Customer Reviews

Superstar Series: Sting - Back in Black [VHS]

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This video features great matches and awesome interviews exclusively found on this video. It is a great look back at Sting's years from the WOlfpack years back in black to his 'crow" look and all the way up until very recently. Sting is a role model to millions and one of the top 10 greatest wrestlers of all time. Check it out! I highly recamend this and his past videos called "Deadly Venom" and "The Man Behind the Mask". They all were so great.

I liked the Sting Video very much. It included his matches from Spring Stampede 1999 to Fall Brawl when he turned on Hogan. Masterfully done. Especially with the four-way screen with the four way dance matches.

This video was one of the best videos I have ever seen of the Stinger. I have watched this over and over, I belive that Sting may have another #1 video like Sting Unmasked.

Thanks to a friend of mine finally cleaning out his garage, I was given a bunch of old VHS tapes including this one that was one of the third "WCW Superstar Series" that WCW started releasing around late 1999 that ran around an hour long. Sting was in character here as he hosted this tape as it picks up where his previous "Unmasked" tape left off highlighting his career in 1999. The various highlights of his career include his return match in the fatal four way at Spring Stampede, his confrontation & match with Ric Flair the following night on Nitro, the night he won & lost the WCW Championship to DDP on Nitro, his Slamboree match against Goldberg, the feud with Rick Steiner, his match with Randy Savage leading to his issues with Nash & Team Madness going into Bash At The Beach, his match against Ric Flair for the title of WCW President, his alliance with Hogan & Goldberg against Nash & Steiner & Sid, his Road Wild match against Sid, and turning on Hogan to win another World Championship.

This tape was completely different than their previous ones as this wasn't a "personality profile" more than it was just a highlight video for Sting but most of these highlights haven't seen released elsewhere so this is another collectible I would recommend for those who are Sting fans or were fans of WCW during this period.

Sting is my favorite wrestler. It was great to see him again after the end of WCW. Although hes in TNA now, I wanted to see the original Sting from WCW and this tape delivers. As a continuation from Sting: Unmasked, there are several matches shown on this this tape featuring Sid Vicious, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Diamond Dallas Page, and others from 1999. Sting gives us his own thoughts before every match in his famous eccentric way. Seeing Sting in action was great. His moveset is one of the best in professional wrestling ever! From the basic knife-edge chop to the Stinger Splash, Scorpion Deathdrop and Deathlock, Sting takes it to the next level. My only problem is that this tape is only about an hour long like the previous Sting: Unmasked. I wish they extended it to inlude entire matches, but it was good enough to watch more than once as the highlights show the best parts of the matches.

STING: BACK IN BLACK (1999)

This is an entertaining WCW video with a lot of heavily edited matches from 1999. In case you'd stopped following WCW by that point, 1999 was definitely the "beginning of the end" for the promotion, not only due to ratings and profits but also because of the lack of understandable stories and largely pointless matches. Knowing this, it may surprise you to hear that I wholeheartedly recommend this tape.

Everyone knows that the Outsiders/nWo angle and the Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan buildup are what gave WCW the thrust it needed to dominate fan interest. Part of what made these episodes compelling was that you never knew what was going to happen: Who would jump ship from WWF? Would Sting fly in from the rafters? Would any WCW babyface turn heel and join the nWo? Seeing where this got them, the writers at WCW managed to turn the theme of suspenseful unpredictability into a weekly routine of bizarre randomness. Titles would change hands on a monthly basis and feuds would be started for no reason and then never mentioned again. The difference in the pre- and post- Starrcade 97 "unpredictabilities" is that the former was working towards something, while the latter was often just a desperate attempt to gain our interest without any regard for continuity. In short, one was exciting and the other was confusing. Indeed, WCW was playing musical chairs with the people who made decisions (Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash etc) so no one person can be blamed. This tape was made less than two years after the zenith point of Starrcade 97 and about two years before the demise of the WCW. It perfectly demonstrates some of what the WCW was trying to hold onto and also where it was going. Most importantly, it is also fun to watch.

