{"id":63823,"date":"2018-07-30T13:05:12","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T18:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=63823"},"modified":"2018-07-30T13:05:12","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T18:05:12","slug":"interview-highlights-sting-discusses-where-hes-really-done-with-wrestling-his-dysfunction-family-growing-up-meeting-hulk-hogan-infidelity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/30\/interview-highlights-sting-discusses-where-hes-really-done-with-wrestling-his-dysfunction-family-growing-up-meeting-hulk-hogan-infidelity\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview Highlights: Sting discusses where he&#8217;s really done with wrestling, his dysfunction family growing up, meeting Hulk Hogan, infidelity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3836874982\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><em>The following interview highlights were sent to PWTorch.com today from Lilian Garcia&#8217;s podcast team&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>&#8220;Chasing Glory&#8221; with Lilian Garcia<br \/>\n<\/b><b><\/b><b>Special Guest:\u00a0<\/b><b>WWE Hall of Famer, Sting<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>In the newest episode of \u201cChasing Glory with Lilian Garcia,\u201d Lilian sits down with WWE Hall of Famer, Sting. Sting takes us back to the beginning; growing up in Southern California after moving from Nebraska, and how he handled living in a dysfunctional family. He talks about his love of basketball yet why he wasn\u2019t able to make that a career and how he felt he was going nowhere in his life. You won\u2019t believe how he met Hulk Hogan for the first time, and what 80\u2019s cult classic movie he auditioned for&#8230; and almost got! Plus, his reasons for not going to the WWE during the Monday NightWars, and how he was within minutes of giving up on pro wrestling but the conversation he had that made him not quit. He further talks about how even with fame &amp; fortune he was in the darkest place of his life, and how his dealings with drugs, alcohol and adultery almost brought him to a nervous breakdown. Then something happened in August of 1998 that changed his entire life forever. In this compelling interview Sting also let\u2019s us know if he is really retired from pro wrestling or if he has one more match in him to go against The Undertaker. Find out all that and more in this exclusive episode. It\u2019s about to get real, raw, and inspiring, with \u201cThe Icon,\u201d Sting!<\/p>\n<p><b>Growing up with his dysfunctional family:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mom tried to get us to go to church on Sundays and my Dad didn\u2019t want to have anything to do with it and we didn\u2019t want to go to church. We wanted to go to the lake, we wanted to go to the beach, we didn\u2019t want to live by a set of rules, so we thought. We kind of rebelled against the whole church thing and it was just a few pocket of times that I can remember being in Sunday school as a kid with my brother and my sister was really small, Mark was probably an infant at the time. We just rebelled against it. We turned into young adults and got through high school and part way through junior colleges and big universities, but no one ever got any degree or anything like that. We all loved each other, we were all very close, but very dysfunctional. It\u2019s like you couldn\u2019t be around each other for very long.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Meeting Hulk Hogan without knowing about his star power:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I grew up, where I grew up in Southern California, we did not have pro wrestling on TV. I didn\u2019t know what it was. I ended up in my early young adult years co-owning a Gold\u2019s Gym in San Fernando Valley with a guy named Ed Connors who was the treasurer of Gold\u2019s Gym in Venice Beach. I managed the gym and I ended up being partners with him and this big big dude with blonde hair would come in and work out and the gym would freak out and say, \u201cOh my gosh, don\u2019t you know who that is? It\u2019s the guy from the Rocky movie! That\u2019s Hulk Hogan!\u201d I go, \u201cOkay, I know the Rocky movie and I know that guy, but I don\u2019t know who Hulk Hogan is!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Confessing his infidelity to his wife and finding God in the process:<\/b><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3202727615\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI confessed everything to my ex-wife. I was honest and truthful. It was horrendous, it was one of the worst moments of my life watching her life blood just come out of her almost, it was just horrendous. God at that point, I said, \u201cOkay, I have given God lip service,\u201d I literally said this prayer, \u201cI\u2019ve given you lip service, oh Lord.\u201d And I had, nothing was real to me. It was like, wave your magic wand and fix everything. He doesn\u2019t care about working with people like that, not from the outside in, but from the inside out. First he wanted my heart, and he never had my heart because it was only lip service until finally August of 1998 when I realized there\u2019s no amount of money, no amount of power, no drug, no woman, no man, no doctor, nothing, nothing is going to fix this horrendous deep dark despair and I have messed lives up everywhere and I cannot fix this on my own. I need some supernatural and I said, \u201cGod, I surrender my life to you. Jesus Christ come and live inside my heart.