chunk_id
stringlengths 5
8
| chunk
stringlengths 1
1k
|
|---|---|
1898_63 | Sting lost the title to Abyss on November 19 at Genesis by disqualification after pushing aside the referee and pushing Abyss into a stack of tables covered in barbed wire. In the weeks following Genesis, Sting's feud with Abyss continued and Christian Cage was involved, facing the three of them in a three-way match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on December 10 at Turning Point, where Abyss retained the title.
TNA World Heavyweight Champion (2007–2008)
As 2007 came along, Sting continued his feud with Abyss while trying to recapture the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, facing him at Final Resolution, Against All Odds and Destination X in a Last Rites match, but he never claimed the title. Also, Abyss and Sting were placed in different team in the Lethal Lockdown match at Lockdown. Sting, with the help of Jeff Jarrett, pinned Abyss to win the match for his team and end their bitter rivalry. |
1898_64 | At Sacrifice, a match between Sting, Kurt Angle and NWA World Champion Christian Cage was booked. The day of the PPV, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the owners of the NWA World Heavyweight and the NWA World Tag Team Championships, stripped Cage of the title and Team 3D of the tag team title. NWA Executive Director Robert K. Trobich stated the reason was that Cage refused to defend the NWA Title at NWA live events. At the event, Cage, still holding the physical NWA Championship belt, defended what was billed as the "World Heavyweight Championship" against Sting and Angle. Angle was the victor of said contest by making Sting submit, and was announced as the new "TNA World Heavyweight Champion". The Impact! following the event, the title was labelled as the "TNA World Heavyweight Championship", but the title was vacated. A tournament was then held for the title which culminated in a King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary. Sting lost his qualifying match with Samoa Joe after |
1898_65 | Christopher Daniels interfered. Sting instead faced Daniels on June 17 at Slammiversary, which he ultimately won. |
1898_66 | After his feud with Daniels, Sting began teaming up with his former enemy, Abyss who had recently turned face. Together, the two went on to defeat A.J. Styles and Tomko on July 15 at Victory Road. While trying to help Abyss to win a match against A.J. Styles, Sting and Abyss were attacked by Christian's Coalition. Abyss was pulled under the ring and Sting was slammed into broken glass by Tomko, before Abyss emerged bleeding badly and was slammed into the broken glass and thumbtacks. The following week, Sting and Abyss got revenge by defeating Christian Cage and A.J. Styles in a ladder match, in the process earning a contract that allowed them to pick the type of match between Abyss and Christian at Hard Justice. Sting's team won in a "Doomsday Chamber of Blood" match, with Abyss pinning A.J. Styles to become the number one contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. |
1898_67 | After that, Sting started a feud with the TNA World Champion Kurt Angle. First, Sting defeated A.J. Styles, Christian Cage, and Samoa Joe in a four-way match to become the co-holder of the TNA World Tag Team Championship with Angle, but lost it 30 days later against Adam "Pacman" Jones and Ron Killings at No Surrender. Sting would face Angle for the World title at Bound for Glory, where Sting won his first TNA World Heavyweight Championship. However, he would lose the title back to Angle two days later on Impact! after Kevin Nash interfered on Angle's behalf. Sting would face Angle and Nash at Genesis, with the debutant Booker T as his mystery partner. In the match, whoever scored the pinfall would win the TNA World Championship, which Angle won after pinning Sting to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. This would be the final TNA appearance of Sting in 2007 as he would take some time off to be with his family. |
1898_68 | Sting then made his official return on March 27. At Lockdown, he teamed with Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino, and Matt Morgan) and defeated Team Tomko (Tomko, A.J. Styles, James Storm, and Team 3D). After the tag titles were vacated, Jim Cornette held a Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament to determine new champs. Four teams were already in the Sacrifice finals, while Cornette named eight wrestlers as the "Egotistical 8". Sting's partner was James Storm and on May 11 at Sacrifice, they came up short due their inability get along, and towards the end, Sting attacked Storm and walked out. Sting was not seen after that except in an interview which talked about his career and his eventual retirement. |
1898_69 | On July 13 at Victory Road, Booker T faced Samoa Joe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. During the match, Sting tried to talk sense into Joe, as he was brutally beating Booker T, and was potentially heading towards a disqualification. Joe rebuked him, and Sting struck him with his trademark black baseball bat. Over the coming weeks, the feud between Joe and Booker intensified, with episodes ending with Booker T or Sharmell striking Samoa Joe with Sting's trademark bat as Impact! went off the air, leading to a question of whether Sting had turned on Samoa Joe and became a heel. Although still receiving a face reaction from the fans, Sting sided with Booker T. On August 10 at Hard Justice, Sting attacked A.J. Styles after he and Kurt Angle wrestled a Last Man Standing match.
The Main Event Mafia (2008–2009) |
1898_70 | On October 12 at Bound for Glory IV, Sting challenged Samoa Joe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and was successful in claiming the title, after Kevin Nash returned and hit Joe with Sting's baseball bat. After the PPV, Sting with Kurt Angle, Booker T, Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner created The Main Event Mafia, a stable formed by veterans and former World Champions and feuded with younger wrestlers, called TNA Frontline. Sting defended the title against Frontline's AJ Styles at Turning Point and Rhino on January 11 at Genesis. Sting also feuded with the leader of The Main Event Mafia Kurt Angle. At Against All Odds, Sting defended the title against Angle, Brother Ray and Brother Devon. He then faced off with Angle in a singles match at Destination X. At Lockdown, Sting lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to Mick Foley inside the Six Sides of Steel, ending his reign at 189 days (his longest world title reign for any organization). On May 24 at Sacrifice, Sting defeated |
1898_71 | Kurt Angle to become the new Godfather of the Main Event Mafia. On June 21 at Slammiversary, Sting defeated Matt Morgan in a singles match, thus preventing Morgan from joining the Main Event Mafia. On the following episode of Impact!, Sting's fellow Main Event Mafia members attacked him, removed him from the group, and Kurt Angle reclaimed his role as Godfather. The following week, Sting took his revenge upon the Mafia, when he attacked every member of the group and stole Angle's world heavyweight championship belt, becoming a fully fledged face as a result. On July 19 at Victory Road, Sting was defeated by new Main Event Mafia member Samoa Joe in a singles match after the debuting Taz interfered on Joe's behalf. On August 16 at Hard Justice, Sting unsuccessfully challenged Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a triple threat match, which also included Matt Morgan. On September 20 at No Surrender, Sting lost a five-way match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship |
