Joey Janela announced another retro throwback wrestler for the Greatest Clusterf**k, the Battle Royal for this year’s Joey Janela’s Spring Break 3, and it’s a huge name from the Monday Night Wars. Janela had promised a big announcement at 4pm EST on Sunday and when the time came, he seemed rather hesitant to reveal it.
So I had a massive announcement that was gonna shock the world at 4pm, you know how you asked your parents for a toy on Christmas and they got you the one you didn’t want? Well this is the situation right now, I asked for a massive star and got something else instead… #JJSB3
— “The Bad Boy” Joey Janela (@JANELABABY) February 24, 2019
The reveal ended up being that nWo Sting, the “fake” Sting used during the taunts of the real Sting joining the nWo during his hiatus from WCW (and subsequent return to the rafters of WCW arenas for months), and in typical good humor, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) had some fun with the announcement.
Joey asked for Sting so we gave him a Sting…
Bogus Sting (Real Fake Sting) enters the fray as the latest participant in The Greatest Clusterfuck at #JJSB3 Pt 2!
Watch LIVE on @FiteTV:https://t.co/tOzGbghIGS
Order The Collective FiteTV Bundle:https://t.co/jjPjc77FKF pic.twitter.com/hXRGKXdLjS
— GameChangerWrestling (@GCWrestling_) February 24, 2019
Janela added some further details on the signing.
https://twitter.com/JANELABABY/status/1099779754100772864
Not to be confused with another wrestler known as “Jumping” Jeff Farmer, the Jeff Farmer who became Fake Sting began wrestling in 1991. Originally known as Lightning, one half of the tag team Thunder & Lightning, he started out in the Florida wrestling circuit, working with International Wrestling Federation (IWF). In 1993, the duo was signed by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where they spent the year working between WCW and All Japan.
When Thunder departed WCW in 1994, Lightning remained and was repackaged as Cobra, a fairly generic martial arts-style wrestler who saw more of the ceiling lights than most during the time. As Cobra, he would work enhancement for a couple years, until he was repackaged and inserted into WCW’s hottest storyline in 1996.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3tT0FjAZDI
In 1996, the New World Order (nWo) was WCW’s hottest property and storyline. With Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall creating an army to tear down WCW from the inside, one of WCW’s staunchest defenders, Sting, had taken flight, seemingly departing the company. After what felt like months of silence, suddenly Sting began to appear in the shadows and rafters of WCW arenas, sporting a new Crow-inspired look that was far darker than the happy-go-lucky “Surfer” Sting WCW fans were accustomed too. Naturally, the nWo pleaded for Sting to join their cause and turn their back on WCW, but Sting remained silent and refused to don the white and black colors of the nWo. In an effort to play mind games with the rest of the WCW roster, a man posing as Sting attacked Lex Luger, with many thinking that Sting had finally joined the nWo.
For weeks, Hogan and the rest of the nWo would insist that this “fake” Sting was in fact the real Sting and that he was firmly entrenched in the nWo camp.
But it all came to a head in December of 1996, when both Stings came down to face the Steiner Brothers, and the real Sting came face to face with his imposter.
Once the gig was up, fake Sting headed to work for WCW’s Japanese allies New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), joining the nWo Japan chapter of the group. While in Japan, he soon lost the Sting gimmick, becoming a new character called Super J, joining TEAM2000 and routinely tagging with Hiro Saito. In 2002, following the collapse of WCW, he even worked several dark matches for the WWE as Super J.
He left NJPW in 2002 and returned to the indies, but retired in 2005, although he’s recently made some appearances in Japan again as Super J. With the event sold out, Janela and GCW have been having fun announcing all the special attraction stars coming to Spring Break 3 before announcing the bigger names closer to the event.
