The Stinger Scale: Sting vs. Jeff Hardy [c] – TNA World Heavyweight Title (TNA Victory Road 2011)

Sting had an odd journey in TNA Wrestling. For a lot of it, he was the stoic The Crow-face-painted babyface who delivers in the role of the soul of the company. In WCW, he was everything that was just about the company and had the perfect foe in Hollywood Hogan who was his exact opposite. 

Once he arrived at TNA, there was an attempt to do more of the same but the problem was that he wasn’t a part of TNA from the beginning.

As “The Icon” he could pretty much do what he had been doing the whole time as he had experience and accolades in the business and brought his best possible performance to the fight. 

Mind you, Sting had already started dialing back on his high-energy, athletic matches by 1995 and was taking more of a brawling approach like most of the WCW main eventers at the time.

The Stinger Scale: Sting vs. Jeff Hardy [c] – TNA World Heavyweight Title (TNA Victory Road 2011) 

This style would carry him through TNA since…well, the man came into the company with injuries just like Kurt Angle. So, a change of styles was necessary and the Stinger found something that allowed him to get his sh** in without wearing down an already worn body. 

In 2011, Jeff Hardy was TNA World champion and associated with the faction Immortal. The championship belt was even changed to reflect that this was Hardy’s belt and Hardy’s yard. It was a role better suited for brother Big Money Matt as he can play arrogant and cocksure pretty damn well.

Actually, Matt just does characters better than Jeff in general. 

Anyway, at Victory Road 2011, Sting had a shot at Jeff Hardy for the belt. It should be noted that this was a dark period in Jeff’s life where he was going to town with the drugs and it came to tipping point at this show.

The “Charismatic Enigma” came down the ring obviously intoxicated. I remember watching it and wondering “Is Jeff actually this cooked?” I’ve watched matches where guys were baked, injured, and drunk—possibly at the same time but definitely at least one of those conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFNfv_ufizo

While those intoxicated wrestlers delivered a sloppy performance most of the time at least a match was had. Perhaps it was best to end this “match” in the way they did for the safety of Jeff and Sting but this was just a poor look for TNA as far as finishing off the PPV.

I was watching several others and it just seemed like something we shouldn’t have been watching. When those stoned or drunk wrestlers did their matches, they were functional enough to make it from one bell to the next for a couple of minutes.

In Jeff’s case, Sting simply turned him and planted him with the Scorpion Death Drop before leaving. Stinger even acknowledged what the fans were saying in that this match sucked. It was similar to ending the PPV with the Finger Poke of Doom. 

It’s easy to look at it now in 2022 and mention that the creative team could’ve—and should’ve—called an audible and gotten someone else in but Jeff was the champion at the time. 

STINGER SCALE: 0 out of 5 Stingers 

It sucks for Sting here, folks. He came in to do a match against Jeff Hardy who has been over since the late 1990s was a popular star in TNA.

However, he came out with Bischoff who was just as “Seriously, bruh? Bruh…” as Stinger when they saw the condition Hardy was in—on PPV. In the main event. Against Sting. 

That’s what made this a pickle for the company. Sting vs. Jeff Hardy was advertised but even if the belt was taken off of Jeff earlier in the PPV, there’s no way around that match outside of TNA having Jeff hit by a car driven by a Samoan in the parking deck…or kidnapped by the ninjas that took said Samoan. 

Technically, they got it in the ring and this was a match but this just came off as a fiasco. 

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