Original Plan for Sting's AEW Revolution Entrance Revealed (Exclusive)

At AEW Revolution 2024 Sting officially retired from professional wrestling after more than four decades in the industry. He teamed with Darby Allin one final time against the Young Bucks, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson. The almost 65-year-old didn't shy away from taking huge bumps in his retirement match as he and Darby both were sent through tables and glass galore. Though the match was a culmination of his career and fans were sent home on a high note with Sting retiring with the tag team titles, it was his entrance that really sealed the deal.

Sting's entrance was not only special because it would be the last time he walked down a ramp to the ring to wrestle, but there was a heartwarming tribute that was part of it as well. Sting's sons Steven and Garrett Borden acted as past iterations of the Sting character. While Garrett wore his father's Great American Bash gear from 1990, otherwise known as the Surfer Sting era, Steven dawned the underrated Wolfpac era Sting. 

Comicbook.com's Haley Miller recently sat down with Steven to discuss being part of his father's retirement match and Steven revealed that there was a bit of a different plan prior to the match taking place. Steven's Wolfpac gear wasn't exact due to logos and copyright issues that would present an issue if they were to use the era-appropriate gear from WCW. Instead, he walked out in his dad's red TNA gear which just further adds to the eras of Sting that were onstage that night.

"Yeah, so the plan actually until the very end, close to the very end, was for me to just do Crow Sting. So Garrett was going to be Surfer, I was going to be Crow. That was always pretty clear. There was never contention over who was going to do what. It just, everybody kind of knew, 'yeah, I think it makes most sense for Garrett to do Surfer.' And that's probably partially because I used to have long hair so we all got used to that. Then Darby actually made a point to my dad maybe a week or so before the match going, 'well, you know, don't you think if Garrett's going to be Surfer, Steven's going to be Crow, and then you're also going to be Crow this is an opportunity to mix it up a little bit?' And that was a good point, so that's where we landed on, 'let's just try to deliver a few different eras in one.' And obviously, as you said, we had some logistical constraints with the attire but we landed on the red too, just for the contrast. It made us two stand out from each other a little bit more."

It's been reported that Sting had originally pushed to lose his retirement match in an effort to put the Young Bucks over on his way out. However, AEW President Tony Khan and the Jackson brothers were reportedly against the move, as they believed he deserved to go out in a celebratory way. According to Conrad Thompson, that Ric Flair wanted to turn on Sting one final time but as the match would play out, he would stand by his side instead, getting superkicked in the head by the Young Bucks.