\u201d So that\u2019s what happened to me in August of 1998 when I was at the very peak of my career. Muscle relaxers, pain relievers, alcohol, women, a lifestyle, even language that comes out of my mouth, everything changed radically overnight, and I was watching friends die from this kind of lifestyle over the years.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What made him not go to WWE at first:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNumber one, WCW would always give me what I asked for. I knew that the commitment that I would have to make with Vince was being gone a lot more, a lot more time on the road, a lot more time away. With WCW at the time, I was able to kind of tailor make my schedule to something that I could tolerate and something that was easier for my family at the time. Financially they always gave me what I wanted, but I was really close to leaving on a few different occasions and I was ready. If WCW didn\u2019t give me what I wanted, then I was willing to take that risk and go to WWE. One of the other reasons why I never did, I always talked about this as well, I at the time-and I still don\u2019t know if it\u2019s accurate or not, but I thought that Vince wanted me as a talent to undermine WCW more than he wanted me as a talent working for him.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>His reaction when he finally came to WWE:<\/b><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was shocked at how everyone treated me. I met the entire PR department up there in the big building in Connecticut. I went up there and met everybody and everyone-it wasn\u2019t false, it was real. The enthusiasm, I mean everybody was just pumped to have me there and I felt pretty secure about it. They treated me well and Vince has been nothing but respectful and good to me all these years. By the time I ended up coming up there, he was the same way. When I went up there the first time, he wanted me to come in and say hello to him. He even wanted to produce and direct a lot of my spots that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>If he is done wrestling or not:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I\u2019m really done. I mean my neck doesn\u2019t bother me at all. For the first couple of months after the match, I had an ache that would go down to the left side of my neck and down into my left trap. It was like a dull ache that was just there all the time and it was hard to sleep. I don\u2019t have any side effects, any trouble so all I know is the neurosurgeon said, \u201cYou are so lucky there wasn\u2019t a catastrophe that happened.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I got to be careful and it\u2019s sad too because even at my age I feel like I could still go, I could still have a real good Undertaker match for example. We could tell an incredible story with both the chemics and the mystique of both of them. I\u2019ve had these ideas for 20 years, some of the ideas I have in my head. It would be something that people would talk about for a long time, but I\u2019m satisfied. I\u2019m happy with the way things turned out. I did have my WWE run, it was short, but I had one. I did WrestleMania, I wrestled Seth Rollins, I wrestled for the WWE World Title, so I can\u2019t complain.\u201d<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3305889353\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><b>Listen to the full interview here: <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/liliangarcia.com\/chasing-glory-podcast\/\"><b>http:\/\/liliangarcia.com\/chasing-glory-podcast\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b><\/b><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THIS RECENT ARTICLE:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/19\/interview-highlights-haku-discusses-his-career-in-pro-wrestling-whether-stories-about-his-toughness-are-true-who-he-considered-toughest-wrestlers\/\">Interview Highlights: Haku discusses his career in pro wrestling, whether stories about his toughness are true, who he considered toughest wrestlers<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3346691392\"><div id=\"pwtor-553769107\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The following interview highlights were sent to PWTorch.com today from Lilian Garcia&#8217;s podcast team&#8230; &#8220;Chasing Glory&#8221; with Lilian Garcia Special Guest:\u00a0WWE Hall of Famer, Sting\u00a0 In the newest episode of \u201cChasing Glory with Lilian Garcia,\u201d <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/30\/interview-highlights-sting-discusses-where-hes-really-done-with-wrestling-his-dysfunction-family-growing-up-meeting-hulk-hogan-infidelity\/\" title=\"Interview Highlights: Sting discusses where he&#8217;s really done with wrestling, his dysfunction family growing up, meeting Hulk Hogan, infidelity\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-interview-highlights"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/11\/StingGG3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63824,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63823\/revisions\/63824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}