1898_72 | that also included A.J. Styles, Hernandez, Kurt Angle, and Matt Morgan. Instead of pinning Angle, he opted to attack Morgan, to allow Styles to pin Angle and become the new World Heavyweight Champion. As a token of gratitude, Styles offered to give him a title shot at the following month's PPV Bound for Glory in a match billed as possibly being Sting's retirement match. At the PPV, Styles defeated Sting to retain his title, ending Sting's undefeated streak at Bound for Glory. After the match he announced that he didn't know whether he would continue his career or not, Saying that "the way you fans are reacting right now, makes me wanna stay forever!" At the end of the year the match was voted the match of the year by the fans of TNA. |
1898_73 | Feud with Immortal (2010–2011)
On the January 4, 2010, live-three-hour, Monday night edition of Impact! Sting returned to the Impact! Zone appearing in the rafters of the arena. Sting reappeared two months later on March 8, attacking Hulk Hogan and Abyss during a match against A.J. Styles and Ric Flair, turning heel as a result. He was later defeated by the debuting Rob Van Dam. During the following months, Sting would join other heel wrestlers against face wrestlers like Van Dam, Jarrett or Hogan. At Lockdown, Team Flair (formed by Sting, Desmond Wolfe, Robert Roode and James Storm) were defeated by Team Hogan (Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy). After defeating Jeff Jarrett at Sacrifice, Sting faced Rob Van Dam for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary VIII. However, during the match Jarrett made his return and cost Sting the title. |
1898_74 | After assaulting Jarrett from behind on the June 24 edition of Impact!, TNA president Dixie Carter (storyline) suspended Sting for 30 days. When he returned, Sting changed his gimmick, wearing his nWo Wolfpac red face paint, and was paired with Kevin Nash. They would start a feud with Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe, facing them No Surrender and Bound for Glory, where Sting, Nash and D'Angelo Dinero defeated Jarrett and Joe after Jarrett turned heel by leaving the ring and having Joe wrestle alone. At the end of Bound for Glory, it was revealed that Sting had been right about Hogan and Bischoff all along, as they turned heel with Jarrett and Jeff Hardy as Abyss's "they", and in the process turned Sting, Nash and Dinero back to being faces. On the following edition of Impact!, Sting and Nash refused to join Hogan, Bischoff and their new group, Immortal. After the promo, they walked out on TNA, but Nash left the promotion for real. Borden took a hiatus from TNA television as his contract had |
1898_75 | expired at the end of 2010. |
1898_76 | He returned on February 24, 2011 at the tapings of the March 3 edition of Impact!, where he appeared as a surprise challenger and defeated Immortal's Jeff Hardy to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the third time. On March 13 at Victory Road, Sting successfully defended the title against Hardy in a No Disqualification rematch that lasted ninety seconds. According to word from backstage, the match was planned to last longer, but it was cut short after Hardy was deemed too intoxicated to wrestle. Sting was later heard agreeing with a fan's claim that the match was "bullshit". The following month at Lockdown, Sting successfully defended the title against Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam in a three-way steel cage match, Van Dam at Sacrifice, and Anderson at Slammiversary IX, where he lost the title following outside interference from Eric Bischoff. |
1898_77 | Over the next few weeks, Sting displayed a more maniacal character similar in look and style to Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker from the 2008 film The Dark Knight. On the July 14 edition of Impact Wrestling, Sting, now dubbed as the "Insane Icon", regained the TNA World Heavyweight Championship from Mr. Anderson, after Fortune and Kurt Angle, disguised as his clown minions, attacked each member of Immortal, preventing them from interfering in the match. He would go on to lose the title to Kurt Angle on August 7 at Hardcore Justice, after Angle hit him with a chair brought to the ring by Hulk Hogan. Sting continued tormenting head members of Immortal with his strange new personality, and on the August 18 edition of Impact Wrestling, his longtime rival Ric Flair made his return to TNA and challenged him to a match. Sting agreed to put his career on the line in the match in exchange for Flair promising to deliver him his long-awaited match with Hogan, should he be able to defeat |
1898_78 | him. On the September 1 edition of Impact Wrestling, Sting received a rematch against Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated following interference from special enforcer Hulk Hogan and the rest of Immortal. On September 11 at No Surrender, Hogan once again cost Sting the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a three-way match, which also included Mr. Anderson. On the September 15 edition of Impact Wrestling, Sting defeated longtime rival Ric Flair to earn the right to face Hogan at Bound for Glory. On the October 6 edition of Impact Wrestling, after being exposed for his false claim of retiring and his secret ridicule of the fans, a furious Hogan impulsively agreed to hand TNA back to Dixie Carter, should Sting manage to defeat him at Bound for Glory. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, Sting defeated Hogan to bring Dixie Carter back to power. After the match, Hogan turned on Immortal and helped Sting overcome the odds in his battle with the stable. On the |
1898_79 | following edition of Impact Wrestling, Carter placed Sting in charge of the program. Sting returned to the ring on the December 22 and February 9, 2012, editions of Impact Wrestling, where he teamed up with Jeff Hardy to defeat TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode and Bully Ray both times. |
1898_80 | Final feuds and departure (2012–2014)
During the first months of 2012, Sting feuded with the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode. He was defeated by Roode at Victory Road in a non-title No Holds Barred match, and at Slammiversary in a title match. During this time, he also left the General Manager position in favor of Hulk Hogan, signed a new contract extension with TNA and was announced as the first inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame. |
1898_81 | His next feud was against a newly formed masked faction called "Aces & Eights", where he was pointed as the interim general manager after Hogan hiatus due to a back injury. The feud led to a match at Bound for Glory alongside Bully Ray, where they were defeated by the Aces & Eights, following interference from a man who was afterwards unmasked as Ray's longtime partner, the returning Devon. As a result of their win, the Aces & Eights earned full access to TNA. On the following episode of Impact Wrestling, Sting defeated Devon via disqualification, following interference from the Aces & Eights. On the November 8 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sting was sidelined with a storyline injury, after being put through a table and beaten with a ball-peen hammer by DOC, a member of Aces & Eights. |
1898_82 | Sting returned on the January 3, 2013, episode of Impact Wrestling, saving Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe from Aces & Eights before beating the group down with a baseball bat. Sting wrestled his return match the following week, defeating Aces & Eights member Mike Knox after he injured Kurt Angle. Three days later at Genesis, Sting gained his revenge on DOC by defeating him in a singles match. On the February 7 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sting teamed up with Bully Ray to defeat Devon and DOC in a Tables match. On March 10 at Lockdown, Team TNA, consisting of Sting, Eric Young, James Storm, Magnus, and Samoa Joe defeated Aces & Eights, consisting of Devon, DOC, Garett Bischoff, Mike Knox, and Mr. Anderson in a Lethal Lockdown match. After Bully Ray won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and revealed himself as the president of Aces & Eights later that night, Hulk Hogan blamed Sting as he had encouraged Hogan to give Ray the title shot while also encouraging Hogan to support Ray's |
