AEW News Roundup (July 9th, 2021): Malakai Black reveals why he signed with Tony Khan's promotion, WWE Hall of Famer on why Sting dropped his Surfer gimmick, and more

#4 WWE Hall of Famer reveals why AEW's Sting decided to drop his Surfer gimmick

Surfer Sting!

WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff recently revealed why AEW's Sting decided to drop his Surfer character back in the day.

AEW star Sting is a 36-year veteran of the professional wrestling business. During his early days, the Icon brought several changes to his on-screen character. One of the fascinating gimmicks that he adopted was the Surfer character, which helped him become the face of WCW.

Despite the gimmick being highly popular among fans, AEW's Sting decided to shift to a character inspired by The Crow.

My favorite kind of Sting.I bought the best of Bash at the Beach when I was 12. I watched Surfer Sting vs. Cactus Jack 1000 times. Crow Sting was cool too. But Surfer Sting was and is the BEST. IMO pic.twitter.com/cgF8j7upkA

— Josh Alexander (@Walking_Weapon) December 5, 2020

Speaking on the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff revealed that movie roles prompted AEW star Sting to drop his Surfer character as he felt that the gimmick wouldn't help him land a movie role:

[Sting] wanted to do movies. I was the executive producer of Stings’ very first movie called The Real Reason Men Commit Crimes. I put the deal together and made it happen with Turner and funded it. Sting was taking acting lessons right around this time and working in that direction. Sting made up his mind, he didn’t want that blonde hair because you can’t get a movie, you can’t get a T.V. role with that look so he wanted more versatility,” Eric Bischoff said (H/T- WrestlingInc).

Surfer Sting pic.twitter.com/6YlYH24k9V

— Keith Hendrix (@KendrixTweets) July 5, 2021

The WCW Icon stopped dying his hair blonde and adopted a crow-based character, which eventually proved to be a defining moment in his career, as he went on to win several world championships. One cannot forget about his feud with NWO, which made him even more popular.