AJ is TNA’s Sting, Sans Paint

A faction takes over the company and a lone wolf, with something to prove, is the only savior for the good guys?

If this sounds familiar, it should. Sting’s transformation from Californian surfer dude with face paint, to the dark, brooding Crow-inspired character revitalized his career in the late ’90s. If not for the black and white Sting, it’s hard to wonder how long the nWo and WCW would have lasted. The angle gave the nWo a boost and made the show worth tuning into for over a year.

If TNA has their way, a similar gimmick will not only make AJ Styles relevant again, it’ll play a tremendous role in making the company something special. With their newest faction running lower on steam than they should, can the new rebellious Styles be the answer?

While the Aces and Eights pale in comparison to the nWo, they have dominated TNA over the past year, incredibly similarly to the way the New World Order destroyed every top face in WCW in 1996. Much like Sting, Styles was and still is the company’s poster boy. He’s won every title and done everything ever asked of him. His turn to an anti-hero in an effort to take down The Aces and Eights is completely borrowed from the old days of WCW.

Even Styles’ change in offense is a page out of Sting’s “Crow” turn. Needing something with more “punch,” Sting turned to the Reverse DDT during his reboot. Styles, no longer he master of the spot, is using more strikes and submissions than ever before. Hes almost like a completely different performer. Could this rougher, grittier Styles entertain?

Where TNA changes things up is that they have Styles wrestle on television more than Sting ever did during the early part of his return. Aside from coming down from the rafters, Sting didn’t actually perform on Nitro for over a year. Although Styles had a lengthy hiatus, he’s back in the ring, wasting a great opportunity to build an allure for his character that hasn’t been around in years.

WCW also didn’t waste Sting on pay per-views. Styles’ upcoming match with Kurt Angle at Slammiversary will do nothing to make Styles more intriguing or marketable. While it was an enjoyable encounter and one of the better matches on the card, it only proved on thing.

TNA is out of fresh ideas.

Professional wrestling has been and always will be an ebb and flow business, but things don’t get better when you have the same stale minds booking the matches and writing the stories. Inspired by Sting’s epic storyline or not AJ deserves better.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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