1898_83 | marriage with his daughter Brooke. Sting proceeded to walk out on Hogan. Sting returned on the April 25 Impact Wrestling, saving Hogan from an attack by the Aces & Eights. The following week, Sting reconciled with Hogan and became the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship later that night after defeating Matt Morgan. On June 2 at Slammiversary XI, Sting unsuccessfully challenged Bully Ray for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a No Holds Barred Match after an interference by Aces & Eights. Per stipulation, Sting would never get another title opportunity again. |
1898_84 | On the June 13 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sting noted that nobody in the back helped him during his title match, but he would form a New Main Event Mafia to battle the Aces & Eights. In the following weeks, Sting would recruit Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Magnus, and Rampage Jackson as members of the New Main Event Mafia. Before Bound for Glory, MEM member Magnus complained to Sting because his losses. Magnus told to Sting he had Flair to put him in the map, but he had nobody, so Sting challenged him to a match at Bound for Glory. At Bound for Glory, Sting was defeated by Magnus. On the October 31 episode of Impact Wrestling, Dixie Carter offered to lift the lifetime ban so Sting can get another World title opportunity again by entering him first in a Battle Royal Gauntlet match, which was won by Magnus as Sting attempted to eliminate Kazarian, and Magnus eliminated the both of them. Sting disbanded The Main Event Mafia after Aces & Eights disbanded, and while other members began to chase |
1898_85 | their TNA World Heavyweight Championship dreams, Sting started a feud against Ethan Carter III and Dixie Carter after they began humiliating TNA Legends, like Curry Man and Earl Hebner by Carter. On the December 12 episode of Impact Wrestling, Carter was confronted by Sting, and was issued an option, either face Sting immediately, or enter the Feast or Fired match. Carter entered the Feast or Fired match, and grabbed one of the briefcases. On the December 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, the Feast or Fired briefcase revealed to contain a future TNA World Tag Team Championship match, and also led to the firing of Chavo Guerrero. On the January 16, 2014 episode of Impact Wrestling: Genesis, Sting lost a match to Ethan Carter III due an interference from the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Magnus and subsequently challenged Magnus to a Title vs. Career match for the January 23 episode of Impact Wrestling: Genesis, which Sting lost, and his TNA contract was terminated as a result. |
1898_86 | WWE (2014–2020) |
1898_87 | Pre-debut appearances (2014) |
1898_88 | Veteran professional wrestling journalist Bill Apter chronicled Sting's career in a piece for WWE.com on February 19, 2014, wherein he stated that Sting's "best days may still be yet to come". He appeared in a WWE Network production on April 15, 2014, sharing a story of his former tag team partner The Ultimate Warrior, who had recently died. This marked Sting's first non-archive appearance on a WWE-branded show. Sting was a prominent contributor to the documentary film Warrior: The Ultimate Legend, which aired on the WWE Network on April 17. The following day, online retailer Zavvi announced the WWE Home Video DVD and Blu-ray The Best of Sting, which was released on September 23, 2014. On July 14, Sting appeared in a vignette on Raw to promote the video game WWE 2K15, in which he was featured as a pre-order bonus character in both his 'Crow' and 'Surfer' (pre-1996) incarnations. That same day, WWE began selling official Sting merchandise. On July 24, Borden made his first public |
1898_89 | appearance for WWE, in full Sting garb, as a surprise guest at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International. The event was held to announce WWE's upcoming line of Mattel action figures, in which the company's first ever Sting figure would appear. Prior to that appearance, Sting gave his first interview with WWE.com, which was released later that day. On August 4, WWE announced Sting as a guest on the WWE 2K15 "Roster Reveal" panel, which took place on August 16 in Los Angeles. |
1898_90 | Feud with The Authority (2014–2015) |
1898_91 | On November 23, during the main event of Survivor Series, Sting made his first-ever appearance in a WWE ring by attacking Triple H with a Scorpion Death Drop and also costing Team Authority the match. On January 19, 2015, Sting made his live Raw debut by appearing backstage during the main event, then walking to the stage, causing a distraction and costing Authority members Big Show, Kane and Seth Rollins their handicap match against John Cena; this win gave the recently fired Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan their jobs back. Triple H challenged Sting to a face-to-face confrontation on the February 2 episode of Raw. Sting accepted this challenge on the February 9 episode of Raw by sending a Sting doppelganger into the ring to scare Triple H, after airing a vignette on the big screen accepting Triple H's challenge. Sting and Triple H had a confrontation at Fastlane on February 22. Following physicality between the two, Sting pointed to the WrestleMania 31 sign with his baseball |
1898_92 | bat, issuing a challenge for the event that was accepted by Triple H. On the March 16 episode of Raw, Sting made a surprise appearance and helped Randy Orton fight off the Authority. Immediately following on the WWE Network, Sting spoke for the first time in-ring. He lost at WrestleMania 31 in a match involving interference from D-Generation X and New World Order members, but shook hands with Triple H afterward. |
1898_93 | Sting returned on the August 24 episode of Raw and challenged the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins at Night of Champions. Sting defeated Big Show by disqualification in his first match on Raw, as a consequence of Rollins attacking Sting. That same night, a second match was booked with John Cena and Sting defeating Show and Rollins. At Night of Champions, Sting was defeated by Rollins and suffered a legit neck injury after a turnbuckle powerbomb. |
1898_94 | Hall of Fame and first retirement (2016–2020)
It was announced on the January 11, 2016 episode of Raw that Sting would be the first member of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016. Sting ultimately reneged on having surgery; on March 22, 2016 he explained that he felt "completely normal" and had none of the side effects associated with cervical spinal stenosis. On April 2, during his WWE Hall of Fame induction speech, Sting announced his retirement from professional wrestling. He appeared at WrestleMania 32, alongside his fellow 2016 inductees, the following night. |
1898_95 | In August 2016, Sting appeared on the WWE Network show Legends with JBL and talked about his career. He also stated that he had still not undergone surgery, which would definitively end his career, and he still held hope for a match with The Undertaker, claiming that such a match is his "unfinished business" in wrestling. However, the match would never happen as despite Sting pitching the idea for a cinematic match with Undertaker, it was never approved, and Undertaker himself officially retired in 2020.
On the February 25, 2019 episode of Raw, Sting made his first appearance on WWE television since 2016, at the 70th birthday celebration of Ric Flair, but Flair was attacked by Batista before he could make it to the ring. This would end up being Sting's final appearance for the company, other than interviews recorded for WWE Network. |
1898_96 | In May 2020, it was reported that Sting was no longer under WWE contract. In October 2020, the WWE stopped selling Sting merchandise and pulled his page from WWE Shop.
