Sting will be lacing up his wrestling boots one more time as the WWE Hall of Famer and former multi-time champion will be teaming up with Darby Allin to take on Brian Cage and Ricky Starks at the upcoming AEW Revolution pay-per-view, set to air on February 27.
This is Sting’s first official match in the promotion and his first since that Night of Champions pay-per-view against Seth Rollins. During that match, Sting suffered a career-ending injury – or so it was thought at the time – when Rollins delivered a buckle bomb on him. Sting was visibly injured and could barely stand up. It was his final match in a WWE ring and his injury led to a diagnosis of spinal stenosis. It will be interesting to see how the betting odds line up for this match next month and websites such as bethard will offer deals.
Sting has said a few weeks ago that he would like to be involved in cinematic matches for AEW but the company didn’t announce if this match will follow that style yet. With this being a street fight, it could very well be a cinematic match and even if it’s not, it will still protect Sting since there’s an unlimited number of ways to work such a match versus a traditional wrestling match in a ring.
The Stinger has somewhat aligned himself with the TNT champion since his arrival in early December and has been a thorn in Team Taz from day one. His surprise appearance at the Winter Is Coming themed-episode of Dynamite left many fans excited of the prospect of watching Sting wrestle again, especially on TNT where he spent the majority of his career while wrestling for the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling.
Now 61 years of age with a career spanning over three decades, it’s certainly a big ask if he’s put in a position where he needs to go one-on-one in a regular wrestling match against a current AEW star. While he certainly looks fit to do it, his neck problem is still somewhat there and one wrong move could be catastrophic.
His first match for WWE came almost six years ago at WrestleMania 31 where he lost to Triple H in his Mania debut despite the assist from the nWo. After WrestleMania, he disappeared from television but returned in August on Monday Night Raw, challenging the then-WWE champion Seth Rollins at Night of Champions. He wrestled Big Show, winning via DQ, and later in the night he teamed up with John Cena to take on Big Show and Rollins. Adding the Night of Champions match, Sting only had four matches in WWE and called it quits at the Hall of Fame ceremony the next year in 2016.
Sting made sporadic appearances on WWE television after that but in May of last year, his deal with WWE expired and in October, the merchandise deal expired as well and WWE ended all business with him.