Most of the matches here have introductory commentary from Sting, in character. He is sitting in an electrical closet with smoke and weird lights around him. Many newer fans of wrestling will find this cheesy and melodramatic, but for someone who grew up with the more cartoonish wrestling stars, it reminds me of a time when wrestling's key demographic was kids and families. Of course by the time this video was made, that era was long gone, making this tape even more of an anomaly. The matches themselves are edited down.

You will see a lot of strange things on this tape. For example, Sting wins and loses the Heavyweight Title during the course of a single Nitro episode. You will see people interfering in the matches as was common during this time period. Bret Hart jumps in the ring to swat Goldberg with a chair and the bewildered announcers proclaim "He hasn't been with this organization for months!" You will see Sting attacked by a doberman and a rottweiler during a match with Rick Steiner. Sting also faces off with Rick Flair a few times here, in one instance to become the "WCW President". However he later abandons the position, stating that "politics are for suits!" You will witness a HUGE missed opportunity in Hogan abandoning his "Hollywood" heel look for his signature red and yellow Hulkster gimmick... for an inconsequential tag match. Can you imagine how much they could've built up a Hollywood to Hulkster storyline? You will also (sort of) see the inverse of this, in one of Sting's attempts to play a heel at Fall Brawl. The clip is very brief with almost zero explanation, but even so you can see in these few seconds why fans preferred him as a hero.

I will never forget that great footage of a hummer crashing into Randy Savage's limousine? This clip is symbolic of what pushed WCW on its downward spiral. We see Sting jump out of the back of a car to fight Rick Steiner, and Kevin Nash question Sting: "WHO WAS DRIVING THE HUMMER?!" We never find out because the angle was quickly dropped, but you can see numerous signs in the crowd referencing the weird incident. Metaphorically speaking, the WCW's Hummer did crash into Vince McMahon's limo and seriously damaged it for years. But after all the confusion, it was clear that nobody was driving the Hummer.

Here are the matches on the tape:

Spring Stampede 1999
Sting/Flair vs. Hogan DDP (Savage as ref)

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Monday Nitro - April 12, 1999
Flair vs. Sting

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Monday Nitro - April 26, 1999
Sting vs. Diamond Dallas Page
(for Heavyweight Title)*

Sting vs. Kevin Nash vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg
4 Way Dance (for Heavyweight Title)

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Slamboree 1999
Sting vs. Bill Goldberg
interference from Bret Hart and the Steiner Brothers

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Great American Bash 1999
Sting vs. Rick Steiner
interference from Tank Abbott and "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner

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Monday Nitro - June 7, 1999
Sting vs. Macho Man Randy Savage
interference from the Steiners and Lex Luger

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Monday Nitro - June 21, 1999
Rick Steiner / Sting / Kevin Nash clips

Bash at the Beach 1999
Sting and Kevin Nash vs. Randy Savage and Sid Vicious

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Monday Nitro - July 12, 1999
Sting and Flair interviews

Monday Nitro - July 19, 1999
Sting vs. Ric Flair
(for WCW "Presidency")

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Monday Nitro - July 26, 1999
Sting and Hollywood Hogan vs. Kevin Nash and Sid Vicious
interference from Rick Steiner

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Monday Nitro - August 9, 1999
Sting, Goldberg and Hulk Hogan (in Hulkster outfit) vs. Sid Vicious, Kevin Nash and Rick Steiner

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Road Wild 1999
Sting vs. Sid Vicious

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Fall Brawl 1999
Sting vs. Hulk Hogan
(for Heavyweight Title)

If you are interested in the real story behind the collapse of World Championship Wrestling, I strongly recommend the book 'The Death of WCW' by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez.

This was the best video in the series yet! It had attitude, great setting, and Sting was unbelievable! I loved it!

THIS MOVIE WAS VERY GOOD AND SHOWED PARTS A STINGS CAREER IN PAST YEAR OR SO, I REALLY RECOMEND THIS MOVIE.