All Elite Wrestling (2020–present) |
1898_97 | On December 2, 2020, Sting made his All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut after a tag team match that pitted Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin against Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks at Winter Is Coming. This was his first appearance on TNT since he defeated Ric Flair in the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001. It was later announced that Sting had officially signed a multi-year contract with AEW. AEW also began selling Sting merchandise. On the December 9, 2020 edition of Dynamite, Sting spoke for the first time on TNT in nearly 20 years, confirming to Cody Rhodes he was "signed officially with AEW." Sting then aligned himself with Allin, and on January 21, 2021, it was announced that Sting would team with Allin against Team Taz (Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) in a Street Fight at Revolution on March 7, marking Sting's first match since September 2015, thus coming out of retirement. Sting and Allin won the match, which was pre-taped on location. Sting and Allin again teamed up |
1898_98 | and defeated the team of Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page at AEW's marquee event Double or Nothing on May 30, which was done live in front of a full capacity crowd. On the August 18, 2021 edition of Dynamite, Sting wrestled on TNT for the first time in 20 years as he and Darby Allin teamed up at the Fertitta Center in Houston, Texas to defeat 2.0 (Jeff Parker & Matt Lee) On the January 19, 2022 edition of Dynamite, Sting appeared on TBS for the first time in over 20 years (since his last appearance in a November 2000 episode of WCW Thunder). During the event, which was held in the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington D.C., he and Darby Allin teamed up to defeat The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster). |
1898_99 | Legacy and influence
Sting is widely regarded as the greatest performer in WCW history. Former rival Hulk Hogan asserted that Sting should be mentioned in any conversation regarding the top 10 greatest pro wrestlers of all time; numerous outlets have placed him in such listings. Digital Spy writer Mayer Nissim commended Sting's ability to constantly evolve his gimmick while fellow franchise players Hulk Hogan and John Cena largely failed to do so, in order to maintain spectator interest. Borden is known for his charity work, once regarding his involvement with the Make-A-Wish and Starlight Children's Foundations as his "most fulfilling activity". |
1898_100 | Prior to his signing with WWE, Sting's legacy was perpetuated by the organization. It hailed him as "one of sports-entertainment's elite", and ranked him at number one in listings of the greatest wrestlers to never perform in WWE, and the greatest stars in WCW history. In 2013, the company named Sting's WCW World Heavyweight Championship contest against Diamond Dallas Page, on April 26, 1999, as the greatest match ever aired on WCW's flagship Monday Nitro program. At Night of Champions 2013, WWE organized a viewer poll to determine the greatest United States Champion of all time: Sting, a two-time champion, beat out the other four contenders – all WWE Hall of Famers – in a landslide victory with 53% of the overall vote. In regard to Sting's creative handling after he signed with WWE, PWInsider editor Dave Scherer wrote that "he really represented WCW so he was never going to get that [legend] treatment". |
1898_101 | Sting was the inaugural inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame. TNA president Dixie Carter credits Sting with being the major wrestling superstar that TNA needed to establish itself. The company describes him as having had an "unparalleled career" and as being a legend who surpasses time.
Sting was regarded by colleagues in WCW as a professional and well-respected locker room leader. Prominent adversary Big Van Vader felt that Sting had unsurpassed athletic prowess within the business, and "ranks right up at the top" as an in-ring performer. Ric Flair called Sting his greatest opponent. Former rival Diamond Dallas Page, commenting on Sting's entry into WWE in 2014, said: "Everyone there grew up watching him... No one did it better than Sting, nobody". |
1898_102 | John Cena mimicked Sting's hairstyle in his younger years and recalled, "he was my guy"; Seth Rollins would dress up as Sting in his youth. Tommy Dreamer told how he "wanted to be Sting"—a sentiment shared by Jeff Hardy. Cody Rhodes and Shelton Benjamin named him their favorite childhood wrestler, while Tyson Kidd professed to being "a huge Sting fan as a kid". He was also a prominent influence on industry veterans Kurt Angle, Bill Goldberg, Kane, A.J. Styles and Dustin Rhodes/Goldust. Bray Wyatt has stressed that he "really would like to take on" Sting, adding: "I have to have [that] before I die; I don't care if it happens outside a Waffle House, somewhere." |
1898_103 | Popularity
Pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter wrote of Sting, "His colorful face paint, piercing war cry and signature Stinger Splash electrified fans both young and old... he boasted one of the largest and most loyal fanbases of any in-ring personality in history." A young Jeff Hardy was overwhelmed by the crowd reaction to Sting, on whom fans were "really hooked", and "reaching out to want to know, and want to support." Then-WCW colleague Ric Flair recalled, "When he flew out that door with that blonde hair and the paint, man, the chicks went crazy. The people went crazy." Former WCW and WWE announcer Jim Ross described Sting as "truly one of the great stars of the 90s in any organization". He was voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers as "Most Popular Wrestler of the Year" four times (a record shared with John Cena), for the years 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1997. His young supporters were known as the "Little Stingers". |
1898_104 | Former WCW booker Kevin Sullivan said of Sting's rivalry with Flair: "If I needed to draw a rating, Sting and Flair always drew. It was like [Muhammad] Ali and [Joe] Frazier". The Clash of the Champions I event in 1988, which aired opposite the WWF's WrestleMania IV and was headlined by Sting vs. Flair, generated a record-setting 5.6 rating on TBS. The pair also main-evented The Great American Bash 1990, which was the NWA's biggest pay-per-view success up to that point. Reflecting on Sting in the early 1990s, then-colleague Kevin Nash said: "There weren't many draws in WCW at that point, but he was one of them". Another of the company's bookers, Mike Graham, asserted that Sting was a television ratings success during the Monday Night Wars; he was highly profitable in 1997, being WCW's top merchandise seller (second only to the WWF's Steve Austin overall) and, versus Hollywood Hogan, headlining the biggest-grossing pay-per-view event in the company's history at Starrcade 1997. Sting |
1898_105 | went on to join the nWo Wolfpac stable, which dominated WCW's merchandise sales at events in mid 1998. Discussing Sting's entry into WWE in 2014, Kevin Nash said that he is "so valuable to the company as a trademark". On December 3, 2020, Pro Wrestling Tees owner Ryan Barkan stated that Sting's AEW t-shirt quickly broke the single day record for t-shirt sales. |
1898_106 | On the other hand, Pro Wrestling Torch editor Wade Keller wrote that Sting was a "valuable player during Nitros peak years", but not a "consistent draw for WCW". Keller said Sting coasted on "natural charisma and athletic ability", but also chided WCW, where Sting observed "incompetence and political decision-making", and "was never challenged to be better than he was because he didn't have much competition". Fin Martin of Power Slam also felt that Sting's box office successes in WCW were sporadic. Martin said Sting "did not grow into the [NWA] champion's role", but allowed that his prospects as franchise player were damaged by the "story lines and booking techniques" and the "list of contenders". Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer claimed that Sting was not a formidable draw, although this assertion was disputed by Sting's former WCW colleague Steve Austin. Dave Scherer of PWInsider wrote that Sting "didn't draw huge", but is nevertheless an "all-time great". |
1898_107 | Resistance to signing with WWE
Prior to his signing with WWE in 2014, Sting was widely considered the greatest wrestler never to perform for the company, although he had "really good conversations" with the promotion during his career. His loyalty to WCW, even in its dying days, has been noted. That organization was purchased by the WWF (now WWE) in 2001, and Sting's contract with its parent company AOL Time Warner expired in 2002, but he still refused to make the jump, alternately attributing this to the WWF's creative usage of former WCW talents and negative dealings with their attorneys. The company's onerous live schedule and the content of its programming were also factors. Sting has, however, downplayed rumors of a difficult relationship with WWE. |
1898_108 | Rather than sign with the WWF in 2002, Sting performed for smaller promotions, becoming the centerpiece of TNA by the mid 2000s. His pre-WWE career included "dream" matches against former WWF stars Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart in WCW, as well as bouts opposite names such as Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Kurt Angle and Mick Foley. Sting often wrestled Steve Austin in WCW; he had positive negotiations with WWE in 2003, with his proposed debut angle being a confrontation with Austin at the conclusion of WrestleMania XIX. |
1898_109 | He was also "very, very close" to making a deal with the company in 2011, which would potentially have involved a match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVII. In early 2011, during a period where Sting had not re-signed with TNA, WWE teased a mystery wrestler to appear on Monday Night Raw on February 21, 2011, with vignettes labelled "2.21.11". This led to speculation that Sting had signed with WWE. Since this Raw was billed as the "Return of the Undertaker", it was believed that this was building a Sting vs. Undertaker match at WrestleMania XXVII. Although Sting wrestled Mark Calaway in his pre-Undertaker character, "Mean" Mark Callous, at untelevised WCW live events in 1990, WWE viewers clamored for a televised Sting vs. Undertaker match. Ultimately, Sting re-signed with TNA, and on the February 21, 2011 Raw, the Undertaker returned to begin a feud with Triple H. TNA then began airing similar vignettes labelled "3.3.11", building to Sting's real return on the March 3, 2011 |
1898_110 | episode of Impact!. |
1898_111 | Other media
Borden appeared in the music video for the song "Fire in the Hole" by Lȧȧz Rockit in 1989. He made his acting debut in the action-adventure show Super Force as an assassin. He starred in a pay-per-view only film titled The Real Reason (Men Commit Crimes) (1998). Borden was featured in a Sprite commercial in 1999. He also appeared in three episodes of the action-adventure series with Hulk Hogan in Thunder in Paradise as the character Adam "Hammerhead" McCall. Borden made a guest appearance on Walker, Texas Ranger as biker and drug dealer Grangus in the episode "Unsafe Speed". He also appeared in Ready to Rumble (2000) as Sting. He also appeared in the Christian film, The Encounter (2010) and was featured as the lead actor in the TV movie Shutterspeed (2000). He makes a cameo appearance as Sting on an episode of Upright Citizens Brigade. Borden played an outlaw biker in the film Revelation Road (2013). |
1898_112 | His book, Moment Of Truth, was released on December 1, 2004. In October 2015, WWE released a second Sting DVD titled Sting: Into the Light. The three-disc set features a behind-the-scenes documentary with Sting himself as he prepares to step into a WWE ring for the first time ever at WrestleMania 31.
