The following was filed by Wrestleview’s Josh Boutwell.
On Sunday night TNA Wrestling celebrated it’s 10th Anniversary with “Slammiversary X” and did so by announcing the very first inductee into to the TNA Hall of Fame. Ever since Dixie Carter announced that TNA would be starting it’s own Hall of Fame many people have argued who should be the first inductee and even if TNA should start their own Hall at all, but I can truly say that I couldn’t believe some of the backlash TNA received from a lot of fans with the announcement of Sting to the Hall of Fame. Rightfully so a lot of fans wanted TNA Founder Jeff Jarrett to be the first inductee (with good reason) and many others wanted arguably the greatest wrestler TNA has produced, AJ Styles as the first man in the Hall, but some of the comments made about Sting being inducted were truly shocking to me.
Some people calling Sting “overrated” and that it was a “joke” and even some people on Twitter saying they are “done” with TNA for inducting Sting over Jarrett. I don’t get it. Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way, Jeff Jarrett is the founder of TNA, if not for him there would be no Hall of Fame, and AJ Styles has been easily the most consistent thing in TNA since day one (and my personal favorite wrestler since the first time I saw him). But how can you argue what Sting has meant to TNA? When TNA was struggling to get it’s foot in the door back in Nashville, TN during the weekly PPV era, who was the massive star that agreed to come in and help them out for a little bit despite being massively rich to begin with and not NEEDING to wrestle? The only major star in wrestling history to never step foot in a WWE ring? Yeah, it was Sting. Who was the star that agreed to make a full time (or at least part time) return to wrestling to try and help TNA out, and was a MAJOR factor in TNA getting it’s TV deal with Spike TV (so much so that Spike agreed to pay part of his salary to begin with)? Who was the star that did EVERYTHING asked of him without hesitation from facing and losing to an NFL player (Pacman Jones) to having bloody Hardcore matches with their young “monster” Abyss to getting in the ring with every young guy that came through from AJ Styles (even putting him over on TNA’s biggest stage, Bound for Glory) to Samoa Joe to Christopher Daniels and even Eric Young? That was Sting.
Year after year Sting has said “one more year” and year after year TNA has come to him and asked him if he would come back and help out “just one more year” and he says yes, and he doesn’t have to. How many”former stars” do you hear about coming through TNA’s locker room that are supposedly disliked or refusing to put someone over? Damn near everyone of them, right? How many times has a negative report been put out there about Sting? Have you ever heard a TNA star, whether a TNA original or otherwise, say ANYTHING negative about Sting? No, that can’t be a coincidence. Sting most certainly deserves to be honored by TNA and you can argue whether you think someone else deserves it too (or even if you think TNA is just trying to beat WWE to the punch in inducting Sting to a Hall of Fame) but to diminish what Sting has done for this company, a company that is not supposed to be still around to begin with, is ridiculous and uncalled for. Sting deserves it and SHOULD be honored. Thank you Sting.
Josh Boutwell recaps TNA Impact Wrestling and writes the “Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly” column for Wrestleview.com. Follow Josh on Twitter via @BamaBoyJosh.