Last Sunday after I’ve gone to church I went to Makati for some leisurely walk at the mall then I proceeded to a bookstore .As I browsed some sections of the store I found the autobiography of my favourite wrestler Sting a.k.a. Steve Borden titled “The Moment Of Truth”. I spent almost two hours inside the store reading this book.
This book tells a gripping tale of a man quest for superstardom, gaining everything the world called success, a life gone terribly wrong and a life changing answer to a soul that was broken and lost.
Being a pro-wrestler who is admired all over the world, Sting portrays a character inside the ring as a hero or sometimes a villain depends on what is the storyline. As we all know that wrestling is a choreographed kind of sport/entertainment, where the most part the fans came to see the underdog prevails over against impossible odds. It’s like watching your favourite superhero but this time the battlefield is inside the squared circle.
In his personal journey Steve Borden tried to reach the pinnacle of superstardom, to be famous together with a dream of entertaining thousands of people someday .He was the eldest son of the Borden clan whose interests was in sports like basketball and eventually into bodybuilding. After trying some other things, he broke into the gym business where all his breaks and connections in the wrestling business begin. He was spotted by Rick Bassmen then trained by Red Bastien together with some mat luminaries like Rick Steiner and Jim Hellwig a.k.a. the Ultimate Warrior.He was then paired with Jim Hellwig in Jerry Jarrett CWA(Championship wrestling Association) before going to Bill Watts UWF(Universal Wrestling Federation).Wrestling then was on a regional level so Sting and Hellwig drove or sometimes commute from state to state in between shows and with a meager $25-50 a night and sometimes sharing a hotel room with four huge guys of questionable quality life on the road was that horrible. He then married long-time girlfriend Sue in California but had to go back to Nashville as he began to establish a main event status and began to receive a decent pay check. But the extra money and Sue’s income weren’t enough to keep them afloat.
In the 1990’s the wrestling phenomenon took hold and TV audiences grew into a national level. Bill Watts sold UWF to Crockett Promotions (NWA) and then came Sting’s biggest break and a real contract plus a hefty paycheck.The WWF (now WWE-World Wrestling Entertainment)-owned by Vince McMahon Jr. and distant second the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) -owned by Jim Crockett were the biggest rivals. So Sting has to wrestle and stay on the road even on holidays like Christmas and thanksgiving.NWA rode high with such superstars like Ric Flair, Road Warriors,Lex Luger,Rock N’ Roll Express and now Sting. They have the TV airtime via media mogul and genius Ted Turner’s TBS.Until Turner and the NWA comes to term and Turner bought the NWA and christened it as WCW (World Championship Wrestling).During this time WCW went toe to toe against WWF in the ratings then known as the Monday night wars. Wrestling was big business and changing very rapidly into not just a show, but a spectacle. With the acquisition of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and other top WWF main eventers and Sting changing the persona from a face-painted blond to the character of “the Crow”.And the storyline fitting the “ultimate good guy’ Sting against the NWO (the stable of bad guys-Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) the ratings of WCW surged and beat the WWF for weeks.
Then Sting was everywhere. He was in front of every major wrestling magazine, licensed the sting image from video games and action figures to even air fresheners. Also part of his superstardom was a hard living and egocentric lifestyle. Night after night, week after week, year after year the party rolled on. During this time his relationship with Sue was drifting and he was out of control and his life on the road grew darker and darker. As he continued to run from God, his dark life of rebellion turned to a mixture of prescription drugs (painkillers) and alcohol a combo that will anesthetize his conscience and let him sleep which turned from occasional to frequent.
He realized that the status and fame did not fill the void in his soul. And after some dark incidents in his life he comes to know Christ and accept Him as Lord and Saviour. During the heydays of his superstar lifestyle he didn’t know that God was planting seeds in his life. God continued to work by using some Christian family members and fellow a wrestler. Now with a restored life and relationship, Steve realized that life doesn’t work unless it is connected with God.
As a big wrestling fan and a believer of Christ, this book is awesome and compelling.
This book tells a gripping tale of a man quest for superstardom, gaining everything the world called success, a life gone terribly wrong and a life changing answer to a soul that was broken and lost.
Being a pro-wrestler who is admired all over the world, Sting portrays a character inside the ring as a hero or sometimes a villain depends on what is the storyline. As we all know that wrestling is a choreographed kind of sport/entertainment, where the most part the fans came to see the underdog prevails over against impossible odds. It’s like watching your favourite superhero but this time the battlefield is inside the squared circle.
In his personal journey Steve Borden tried to reach the pinnacle of superstardom, to be famous together with a dream of entertaining thousands of people someday .He was the eldest son of the Borden clan whose interests was in sports like basketball and eventually into bodybuilding. After trying some other things, he broke into the gym business where all his breaks and connections in the wrestling business begin. He was spotted by Rick Bassmen then trained by Red Bastien together with some mat luminaries like Rick Steiner and Jim Hellwig a.k.a. the Ultimate Warrior.He was then paired with Jim Hellwig in Jerry Jarrett CWA(Championship wrestling Association) before going to Bill Watts UWF(Universal Wrestling Federation).Wrestling then was on a regional level so Sting and Hellwig drove or sometimes commute from state to state in between shows and with a meager $25-50 a night and sometimes sharing a hotel room with four huge guys of questionable quality life on the road was that horrible. He then married long-time girlfriend Sue in California but had to go back to Nashville as he began to establish a main event status and began to receive a decent pay check. But the extra money and Sue’s income weren’t enough to keep them afloat.
In the 1990’s the wrestling phenomenon took hold and TV audiences grew into a national level. Bill Watts sold UWF to Crockett Promotions (NWA) and then came Sting’s biggest break and a real contract plus a hefty paycheck.The WWF (now WWE-World Wrestling Entertainment)-owned by Vince McMahon Jr. and distant second the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) -owned by Jim Crockett were the biggest rivals. So Sting has to wrestle and stay on the road even on holidays like Christmas and thanksgiving.NWA rode high with such superstars like Ric Flair, Road Warriors,Lex Luger,Rock N’ Roll Express and now Sting. They have the TV airtime via media mogul and genius Ted Turner’s TBS.Until Turner and the NWA comes to term and Turner bought the NWA and christened it as WCW (World Championship Wrestling).During this time WCW went toe to toe against WWF in the ratings then known as the Monday night wars. Wrestling was big business and changing very rapidly into not just a show, but a spectacle. With the acquisition of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and other top WWF main eventers and Sting changing the persona from a face-painted blond to the character of “the Crow”.And the storyline fitting the “ultimate good guy’ Sting against the NWO (the stable of bad guys-Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) the ratings of WCW surged and beat the WWF for weeks.
Then Sting was everywhere. He was in front of every major wrestling magazine, licensed the sting image from video games and action figures to even air fresheners. Also part of his superstardom was a hard living and egocentric lifestyle. Night after night, week after week, year after year the party rolled on. During this time his relationship with Sue was drifting and he was out of control and his life on the road grew darker and darker. As he continued to run from God, his dark life of rebellion turned to a mixture of prescription drugs (painkillers) and alcohol a combo that will anesthetize his conscience and let him sleep which turned from occasional to frequent.
He realized that the status and fame did not fill the void in his soul. And after some dark incidents in his life he comes to know Christ and accept Him as Lord and Saviour. During the heydays of his superstar lifestyle he didn’t know that God was planting seeds in his life. God continued to work by using some Christian family members and fellow a wrestler. Now with a restored life and relationship, Steve realized that life doesn’t work unless it is connected with God.
As a big wrestling fan and a believer of Christ, this book is awesome and compelling.
****Photo from the Internet****