Personal life
Borden was previously married to Sue Borden, they were married in 1986. They have two sons, Garrett Lee and Steven, Jr. and a daughter named Gracie, who was born in 2000. Borden and Sue divorced in 2010 after 24years of marriage. Borden married his second wife Sabine in 2015. |
1898_113 | Borden was an admitted anabolic steroid user in the 1980s. He became a born-again Christian in August 1998 after confessing his adultery, and substance and alcohol abuse to his then-wife. His elder son Garrett attended Azusa Pacific University, where he played college football as a running back. Steven Jr. attended Kilgore College, where he played tight end; on December 19, 2012, he committed to attend the University of Kentucky. After the 2015 NFL Draft, Steven Jr. was invited by the Kansas City Chiefs to try out for the team at their rookie mini-camp, but did not receive a contract offer.
Championships and accomplishments |
1898_114 | All Elite Wrestling
AEW Dynamite Award (1 time)
"Biggest Surprise" (2021) – Debuting during the special Winter Is Coming episode of Dynamite
Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling
NWA World Television Championship (1 time)
NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)1
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
WCW World Heavyweight Championship (6 times)
WCW World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Lex Luger (1), The Giant (1), and Kevin Nash (1)
Battlebowl Battle Royal (1991)
European Cup (1994, 2000)
Iron Man Tournament (1989)
Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup (1988) – with Lex Luger
King of Cable Tournament (1992)
London Lethal Lottery Tag Team Tournament (2000) – with Scott Steiner
WCW United States Championship Tournament (1991)
WCW United States Championship Tournament (1995)
Third WCW Triple Crown Champion
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Comeback of the Year (2006, 2011, 2014) |
1898_115 | Match of the Year (1991) with Lex Luger vs. the Steiner Brothers at SuperBrawl I
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (1988)
Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (1990)
Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (1991, 1992, 1994, 1997)
Wrestler of the Year (1990)
Ranked No. 1 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1992
Ranked No. 15 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003
Ranked No. 52 of the top 100 tag teams of the PWI Years with Lex Luger in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2018
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)2
TNA World Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
TNA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kurt Angle
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament (First Bracket, 2009)
TNA Hall of Fame (2012)
TNA Year End Awards
Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (2007)
Match of the Year (2007)
Match of the Year (2009)
Universal Wrestling Federation |
1898_116 | UWF World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Eddie Gilbert (2) and Rick Steiner (1)
World Wrestling All-Stars
WWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Match of the Year (1988) vs. Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions I
Most Charismatic (1988, 1992)
Most Improved (1988)
Most Unimproved (1990)
Best Babyface (1992)
Worst Worked Match of the Year (1995) vs. Tony Palmore at Battle 7
Worst Worked Match of the Year (2011) vs. Jeff Hardy at Victory Road
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2016)
WWE
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2016)
Slammy Award (2 times)
"This is Awesome" Moment of the Year (2014) – Debuting to help Team Cena defeat Team Authority at Survivor Series
"Surprise Return of the Year" (2015) – as Seth Rollins' statue, and attacks Rollins on Raw |
1898_117 | 1 Won while the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was defended in World Championship Wrestling when WCW was part of the National Wrestling Alliance. The same goes for any other NWA championship or honor won after November 1988.
2 Won while TNA obtained the sole rights to use the NWA World Heavyweight Championship through an agreement with the NWA.
See also
Sting and Lex Luger
The Blade Runners
The Four Horsemen
The Main Event Mafia
The Varsity Club
Notes
References
Further reading
Sting: The Moment of Truth, Steve Borden with George King, Thomas Nelson, 2004,
External links |
1898_118 | 1959 births
All Elite Wrestling personnel
American bodybuilders
American evangelicals
American male professional wrestlers
American Pentecostals
Elective mutes
Living people
NWA/WCW/WWE United States Heavyweight Champions
NWA World Heavyweight Champions
TNA World Heavyweight/Impact World Champions
TNA/Impact World Tag Team Champions
Professional wrestling authority figures
Professional wrestlers from Nebraska
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Sportspeople from Omaha, Nebraska
The Four Horsemen (professional wrestling) members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WCW World Heavyweight Champions
Impact Hall of Fame inductees
WWE Hall of Fame inductees |
1899_0 | A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the Sun.
Rainbows can be full circles. However, the observer normally sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the Sun to the observer's eye.
In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. |
1899_1 | In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet before leaving it.
Overview
A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an optical illusion caused by any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to a light source. Thus, a rainbow is not an object and cannot be physically approached. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end of" a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow—farther off—at the same angle as seen by the first observer. |
1899_2 | Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colours. Any distinct bands perceived are an artefact of human colour vision, and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading towards the other side. For colours seen by the human eye, the most commonly cited and remembered sequence is Isaac Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, remembered by the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (ROYGBIV). The initialism is sometimes referred to in reverse order, as VIBGYOR.
Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew.
Visibility |
1899_3 | Rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low altitude angle. Because of this, rainbows are usually seen in the western sky during the morning and in the eastern sky during the early evening. The most spectacular rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still dark with raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in the direction of the Sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that contrasts with the darkened background. During such good visibility conditions, the larger but fainter secondary rainbow is often visible. It appears about 10° outside of the primary rainbow, with inverse order of colours. |
1899_4 | The rainbow effect is also commonly seen near waterfalls or fountains. In addition, the effect can be artificially created by dispersing water droplets into the air during a sunny day. Rarely, a moonbow, lunar rainbow or nighttime rainbow, can be seen on strongly moonlit nights. As human visual perception for colour is poor in low light, moonbows are often perceived to be white.
