“The Icon” Sting will compete in the main event of tonight’s AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash event, teaming up with Darby Allin and CM Punk to face MJF and FTR in a six-man tag team match. It’s been a little over a year since the WWE Hall of Famer and WCW legend arrived in All Elite Wrestling, and despite initially retiring in 2015 tonight will mark his sixth match with the young promotion. The show will also double as an incredibly important homecoming for Sting as his legendary 45-minute draw with Ric Flair at the first Clash of the Champions event in 1988 took place inside the same venue, the iconic Greensboro Coliseum.
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“This means the world to me,” he said in a new interview with Sports Illustrated this week. “I never thought I’d be back here like this. I thought I was just going to disappear from wrestling, and I didn’t like the thought of that. Then I came to AEW, and originally, we were just going to explore cinematic matches. And I got in the ring. I can still hear Cody [Rhodes] telling me about my kinetic energy and that I could wrestle a match. I was like, ‘Ease up now, Cody.’ Then I heard Darby say, ‘Steve, you can do it.’ This entire stretch, and now coming back to Greensboro, it has all been surreal.”
Later in the interview, he spoke incredibly highly of Punk, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler.
“CM Punk, he’s truly amazing to me,” Sting said. “Hearing the crowd respond to him, it’s made me turn back the clock and think of all the different memorable reactions over the years to different wrestlers. I’ve especially been thinking about The Road Warriors. Animal was really big on that. He would say, ‘This guy got a huge pop, but it wasn’t a Road Warrior pop.’ That’s what Punk gets.”
“I had an idea of CM Punk’s greatness, but now I have experienced it,” he added. “His appearances are so electrifying. He is remarkable, and I am grateful to have this opportunity to be in the ring with him and Darby as their tag team partner.”
Regarding FTR, Sting made the usual comparison the pair get to Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard — “FTR, they’re a modern-day Arn and Tully. They’re as good as it gets. I put them up there with anyone, and they’re one of the best tag teams in the world. When you’re in the ring with them, it’s game on. There is no playing around, especially the pace they can go, and I saw that firsthand when we wrestled.”
Other matches lined up for this week’s Dynamite include Nyla Rose vs. Ruby Soho, Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy and Malakai Black vs. Griff Garrison. The show will also feature updates on The Owen Hart Cup tournament and the rematch between Hangman Page & Bryan Danielson.
