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Recalling Sting's 1st World Heavyweight Championship Victory

Posted: Sep 15th 2015 By: Ryan Dilbert - BleacherReport.com

With his red-white-and-blue face paint all but peeled off, his chest mottled from chops and fireworks exploding above him, Sting limped down the entrance ramp with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt raised in the air.

This was a celebration of not just a new titleholder but the arrival of a new marquee star. Sting had kicked off the 1990s by wresting the world title from Ric Flair, a man who had dominated the '80s. And now this bleach-blond athlete with the movie-star smile was set to take over the reigns for World Championship Wrestling and lead that company into the future.

The soundtrack to his first title win, to his triumphant walk back to the dressing room, was a roaring audience and Jim Ross saying from the announce desk, "The crowd here [is] standing. They have seen history made."

That win came 25 years ago. When the 1990 Great American Bash's main event ended and the Baltimore Arena erupted in passionate, supportive noise, the wrestling world looked far different than it does just days before WWE presents Night of Champions 2015 on Sept. 20.

Both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart had yet to break off from their teams and become singles stars, much less Hall of Famers. Undertaker's streak had yet to begin. Tod Gordon had yet to form ECW. WCW was still in business, and still very much WWE's rival and chief competitor.

Seth Rollins was just four years old at the time.

Sting now has a chance to revisit the high that comes with claiming a world championship. Set to face Rollins at the Night of Champions PPV for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, he finds himself in the reverse position as he did in Baltimore against Flair.

On July 7, 1990, Flair strolled to the ring in a garish blue-and-silver robe. The flamboyant heel had been world champ six times and held the belt this time since May of the previous year. The Nature Boy was the established veteran, a legend at this point already.

Sting was the youthful, vibrant athlete with springs in his legs who stood on the verge of megastardom.

That description just as easily applies to Rollins today. Despite being the champion going into Night of Champions, he is poised to play the role Sting played back at the Great American Bash, with Sting now stepping into Flair's shoes.

Sting seemed destined to wear the heavyweight crown, having come inches away from dethroning Flair in the past. At every turn, though, Flair found a means to slip out of trouble. Again and again, The Four Horsemen swarmed Sting just as victory was in his hands. His journey to the world title was beginning to take on a Sisyphean feel.

A knee injury in early 1990 added to that, slowing his swelling momentum and forcing him to sit on the bench for months. Sting watched others get their cracks at Flair, waiting for his own.

WCW worked this into the storyline of the match. As he called the bout, Ross wondered aloud whether Sting's surgically repaired knee would hold. He wondered if this was going to be the same awe-inspiring athlete fans had seen before.

At first, it looked like the knee wouldn't even come into play. Sting hit a dropkick with no issue. He bounded from the ropes with no hesitation.

Then an awkward landing had him grimacing, and Flair pounced in an instant. The Nature Boy kicked and twisted the leg, softening up the No. 1 contender for the figure-four leglock.

Sting bounced up from these assaults. He barely flinched when Flair hit him so hard with chops that blood vessels burst in his chest. This was the hero's time, bad wheel or not.

Moving around the ring with a natural grace, Sting beat back Flair with right hands. No amount of abuse to his leg, no amount of cheap shots kept The Stinger from sending the champ flying over the top rope, writhing on the mat or kneeling on the canvas begging for a reprieve.

The Four Horsemen would not come in and save Flair this day. There would be no cheap escape for the unscrupulous champion.

Outside the ring, The Steiner Brothers, Junkyard Dog and Paul Orndorff stood watch to make sure of that. El Gigante kept Ole Anderson at bay, sitting with him halfway up the entrance ramp, a pair of handcuffs locking them together.

Eventually, Flair's crew did try to assist him, but the Steiners and the others fought them off. As the ringside area hosted a brawl, the middle of the ring served as Sting's stage. He avoided Flair's figure-four and instead slipped on an inside cradle.

After a night of successive near-falls and of Flair looking for any means, legal or otherwise, to retain, Sting fans finally watched referee Nick Patrick count to three and saw the championship move from veteran to rising star.

Kyle Alexander wrote of the clash's conclusion in Pro Wrestling Legends: Sting, "The ending was remarkable in its simplicity. After two years of matches that ended in frustration, followed by five months of inactivity, followed by a cornucopia of taunts, threats and attacks, Sting finally pinned Flair with a simple rollup."

The babyfaces all converged on Sting soon afterward. JYD high-fived him. The Steiners lifted him on their shoulders.

Sting told Rumble Magazine, "I'll never forget the noise, the reaction that came from the wrestling fans. It was amazing. It's a goal finally attained. One of the best reactions ever. It was what I had worked for."

WCW had a new franchise cornerstone at the top of the card. Sting became a central figure for the company, headlining a plethora of events, winning the WCW's version of the world title six times and eventually morphing into a darker character to combat The New World Order.

A quarter of a century later, he slides back into the world title picture, this time for a championship he has never won.

That boost toward the horizon that Flair gave Sting back in 1990 is likely what he will do for Rollins. The current champ has been on fire in his first years with the company, just as Sting was in the late '80s. He's an electric performer, much the way Sting was back then.

Wrestling for a new company, with a new championship at the center of the struggle and in a new era altogether, Sting returns to the role of world title contender. This time, it's his opponent with his eyes pointed at the future, looking for a legend to launch him forward.