It is difficult to photograph the complete semicircle of a rainbow in one frame, as this would require an angle of view of 84°. For a 35 mm camera, a wide-angle lens with a focal length of 19 mm or less would be required. Now that software for stitching several images into a panorama is available, images of the entire arc and even secondary arcs can be created fairly easily from a series of overlapping frames. |
1899_5 | From above the Earth such as in an aeroplane, it is sometimes possible to see a rainbow as a full circle. This phenomenon can be confused with the glory phenomenon, but a glory is usually much smaller, covering only 5–20°.
The sky inside a primary rainbow is brighter than the sky outside of the bow. This is because each raindrop is a sphere and it scatters light over an entire circular disc in the sky. The radius of the disc depends on the wavelength of light, with red light being scattered over a larger angle than blue light. Over most of the disc, scattered light at all wavelengths overlaps, resulting in white light which brightens the sky. At the edge, the wavelength dependence of the scattering gives rise to the rainbow.
Light of primary rainbow arc is 96% polarised tangential to the arch. Light of second arc is 90% polarised. |
1899_6 | Number of colours in a spectrum or a rainbow
A spectrum obtained using a glass prism and a point source is a continuum of wavelengths without bands. The number of colours that the human eye is able to distinguish in a spectrum is in the order of 100. Accordingly, the Munsell colour system (a 20th-century system for numerically describing colours, based on equal steps for human visual perception) distinguishes 100 hues. The apparent discreteness of main colours is an artefact of human perception and the exact number of main colours is a somewhat arbitrary choice. |
1899_7 | Newton, who admitted his eyes were not very critical in distinguishing colours, originally (1672) divided the spectrum into five main colours: red, yellow, green, blue and violet. Later he included orange and indigo, giving seven main colours by analogy to the number of notes in a musical scale. Newton chose to divide the visible spectrum into seven colours out of a belief derived from the beliefs of the ancient Greek sophists, who thought there was a connection between the colours, the musical notes, the known objects in the Solar System, and the days of the week. Scholars have noted that what Newton regarded at the time as "blue" would today be regarded as cyan, and what Newton called "indigo" would today be considered blue. |
1899_8 | The colour pattern of a rainbow is different from a spectrum, and the colours are less saturated. There is spectral smearing in a rainbow owing to the fact that for any particular wavelength, there is a distribution of exit angles, rather than a single unvarying angle. In addition, a rainbow is a blurred version of the bow obtained from a point source, because the disk diameter of the sun (0.5°) cannot be neglected compared to the width of a rainbow (2°). Further red of the first supplementary rainbow overlaps the violet of the primary rainbow, so rather than the final colour being a variant of spectral violet, it is actually a purple. The number of colour bands of a rainbow may therefore be different from the number of bands in a spectrum, especially if the droplets are particularly large or small. Therefore, the number of colours of a rainbow is variable. If, however, the word rainbow is used inaccurately to mean spectrum, it is the number of main colours in the spectrum. |
1899_9 | The question of whether everyone sees seven colours in a rainbow is related to the idea of linguistic relativity. Suggestions have been made that there is universality in the way that a rainbow is perceived. However, more recent research suggests that the number of distinct colours observed and what these are called depend on the language that one uses, with people whose language has fewer colour words seeing fewer discrete colour bands.
Explanation |
1899_10 | When sunlight encounters a raindrop, part of the light is reflected and the rest enters the raindrop. The light is refracted at the surface of the raindrop. When this light hits the back of the raindrop, some of it is reflected off the back. When the internally reflected light reaches the surface again, once more some is internally reflected and some is refracted as it exits the drop. (The light that reflects off the drop, exits from the back, or continues to bounce around inside the drop after the second encounter with the surface, is not relevant to the formation of the primary rainbow.) The overall effect is that part of the incoming light is reflected back over the range of 0° to 42°, with the most intense light at 42°. This angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index. Seawater has a higher refractive index than rain water, so the radius of a "rainbow" in sea spray is smaller than a true rainbow. This is visible to the naked eye by a |
1899_11 | misalignment of these bows. |
1899_12 | The reason the returning light is most intense at about 42° is that this is a turning point – light hitting the outermost ring of the drop gets returned at less than 42°, as does the light hitting the drop nearer to its centre. There is a circular band of light that all gets returned right around 42°. If the Sun were a laser emitting parallel, monochromatic rays, then the luminance (brightness) of the bow would tend toward infinity at this angle (ignoring interference effects). (See Caustic (optics).) But since the Sun's luminance is finite and its rays are not all parallel (it covers about half a degree of the sky) the luminance does not go to infinity. Furthermore, the amount by which light is refracted depends upon its wavelength, and hence its colour. This effect is called dispersion. Blue light (shorter wavelength) is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but due to the reflection of light rays from the back of the droplet, the blue light emerges from the droplet at a |
1899_13 | smaller angle to the original incident white light ray than the red light. Due to this angle, blue is seen on the inside of the arc of the primary rainbow, and red on the outside. The result of this is not only to give different colours to different parts of the rainbow, but also to diminish the brightness. (A "rainbow" formed by droplets of a liquid with no dispersion would be white, but brighter than a normal rainbow.) |
1899_14 | The light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection, and some light does emerge from the back. However, light coming out the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the Sun because spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together rather than forming a rainbow. |
1899_15 | A rainbow does not exist at one particular location. Many rainbows exist; however, only one can be seen depending on the particular observer's viewpoint as droplets of light illuminated by the sun. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye. This light is what constitutes the rainbow for that observer. The whole system composed by the Sun's rays, the observer's head, and the (spherical) water drops has an axial symmetry around the axis through the observer's head and parallel to the Sun's rays. The rainbow is curved because the set of all the raindrops that have the right angle between the observer, the drop, and the Sun, lie on a cone pointing at the sun with the observer at the tip. The base of the cone forms a circle at an angle of 40–42° to the line between the observer's head and their shadow but 50% or more of the circle is below the horizon, unless the observer is sufficiently far above the |
1899_16 | earth's surface to see it all, for example in an aeroplane (see below). Alternatively, an observer with the right vantage point may see the full circle in a fountain or waterfall spray. |
1899_17 | Mathematical derivation
It is possible to determine the perceived angle which the rainbow subtends as follows.
Given a spherical raindrop, and defining the perceived angle of the rainbow as , and the angle of the internal reflection as , then the angle of incidence of the Sun's rays with respect to the drop's surface normal is . Since the angle of refraction is , Snell's law gives us
,
where is the refractive index of water. Solving for , we get
.
The rainbow will occur where the angle is maximum with respect to the angle . Therefore, from calculus, we can set , and solve for , which yields
.
Substituting back into the earlier equation for yields ≈ 42° as the radius angle of the rainbow.
For red light (wavelength 750nm, based on the dispersion relation of water), the radius angle is 42.5°; for blue light (wavelength 350nm, ), the radius angle is 40.6°.
