Eric Bischoff says WCW committed to Sting’s darker character before it had mapped out the story that would carry him beyond his first appearance. Revisiting the end of the colorful “Surfer Sting” era on 83 Weeks, Bischoff recalled that Scott Hall’s pitch established the look and mood, while the reasons for Sting’s isolation came later.
Conrad Thompson asked whether WCW had already planned Sting’s sense of betrayal during the September 1996 Fall Brawl angle. Bischoff said the initial conversation with Hall, Sting and Kevin Nash had settled on an image of Sting watching from the rafters, but little more.
“That’s as far as the idea went. We fully embraced it right there and then. But that’s all that was described. There was no next step in the arc. There was no act two. There was no act three. There was just this brooding, ominous, dark character who didn’t speak because he couldn’t trust anybody. That’s how far the concept went.”
Bischoff said the process gave him a chance to build the kind of long story he had heard praised in WWF. He recalled extending the angle as the character found an audience, rather than working toward a fixed ending from the start.
“Sting was our opportunity for that. So, that’s why I got so excited about the front end of it and developing it, because I wanted to see how far it could go. Did I think it would go as long as it did? No, I did not. But it just kept getting better and better and better. So we kept adding scenes within the arc, so to speak, and extending the story because we could.”
Thompson then returned to Sting’s televised declaration that he was stepping away from WCW after his friends doubted him. Bischoff said the segment worked because Sting’s response reached beyond Lex Luger to the fans who had questioned his loyalty.
“Sting obviously addressing Luger, dressing him down for not trusting him. You should have known better. Verbally addressing the situation, but symbolically also turning on the fans. He’s turning his back to the fans as well because they didn’t trust him either.”
Bischoff added that the way Sting faced away from the television camera made the moment feel uncomfortable and spontaneous. To him, the live presentation helped sell the emotional break that would define the character’s next phase.
“When Sting goes out there and turns his back to the crowd in the hard camera, it’s so awkward for the viewer at home, it by default, it must be real. They couldn’t have rehearsed this or it wouldn’t have happened. Therefore, it must be real.”
The discussion adds detail to Bischoff’s earlier account of how the nWo changed Sting’s position as a babyface. His new recollection concerns how WCW built the darker Sting story after accepting Hall’s character concept.
Source: 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff on YouTube.
