Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, Sting had carved out a niche for himself, retroactively nicknamed "Surfer Sting" as he had a bleach blonde hair cut and wore colorful facepaint and wrestling gear. Once the New World Order (NWO) arrived in WCW in the summer of 1996, wrestlers like Sting were forced to adapt to fight off the growing enterprise and thus "The Crow" Sting was born. Modeled after Brandon Lee's appearance in the movie of the same name, he went from being that Venice Beach hero to a dark, brooding, and mysterious figure. He didn't speak for months while the change occured, before finally meeting Hulk Hogan in what was set to be an epic encounter at Starrcade 1997.