. I was on the cover of a Christian magazine [New Man Magazine] a few years ago and a bunch of people wrote in the very next week about how can you put such an evil person on the cover and that it?s a matter of time before he falls. They ripped me up. Christians did that. Some people are going to do that now and say, ?How can you go back into wrestling and associate yourself with all those people?? I just know that for me personally, you won?t catch me putting myself in compromising positions where I will jeopardize my walk and witness. I know that I won?t be asked to do anything like that. Even with WCW, the last couple years I wrestled as a brand new believer and was not put in any of those bad predicaments. Even when I talked to Vince, he said, ?I know what you stand for and who you are and would never ask you to jeopardize your integrity or walk.?
?There are always going to be people who will put you under a microscope and want to dismantle everything you do. Usually, those people believe they have all the answers and the world is wrong but they are right. There?s no way to escape that. But there are other people who can see the value of having somebody in there who sees something beyond wrestling and the notoriety and money and power that come with it.?

Q: What is your favorite moment in wrestling?

Borden: ?Wow ? As far as matches go, I loved working the big matches with Ric Flair. When I won the world title from him in 1990 at the (Great American) Bash, that was an incredible moment. Also, working with Hulk (Hogan) in 1997 (at Starrcade) was also a pretty big moment.
?Other than that, it would honestly be meeting with a critically ill or Make-A-Wish child. When someone tells you their last wish is wanting to meet Sting, those are pretty emotional moments. You?ve got mothers and fathers in tears and saying, ?Man, this is the first time I?ve seen my son smile in months and it will probably be the last time.??

Q: Finally, how rusty are you and how much of a concern is that for Sunday?

Borden: ?[Laughs] Man, I an rusty and I am 46 years old. I?ve been in the ring two times in the past two years, the last time being a year ago. The ring also is (six-sided) and not square. I?ll also be the oldest guy in the ring. Everything is going against me. It?s going to be a challenge, but I?ve worked really hard in the gym trying to get myself into some kind of decent physical condition so at least I look the part because I know will be under the microscope and people will be ready to pick me apart.

Credit: Alex Marvez and WrestlingObserver.com