NWO Sting Recalls Using Prosthetics To Make Him Look Like The Real Sting
There haven't been too many clone characters in pro wrestling history as it's hard to find someone that looks just like the original. That's why clones are usually guys who wrestle under marks like Sin Cara or wrestle in face paint like Doink or Sting.
The NWO Sting was the real Sting's clone and caused confusion amongst WCW fans when the imposter first appeared. Jeff Farmer, aka NWO Sting, talked about physically looking like the real Sting when he joined Wrestling Epicenter.
"That is exactly, probably, the reason Eric Bischoff asked me to do the nWo Sting. Steve [Borden, Sting] and I were similar sized and looked relatively close," said Farmer.
NWO Sting debuted on an episode of Nitro when Farmer got out of an NWO limo and attacked Lex Luger who was previously an ally of the real Sting. Farmer discussed the prosthetics that were initially used to make him look even more like Sting.
"They had an AFX guy, I think his name was Andre. He was working in Hollywood but he was doing side stuff for WCW. He took a mold of Steve's head, like of his facial features, and then they took a mold of my head. His forehead brows, like on his forehead, were bigger. Then, of course, I had lighter eyes and he had dark eyes. I had this prosthetic thing on my face to make it more like his face. It looked really close! But, after a while, we dropped the prosthetics because we didn't need it because of the paint. No one was looking at our skills to see if they were a match," said Farmer.
"And then, the contacts – the contacts were terrible! I remember when I put those on – I had never worn contacts before – it was really difficult for me to see with those on! I remember when I went to attack Lex, it kind of moved and I couldn't see him. But no one knew that part!"
The NWO Sting ended up becoming more of a jobber than anything else and never really took off in the United States like it did with NWO Japan. Farmer talked about ideas for the character in the States that never took off.
"The character was great because it could have been like an evil twin like Batman or a Spider Man with Black Spiderman or whatever you want to call it, like a dark super hero and Sting was like a super hero. Of course, this was not any of my idea. Eric Bischoff told me if it leaks or gets out they're going to squash it," revealed Farmer. "Again, this was above my pay grade but the character could have been a pain for Sting and a thorn in his side for the long haul. Maybe, down the road, they could end up on the same side and there could have been a Sting tag team and they fight together. But there were so many things they could have done with it, you know?"
Farmer admits that how the character debuted ended up being a different version than what he eventually developed into. He talked about the NWO Sting not being a clone of the real Sting.
"You know, initially, it was designed to fool everybody. But, after a while, you know, I never wore the singlets that he wore. I always had my own tights. On the face paint, I put in a few more lines so it would be obvious that I wasn't trying to be Sting, I was trying to mock Sting and be a bad version of Sting," stated Farmer.
NWO Sting had its most success in Japan and Farmer would even regularly team with NWO Japan's leader Masahiro Chono. He talked about the differences in the character in Japan vs. the United States.
"In Japan, I was the nWo Sting and I did that character for years, like two or three years. I had hundreds of matches as nWo Sting," said Farmer. "The Japanese fans knew that I was not trying to be Sting and it was its own character. In the US, it wasn't really presented that way at all."
In 2014 WWE released a "Best of Sting" DVD and mistakenly included a photo of the NWO Sting on the back cover. Farmer talked about gracing the cover of the real Sting's retrospective DVD.
"[Laughs] No, no royalties! I heard about that. That picture, I think, was taken when I was in Japan. I think I had Hiro Saito in a little grip there," said Farmer.