Absolutely nothing you said about Sting, though, was his fault.
Speaking as a guy who lived in an old NWA territory, Sting was always over, was hugely popular (especially with kids), but always ran into the problem that he was booked, basically, into the grave. His first reign? No one could have drawn with Ole Anderson going with the Black Scorpion crap because it was cheaper to bring in a different jobber every night to wrestle him. Second reign? Bill Watts took over a couple of months into it and decided to put the belt on Ron Simmons, rather than have Sting chase Vader. It's worth noting that, really until Hulk Hogan showed up, WCW was basically still booked like the old NWA, which tended to give heels the long runs with the belt while the faces got the occasional, feel good victory. Sting's short title reigns until the Nitro era were as much a product of how WCW had always been booked. Sting should have beaten Vader for the belt at Starrcade '93 but by then Bischoff had given the book to Flair, who...promptly booked himself as the babyface champion after Sid Vicious got fired after attacking Arn Anderson. Then Hogan turned up in 1994 and that was it for Sting until the NWO feud, which, of course, they promptly fucked up by having Sting basically lose cleanly in a squash to Hogan, only for Bret Hart to restart the match.
Sting should have been the face of the company. As far as the fans were concerned, he was. It wasn't his fault no one who worked for Turner could book him right.