Interview: Steve "Sting"
Borden
Conducted by
Tim Quinn for
In
His Grip (official on-line newsletter
of Ted DiBiase), December, 2001
(Published with
permission from Tim Quinn)
[ in Japanese
]
There's a rumor going around the internet that you will
be joining Hulk Hogan's Universal's federation (XWF)....
Well, it's not Hulk Hogan's Universal federation, first
of all. They have been talking to me, yes, but I really don't know if
I am going to commit to anything. I hate to keep saying "never say never"
but that's all I can say.
I am in retirement, and I think I'm going to stay retired;
it would take an awful lot to get me out of it, that's all.
So, you just want to be a father to your children from
now on....
Yes, but I can be a father and still wrestle, it's just
that there's a pace and all that and I've done this for 15 years...
Ok, the "blonde haired Sting" or the "Crow" figure, which
was your favorite?
You know, each one of them has their place in history, but
I think I had more fun with the "Crow" character.
Did you model the character purposely after the Crow?
No (lol), it just ended up like that somehow....
You attend your brother's church, any chance that you
will join him on his pastoral staff?
I don't feel that God's calling me into something like
that... I do believe that He made me who He made me into - Sting the wrestler
- to at least share what He did in my life, and how He saved me, and who
Jesus Christ is, and to talk about that... And I have been very outspoken
about it.
What about the PWA, are you going to working with Ted
any in the future?
Again, I have my doubts. Wrestling is, you know, retired...
Let's just say I'm retired for now....
Not necessarily as a wrestler, say as maybe an evangelist
sharing your message, like Nikita
(Koloff) does?
Yea, and I don't know about that either... I feel that
God's calling me in another direction somehow or another.
I think that there can be a message through wrestling somehow,
with wrestling characters like the Million Dollar Man and Nikita Koloff
and Sting.... It depends on what one's picture is of wrestling; in other
words, I don't think that I'm going to be going into... oh gee, how
do I put this delicately... a situation where you have a few matches and
then a message: I think Ted and Nikita called them "illustrated sermons".
And I like "illustrated sermons" those can be phenomenal. I saw an incredible
one by Joe White at Promise Keepers in California here a week and a half
ago, it was phenomenal. So I think they can be incredible but I think
the vision and the picture is just a little different, that's all. I
picture something theatrical, I don't know what it is, and some wrestling
to some degree, but not actually like scheduled matches: good guy vs.
bad guy and all that. It's more, well, I don't want to say anything
yet - it's theatrics, it's music, it's lights - it's all the cool
stuff, the high tech cool stuff: the big screens, the incredible sound
systems. Something like that, and I have this idea, I have this picture
in my head that's growing as the weeks go by.
Any plans to do more acting?
Well, I would love to, but I've been so busy being a husband
and a father and Sue and I pursuing real estate that we've always loved
to do... We are really pursuing real estate right now, we have couple
of partners - we're opening up an office plaza, we're going to build
one out here where I live in a strategic area. Sue and I are looking at
homes and land. So we are really into th real estate thing and being parents
right now: Steven is playing Pop Warner football and Garrett is starting
music lessons again and he wants to play baseball... I tell you what,
home schooling a couple days a week - it's all a lot of time...
Do you do video games - Sony Playstation, etc.?
No... I mean the only thing I ever played like that and
had any fun with was Tetris...
You and Ric Flair wrestled the last match as the "real"
WCW ended. As you finished that match, you hugged, and spoke to each other.
What did you say?
I can't remember exactly what I said but it was something
like "thanks for all the years, man, this is it"...
What did it feel like being the center piece in wrestling,
that last match? That had to be a tremendous honor for you two.
You know, it's a funny thing... I guess, in some way it
was an honor, and yet, in another way it was a slap in the face.
Really?
Yea! Because, Vince McMahon came and bought WCW... I guess
that he, knowing that Sting and Ric Flair carried the WCW banner for so
many years, I guess he would have ticked too many people off not putting
us on there one last time. But, you know, we had seven and a half minutes
to wrestle, or something like that. It was only to promote the WWF. I
don't know, I think it could have been done different, could have been
done better, but, that's life.
I know for the fans. it was an honor to see you two as
the last match. Most couldn't see it going out any other way.
A lot of people agree with that, so...
What is your feelings on the state of wrestling today?
Do you pay any attention to it at all or just let it go on it's own
merry little way?
