The legendary Jim Cornette has orated whether he believes The Undertaker or Sting was the biggest star.
The Undertaker vs. Sting was a WrestleMania dream bout that was often mentioned but never transpired thanks to time and situation. While Sting was making a name himself in World Championship Wrestling, The Undertaker was becoming a legend of the industry in the World Wrestling Federation and though their paths would never cross, they did go to war in the ratings.
Now, Jim Cornette has sat down on the latest episode of his Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru Podcast to answer the question of which star was the biggest in the history of professional wrestling, after being sent the query by an eager fan:
“They’ve both been big stars, but The Undertaker is on a different level not just above Sting — Sting never had the opportunity to be on Undertaker’s level because he made excellent money – maybe not as much as ‘Taker would have made because I don’t see how – just that three years of Bischoff spending money like a drunken sailor in WCW, but Sting never got the chance. He only worked for Crockett for a little over a year and then they sold to TBS. And from ’88 — ’89 was still a decent year and ’90 was ok — but from ’90 – ’96 WCW was a non-entity, drew no major money, no major crowds, it was a television product and a mismanaged company.
While Undertaker was starting the streak at WrestleMania and becoming one of the biggest names in the history of the biggest wrestling promotion in the history of the world, and ‘Taker stayed there, Sting was out of the business for a while and then went to TNA. And once again they paid him well for the work he did but he never had the opportunity to draw major crowds with TNA. He didn’t have the opportunity to do major pay-per-view buy rates. So in any quantification, The Undertaker is a bigger star, any quantification besides in-ring talent and performance is subject to your interpretation, my knowledge my vary. But there’s no way to objectively quantify Sting in a business metric, big crowds, major matches, longevity, huge buy-rates, there’s no way anyone can compare — a lot of the guys who worked for a long period of time in the WWF can’t compete with Undertaker so there’s no comparison there.”
While the pair never clashed inside a WWE ring and never will thanks The Undertaker being officially retired and Sting having signed a multi-year deal with AEW, the pair did collide just once in World Championship Wrestling in a notoriously poor outing for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on a September 1, 1990, live event when The Undertaker was ‘Mean’ Mark Callous.
Credit for the interview: Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru