Sting is an icon in the industry, and perhaps that’s the understatement of understatements, but it had to be said; especially at the start of a piece like this.
Sting dominated in the Continental Wrestling Association and of course in WCW, he becoming the locker room leader in a sense for those companies (especially WCW) throughout the eighties and nineties—he being often considered the Undertaker of WCW, which is perhaps why the fact that a match between Taker and Sting never occurred during Sting’s time there is the source of deep disappointment for many pro wrestling fans, and especially fans of the two men.
When WWE purchased WCW in 2001, Sting was of course reluctant to join up with the company, and he was pretty vocal about how he felt that he would be underutilized by the machine that was WWE.
He would eventually end up there in 2014 after becoming an icon for TNA as well. He had many memorable matches and feuds within that promotion of course, and in WWE he had a match against Triple H at WrestleMania 31, which he lost, as shocking as that was and a subsequent feud and match with Seth Rollins at Night Of Champions that ended in injury for Sting.
He collapsed in the ring during his match with Rollins and it was discovered soon after that the cause for that incident was spinal stenosis, as wrestlingnews.co puts it.
As his Wikipedia page suggests, he stated at the time that he did not feel any of the symptoms that are related to such a diagnosis, but he was forced to retire because WWE did not clear him to get back in the ring, yet he was placed in the WWE Hall of Fame the following year and he made his exit from the company soon after.
Next thing fans knew, he was a part of AEW and has had some great matches in the ring since signing his contract. Sting looks great and he seems to feel great as well, he doing what he can to stay in the light, where he belongs, but also shining a light on the likes of Darby Allin and other young stars within the company.
It was on a recent episode of My Mom’s Basement that AEW founder, president, co-owner and CEO, Tony Khan spoke about Sting and his run in WWE and just how Khan felt about it. He said:
“It’s pretty amazing the run Sting has had because, to be honest… Sting was wanting to get back into wrestling…what a great comeback Sting had. It had been a while since Sting won wrestling matches like the last time we saw Sting, he wasn’t winning. The whole time he was back in his last run in the competition, they screwed him out of multiple matches, let’s be honest…
He should have been presented better and that’s one thing I won’t back down on. Sting deserves to be treated like one of the great legends in wrestling and I set out to do that from the beginning with him.”
via My Mom’s Basement /wrestlingnews.co (Transcription)
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