Yea, I don't really watch. I don't watch anymore - I
know that the ratings have come down, the WWF ratings have come down.
Rock and Stone Cold and all the guys, I guess they're... wrestling goes
in ups and downs and most of the time I don't think it's the talent.
I mean you can't point the finger at the Rock, you can't point the
finger at Stone Cold - you can't point the finger at all these guys...
It's the writing, just like a soap opera. When the writing suffers,
then the ratings suffer. Most of the time it's not the talent - I mean
somebody like the Rock who's just like beyond what any wrestler's
ever become. And their still struggling - I don't know what's going
on up there. But it's too raunchy and too... you know I couldn't even
figure out a place to plug myself in.
Let's get away from wrestling now - how did you come
to know Jesus Christ?
Well, I had to, unfortunately, reach my rock bottom. They
talk about that deep dark despair, well I got there. After so many years
of living a lifestyle on the road, my marriage and my family suffering
because of it... I finally got to the point where I needed something supernatural,
I needed Divine intervention. I tell people the same thing: I just got
to the point where I knew that there wasn't a drug, there wasn't any
amount of money, there wasn't a contract, there wasn't enough toys,
there wasn't a psychologist, there wasn't anything in the world that
could fix me and I knew it. I also knew I wasn't going to be able to
wake up from a bad dream. This was life and I needed something supernatural
and I got it!
Now, if a person asked you "Steve, how do I get
saved"? What is your word to them?
Just submit yourself, just totally surrender yourself to
Jesus Christ. Have faith that He actually lived on this earth that the
bible is not just a fairy tale - that it's real: that there is a Heaven,
there is a hell. And to really think about it - think about where you
might go when you die. Just based on the chance that there is a Heaven
and a hell, do you know where you might go? And if there is a chance that
Heaven and a hell really exist then don't you want to go to Heaven?
You definitely don't want to go to hell, where your worst nightmare
- the scariest moment you ever had in you life, multiply it millions upon
millions of times - you just don't want to be there. That's kind of
a scare tactic I guess, but that's the way I was convicted. Somebody
asked me one day when I was in a hotel "You're gettin' on a plane,
do you know where you are going to go if you die today?" And I really
thought about - I thought, man, if this plane goes down where am I going
to go?" I never really honestly thought about it, but ther was something
that told me if the plane does go down, there are know second chances.
You've made your bed, now you've got to sleep in it. There's no
getting out of it - talk about a bad dream that you can't get out of...
Yea, I would just say that Jesus lived and He died on the cross for your
sins and mine and if you just trust in Him and believe in Him, ask Him
into your heart - let Him in, surrender to Him, that He can change, transform
your life - He can put reconciliation where there hasn't been any before,
He can put healing in your body where there has never been any before
no matter what the doctors say.... I can go on and on about what He can
do... Healing relationships, it's just incredible.
Any general thought on Ted? After all, this is his newsletter
(lol).....
Yea, well Ted was with Bill Watts when I first came to Bill
Watts and the UWF
years ago and he was a huge star - he was like the top guy, the top babyface.
Jake the Snake was there and endfed up leaving a little bit earlier than
Ted, if I remember right, and then Ted left a little while later... He
left and became the Million Dollar Man and he was just one of those guys
that I said, "I want to make it - I want to make it like those guys did.
Jake was off and running and now Ted was off and running, and I wanted
to be one of them. And as far as his wrestling, he was a great wrestler.
He knew how to work the ring - he was a good ring general. He had good
psychology - he was well rounded, most definitely. Incredible on the microphone
- great voice. This is his newsletter (lol), but all of this is just the
truth. He was excellent at what he did. To this day, when I am with him,
he will have people say to him "...I used to just hate you..." and he'll
just laugh, with his deep voice, and if I'm there I'll say "Well, you
know what? That means he was very good at what he did...". And I'll tell
you what, most everybody hated him... He was very good at his trade.
He's a little different person now though isn't he?
Yes. As far as a person? Ted was one of those seeds that
was planted around me. And it was fruitful, it started to grow. Ted, to
this day, will call from time to time, on the voice mail, and just say
"Hey Steve, Ted..." and he'll be in some city somewhere getting ready
to go to some school to talk to some kids. He'll just say "Man, I was
thinkin' about ya and just wanted to let you know that I love ya and I'm
prayin' for you and your family... keep on goin'". It's always something
encouraging. He's a special guy, I love him.
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