Variations
Double rainbows |
1899_18 | A secondary rainbow, at a greater angle than the primary rainbow, is often visible. The term double rainbow is used when both the primary and secondary rainbows are visible. In theory, all rainbows are double rainbows, but since the secondary bow is always fainter than the primary, it may be too weak to spot in practice.
Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the water droplets. Technically the secondary bow is centred on the sun itself, but since its angular size is more than 90° (about 127° for violet to 130° for red), it is seen on the same side of the sky as the primary rainbow, about 10° outside it at an apparent angle of 50–53°. As a result of the "inside" of the secondary bow being "up" to the observer, the colours appear reversed compared to those of the primary bow. |
1899_19 | The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky. Each rainbow reflects white light inside its coloured bands, but that is "down" for the primary and "up" for the secondary. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it. |
1899_20 | Twinned rainbow
Unlike a double rainbow that consists of two separate and concentric rainbow arcs, the very rare twinned rainbow appears as two rainbow arcs that split from a single base. The colours in the second bow, rather than reversing as in a secondary rainbow, appear in the same order as the primary rainbow. A "normal" secondary rainbow may be present as well. Twinned rainbows can look similar to, but should not be confused with supernumerary bands. The two phenomena may be told apart by their difference in colour profile: supernumerary bands consist of subdued pastel hues (mainly pink, purple and green), while the twinned rainbow shows the same spectrum as a regular rainbow. |
1899_21 | The cause of a twinned rainbow is the combination of different sizes of water drops falling from the sky. Due to air resistance, raindrops flatten as they fall, and flattening is more prominent in larger water drops. When two rain showers with different-sized raindrops combine, they each produce slightly different rainbows which may combine and form a twinned rainbow.
A numerical ray tracing study showed that a twinned rainbow on a photo could be explained by a mixture of 0.40 and 0.45 mm droplets. That small difference in droplet size resulted in a small difference in flattening of the droplet shape, and a large difference in flattening of the rainbow top. |
1899_22 | Meanwhile, the even rarer case of a rainbow split into three branches was observed and photographed in nature. |
1899_23 | Full-circle rainbow |
1899_24 | In theory, every rainbow is a circle, but from the ground, usually only its upper half can be seen. Since the rainbow's centre is diametrically opposed to the Sun's position in the sky, more of the circle comes into view as the sun approaches the horizon, meaning that the largest section of the circle normally seen is about 50% during sunset or sunrise. Viewing the rainbow's lower half requires the presence of water droplets below the observer's horizon, as well as sunlight that is able to reach them. These requirements are not usually met when the viewer is at ground level, either because droplets are absent in the required position, or because the sunlight is obstructed by the landscape behind the observer. From a high viewpoint such as a high building or an aircraft, however, the requirements can be met and the full-circle rainbow can be seen. Like a partial rainbow, the circular rainbow can have a secondary bow or supernumerary bows as well. It is possible to produce the full |
1899_25 | circle when standing on the ground, for example by spraying a water mist from a garden hose while facing away from the sun. |
1899_26 | A circular rainbow should not be confused with the glory, which is much smaller in diameter and is created by different optical processes. In the right circumstances, a glory and a (circular) rainbow or fog bow can occur together. Another atmospheric phenomenon that may be mistaken for a "circular rainbow" is the 22° halo, which is caused by ice crystals rather than liquid water droplets, and is located around the Sun (or Moon), not opposite it.
Supernumerary rainbows |
1899_27 | In certain circumstances, one or several narrow, faintly coloured bands can be seen bordering the violet edge of a rainbow; i.e., inside the primary bow or, much more rarely, outside the secondary. These extra bands are called supernumerary rainbows or supernumerary bands; together with the rainbow itself the phenomenon is also known as a stacker rainbow. The supernumerary bows are slightly detached from the main bow, become successively fainter along with their distance from it, and have pastel colours (consisting mainly of pink, purple and green hues) rather than the usual spectrum pattern. The effect becomes apparent when water droplets are involved that have a diameter of about 1 mm or less; the smaller the droplets are, the broader the supernumerary bands become, and the less saturated their colours. Due to their origin in small droplets, supernumerary bands tend to be particularly prominent in fogbows. |
1899_28 | Supernumerary rainbows cannot be explained using classical geometric optics. The alternating faint bands are caused by interference between rays of light following slightly different paths with slightly varying lengths within the raindrops. Some rays are in phase, reinforcing each other through constructive interference, creating a bright band; others are out of phase by up to half a wavelength, cancelling each other out through destructive interference, and creating a gap. Given the different angles of refraction for rays of different colours, the patterns of interference are slightly different for rays of different colours, so each bright band is differentiated in colour, creating a miniature rainbow. Supernumerary rainbows are clearest when raindrops are small and of uniform size. The very existence of supernumerary rainbows was historically a first indication of the wave nature of light, and the first explanation was provided by Thomas Young in 1804. |
1899_29 | Reflected rainbow, reflection rainbow
When a rainbow appears above a body of water, two complementary mirror bows may be seen below and above the horizon, originating from different light paths. Their names are slightly different.
A reflected rainbow may appear in the water surface below the horizon. The sunlight is first deflected by the raindrops, and then reflected off the body of water, before reaching the observer. The reflected rainbow is frequently visible, at least partially, even in small puddles. |
1899_30 | A reflection rainbow may be produced where sunlight reflects off a body of water before reaching the raindrops, if the water body is large, quiet over its entire surface, and close to the rain curtain. The reflection rainbow appears above the horizon. It intersects the normal rainbow at the horizon, and its arc reaches higher in the sky, with its centre as high above the horizon as the normal rainbow's centre is below it. Reflection bows are usually brightest when the sun is low because at that time its light is most strongly reflected from water surfaces. As the sun gets lower the normal and reflection bows are drawn closer together. Due to the combination of requirements, a reflection rainbow is rarely visible. |
1899_31 | Up to eight separate bows may be distinguished if the reflected and reflection rainbows happen to occur simultaneously: The normal (non-reflection) primary and secondary bows above the horizon (1, 2) with their reflected counterparts below it (3, 4), and the reflection primary and secondary bows above the horizon (5, 6) with their reflected counterparts below it (7, 8).
Monochrome rainbow
Occasionally a shower may happen at sunrise or sunset, where the shorter wavelengths like blue and green have been scattered and essentially removed from the spectrum. Further scattering may occur due to the rain, and the result can be the rare and dramatic monochrome or red rainbow. |
1899_32 | Higher-order rainbows
In addition to the common primary and secondary rainbows, it is also possible for rainbows of higher orders to form. The order of a rainbow is determined by the number of light reflections inside the water droplets that create it: One reflection results in the first-order or primary rainbow; two reflections create the second-order or secondary rainbow. More internal reflections cause bows of higher orders—theoretically unto infinity. As more and more light is lost with each internal reflection, however, each subsequent bow becomes progressively dimmer and therefore increasingly difficult to spot. An additional challenge in observing the third-order (or tertiary) and fourth-order (quaternary) rainbows is their location in the direction of the sun (about 40° and 45° from the sun, respectively), causing them to become drowned in its glare. |
1899_33 | For these reasons, naturally occurring rainbows of an order higher than 2 are rarely visible to the naked eye. Nevertheless, sightings of the third-order bow in nature have been reported, and in 2011 it was photographed definitively for the first time. Shortly after, the fourth-order rainbow was photographed as well, and in 2014 the first ever pictures of the fifth-order (or quinary) rainbow, located in between the primary and secondary bows, were published. In a laboratory setting, it is possible to create bows of much higher orders. Felix Billet (1808–1882) depicted angular positions up to the 19th-order rainbow, a pattern he called a "rose of rainbows". In the laboratory, it is possible to observe higher-order rainbows by using extremely bright and well collimated light produced by lasers. Up to the 200th-order rainbow was reported by Ng et al. in 1998 using a similar method but an argon ion laser beam. |
1899_34 | Tertiary and quaternary rainbows should not be confused with "triple" and "quadruple" rainbows—terms sometimes erroneously used to refer to the—much more common—supernumerary bows and reflection rainbows.
