DVD Review: Sting - Into the Light

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 7hrs 07mins (427mins)

Discs: 3

Disc 1

Now or Never
NWA Clash of the Champions – March 1988
California Kid
Driving to Success
WCW Great American Bash – July 1990
WWE Consumer Products
Franchise
Black and White
WCW Starrcade – December 1997
WWE Community Relations
Moment of Truth
The Last Nitro – March 2001
WWE Digital Media
A Transformation
WWE Executive Management
WWE Survivor Series – November 2014
Signed
WWE WrestleMania XXXI – March 2015

Disc 2

Stories

Talker
Inner Circle
Hulk-A-Dear
Getting Chased at the Mall
WCW SuperBrawl ’91
SharpDeathShooterLock?
Rappelling
Shake
IGN Visit
Behind the Scenes: ID Shoot
WrestleMania XXXI Axxess

Matches

The Freedom Fighters v David Johnson & The Invader – Memphis Wrestling • November 1985
The Blade Runners v Tracey Smothers & Ricky Gibson – Mid-South Wrestling • March 2, 1986
UWF Tag Team Championship Match: Sting & Rick Steiner v Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner – Universal Wrestling Federation • May 29, 1987
NWA World Heavyweight Championship Match: Ric Flair v Sting – Clash of the Champions • March 27, 1988
Sting v The Great Muta – WCW / NJPW SuperShow • March 21, 1991
WCW World Tag Team Championship Match: The Steiner Brothers v Lex Luger & Sting – WCW SuperBrawl • May 19, 1991
Submit or Surrender Match: Sting v Cactus Jack – WCW Power Hour • November 23, 1991

Disc 3

King of Cable Tournament Match: Sting v Rick Rude – WCW Clash of the Champions XXI • November 18, 1992
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting v Vader – WCW Slamboree • May 22, 1994
Sting v “Stunning” Steve Austin – WCW Saturday Night • April 8, 1995
Sting v Hulk Hogan – WCW Monday Nitro • November 20, 1995
Winner gets both WCW Tag Team Titles: Sting v The Giant – WCW Great American Bash • June 14, 1998
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting v Goldberg – WCW Monday Nitro • September 14, 1998
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting v Diamond Dallas Page – WCW Monday Nitro • April 26, 1999
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting v Bret “Hit Man” Hart – WCW Monday Nitro • October 18, 1999
Sting’s WWE Debut: Survivor Series • November 23, 2014
Sting v Triple H – WrestleMania XXXI • March 29, 2015

Sting, the last bastion of World Championship Wrestling, is now firmly entrenched in WWE and as is customary for legendary performers, he now has his own profile DVD.

The first disc (as is the standard) comprises of a 1hr documentary that gives a timeline history of Sting from his “being invited to wrestle while working in a gym” story we’ve heard before, through his early team with Rock (who would become Ultimate Warrior) and on to his time in NWA / WCW up until THE LAST NITRO™ against Ric Flair.

Surprisingly, in what I believe is a first, TNA gets a bonafide name-check in an official WWE product. It’s only a passing reference, but it’s there nonetheless.

The framework for the documentary is a fly-on-the-wall style as we follow Sting on his journey to WWE Headquarters to discuss the details of his joining the company and it’s genuinely cool to see his awe at the scale and scope of WWE in comparison to WCW, even at the Atlanta-based promotion’s peak.

The title of the doc is ostensibly based around his faith (like Shawn Michaels, he takes his Christianity very seriously), but one really cheesy thing is that when the title pops on the screen, it’s is immediately preceded by Sting walking into the HQ building in Stamford and then a flash of bright, white light.

Coincidence or a subtle dig against WCW / TNA as Sting enters WWE? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

As stated earlier, this is a fly-on-the-wall story with only a small smattering of talking-heads in comparison to previous releases (one of whom is Rick Steiner, who rather surprisingly looks healthy, happy and in great shape). One of the great ideas is having Sting talk about famous matches from his career while he watches them on the WWE Network, especially as he’s watching them for the first time in a long time. It’s just a shame this isn’t featured more than it is.

The rest of the documentary is Sting attending merchandise meetings and the palpable feeling from him that WCW was never like this. It’s a fascinating microcosmic insight into the inner-workings of WCW’s Franchise.

Oh, and the little matter of actually signing his WWE contract on camera.

Overview

If your only exposure to Sting is his WWE run and your looking for a history lesson, then this isn’t really the collection for you. Sure, there are historic matches over the latter two discs and the production deserves a ton of credit for making sure there are no repeat opponents, but the documentary gives only the most cursory glances to his time in The Blade Runners (which is essentially repeated from the Warrior DVDs) and not much more to his run with the NWA and WCW.

The documentary itself is really good for what it is and comes across more as one of the WWE/24 exclusives from The Network rather than a profile retail release. That in itself is not a bad thing, but it seems a little light for a collection.

Matches on the disc do a good job of avoiding repeats from previous releases and cover a respectable run of opponents from the different eras of Sting.

The “stories” on the second disc are basically outtakes from the main feature, but some of them are really great. The IGN section and the WrestleMania Access clip are really good, while the other stories range from funny to poignant. Getting Brad Armstrong and Tracey Smothers on a DVD in 2015 is always a special moment too, just for the record.

As with other releases, having access to The Network means you can view a lot of the matches on the set if you look for them, but this saves you the trouble and not one of them drops below “good” in quality. Due to this, The Network doesn’t reduce the value of the set as much as previous collections have.

If you buy the Blu-Ray version, you get the following additional content -:

Blu-ray Exclusive

NWA World Tag Team Championship Match: Sting & “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes v Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard – Clash of the Champions • June 8, 1988
King of Cable Tournament Match: Sting v Flyin’ Brian Pillman – WCW Saturday Night • November 7, 1992
Sting v Scott Steiner – WCW Monday Nitro • May 27, 1996
WCW United States Championship Tournament Match: Sting v Booker – WCW Spring Stampede • April 16, 2000
Triple H and Sting: Face-to-Face Confrontation – Fastlane • February 22, 2015
Sting Speaks! – RAW • March 23, 2015

Points: 8/10