Sting Announces Retirement on AEW Dynamite, Reveals When His Last Match Will Be

Professional wrestlers tend to have a longer shelf life than athletes in other sports, and no one has exemplified that more than Sting. Six years after he was forced into retirement following an injury sustained at WWE Night of Champions 2015, Sting returned to action in a cinematic match at AEW Revolution. Fans praised Sting's performance in the bout and assumed that future Sting matches would need to incorporate the smoke and mirrors of a cinematic contest in order to protect the older star. As it turns out, that cinematic match was a one-off, as Sting has gone on to wrestle traditional tag matches on a quarterly basis for AEW.

While the 64-year-old icon has showed no signs of slowing down through his past 21 matches, Sting has admitted that the end of his career will come sooner than later.

Sting Announces His Last Match Date

Sting has announced his retirement.

Sting reflected on his big moments with Lex Luger, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair and was showered with "thank you Sting!" chants from the crowd. He noted he understands why these veterans clung to professional wrestling for so long, mentioning the vibe of the arena and the roar of the fans makes him keep coming back for more.

"You still got it!" the AEW audience chanted.

#TheIcon Sting reminisces about his legendary career!

Watch #AEWDynamite LIVE on TBS!@Sting pic.twitter.com/KGHJ1pvQo1

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) October 19, 2023

Sting then reiterated that his retirement is coming soon, and this time, he gave it a date: AEW Revolution 2024.

Sting's AEW History

Sting has been with AEW since December 2020. He made his shock debut at AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming, hitting the ring to fend off an attacking Team Taz and help the collective of Cody Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, Arn Anderson, and Darby Allin. The following week, Sting explained that he was in AEW because there was something about it that was "really familiar," pointing to Allin seated in the rafters.

Sting has backed Allin ever since. These two are one of the longest-running tandems in AEW history and have wrestled high-profile contests against FTR, House of Black, and Mogul Embassy.

While his debut confrontation with Allin was expanded upon, fans never got a resolution for the teased tension between Sting and Cody Rhodes. 

"I was going to wrestle Sting," Cody confirmed to ComicBook.com earlier this year. "I don't think I've ever shared that with anybody and nothing was on paper or anything like that. I got a tremendous offer from AEW creatively, financially, the full package. You won't hear me say anything bad about AEW or Tony (Khan) or my time there. It was a tremendous offer, but the offer wasn't right for me. What I wanted to get back to was the first goal that I ever had (winning the WWE Championship). But yeah, that probably would've been the endgame. That's what had been discussed, was to get one (match) with one of my heroes, Sting."