Rainbows under moonlight
Like most atmospheric optical phenomena, rainbows can be caused by light from the Sun, but also from the Moon. In case of the latter, the rainbow is referred to as a lunar rainbow or moonbow. They are much dimmer and rarer than solar rainbows, requiring the Moon to be near-full in order for them to be seen. For the same reason, moonbows are often perceived as white and may be thought of as monochrome. The full spectrum is present, however, but the human eye is not normally sensitive enough to see the colours. Long exposure photographs will sometimes show the colour in this type of rainbow.
Fogbow |
1899_35 | Fogbows form in the same way as rainbows, but they are formed by much smaller cloud and fog droplets that diffract light extensively. They are almost white with faint reds on the outside and blues inside; often one or more broad supernumerary bands can be discerned inside the inner edge. The colours are dim because the bow in each colour is very broad and the colours overlap. Fogbows are commonly seen over water when air in contact with the cooler water is chilled, but they can be found anywhere if the fog is thin enough for the sun to shine through and the sun is fairly bright. They are very large—almost as big as a rainbow and much broader. They sometimes appear with a glory at the bow's centre.
Fog bows should not be confused with ice halos, which are very common around the world and visible much more often than rainbows (of any order), yet are unrelated to rainbows.
Sleetbow |
1899_36 | A sleetbow forms in the same way as a typical rainbow, with the exception that it occurs when light passes through falling sleet (ice pellets) instead of liquid water. As light passes through the sleet, the light is refracted causing the rare phenomena. These have been documented across United States with the earliest publicly documented and photographed sleetbow being seen in Richmond, Virginia on December 21, 2012. Just like regular rainbows, these can also come in various forms, with a monochrome sleetbow being documented on January 7, 2016 in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Circumhorizontal and circumzenithal arcs
The circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs are two related optical phenomena similar in appearance to a rainbow, but unlike the latter, their origin lies in light refraction through hexagonal ice crystals rather than liquid water droplets. This means that they are not rainbows, but members of the large family of halos. |
1899_37 | Both arcs are brightly coloured ring segments centred on the zenith, but in different positions in the sky: The circumzenithal arc is notably curved and located high above the Sun (or Moon) with its convex side pointing downwards (creating the impression of an "upside down rainbow"); the circumhorizontal arc runs much closer to the horizon, is more straight and located at a significant distance below the Sun (or Moon). Both arcs have their red side pointing towards the Sun and their violet part away from it, meaning the circumzenithal arc is red on the bottom, while the circumhorizontal arc is red on top.
The circumhorizontal arc is sometimes referred to by the misnomer "fire rainbow". In order to view it, the Sun or Moon must be at least 58° above the horizon, making it a rare occurrence at higher latitudes. The circumzenithal arc, visible only at a solar or lunar elevation of less than 32°, is much more common, but often missed since it occurs almost directly overhead. |
1899_38 | Extraterrestrial rainbows
It has been suggested that rainbows might exist on Saturn's moon Titan, as it has a wet surface and humid clouds. The radius of a Titan rainbow would be about 49° instead of 42°, because the fluid in that cold environment is methane instead of water. Although visible rainbows may be rare due to Titan's hazy skies, infrared rainbows may be more common, but an observer would need infrared night vision goggles to see them.
Rainbows with different materials |
1899_39 | Droplets (or spheres) composed of materials with different refractive indices than plain water produce rainbows with different radius angles. Since salt water has a higher refractive index, a sea spray bow doesn't perfectly align with the ordinary rainbow, if seen at the same spot. Tiny plastic or glass marbles may be used in road marking as a reflectors to enhance its visibility by drivers at night. Due to a much higher refractive index, rainbows observed on such marbles have a noticeably smaller radius. One can easily reproduce such phenomena by sprinkling liquids of different refractive indices in the air, as illustrated in the photo. |
1899_40 | The displacement of the rainbow due to different refractive indices can be pushed to a peculiar limit. For a material with a refractive index larger than 2, there is no angle fulfilling the requirements for the first order rainbow. For example, the index of refraction of diamond is about 2.4, so diamond spheres would produce rainbows starting from the second order, omitting the first order. In general, as the refractive index exceeds a number , where is a natural number, the critical incidence angle for times internally reflected rays escapes the domain . This results in a rainbow of the -th order shrinking to the antisolar point and vanishing. |
1899_41 | Scientific history
The classical Greek scholar Aristotle (384–322 BC) was first to devote serious attention to the rainbow. According to Raymond L. Lee and Alistair B. Fraser, "Despite its many flaws and its appeal to Pythagorean numerology, Aristotle's qualitative explanation showed an inventiveness and relative consistency that was unmatched for centuries. After Aristotle's death, much rainbow theory consisted of reaction to his work, although not all of this was uncritical." |
1899_42 | In Book I of Naturales Quaestiones (c. 65 AD), the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger discusses various theories of the formation of rainbows extensively, including those of Aristotle. He notices that rainbows appear always opposite to the Sun, that they appear in water sprayed by a rower, in the water spat by a fuller on clothes stretched on pegs or by water sprayed through a small hole in a burst pipe. He even speaks of rainbows produced by small rods (virgulae) of glass, anticipating Newton's experiences with prisms. He takes into account two theories: one, that the rainbow is produced by the Sun reflecting in each water drop, the other, that it is produced by the Sun reflected in a cloud shaped like a concave mirror; he favours the latter. He also discusses other phenomena related to rainbows: the mysterious "virgae" (rods), halos and parhelia. |
1899_43 | According to Hüseyin Gazi Topdemir, the Arab physicist and polymath Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen; 965–1039), attempted to provide a scientific explanation for the rainbow phenomenon. In his Maqala fi al-Hala wa Qaws Quzah (On the Rainbow and Halo), al-Haytham "explained the formation of rainbow as an image, which forms at a concave mirror. If the rays of light coming from a farther light source reflect to any point on axis of the concave mirror, they form concentric circles in that point. When it is supposed that the sun as a farther light source, the eye of viewer as a point on the axis of mirror and a cloud as a reflecting surface, then it can be observed the concentric circles are forming on the axis." He was not able to verify this because his theory that "light from the sun is reflected by a cloud before reaching the eye" did not allow for a possible experimental verification. This explanation was repeated by Averroes, and, though incorrect, provided the groundwork for the correct |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.