Sting Makes Cameo Appearance on WWE Raw

Former WCW Champion and WWE Hall of Famer Sting made a surprise appearance on Monday Night Raw this week.

“The Stinger” appeared in a backstage segment on the “red carpet” of Ric Flair’s 70th birthday celebration, and briefly interacted with Titus O’Neil.

Sting hasn’t wrestled since taking on Seth Rollins for the WWE Championship back at the 2015 Night of Champions pay-per-view. The veteran came up short in the match and suffered a neck injury in the process. In December 2015 he revealed in an interview with Flair that he needed surgery to correct cervical spinal stenosis following the Rollins match. He was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2016.

The former world champion made another appearance later in the evening for Flair’s celebration, where he was joined in the ring by Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon while the active roster watched from the entrance ramp. The group planned on giving Flair a special version of the World Heavyweight Championship title to commemorate his world championship reigns, but Flair didn’t arrive when his music hit.

The camera quickly cut to backstage, revealing that a returning Dave Bautista had attacked Flair in his dressing room. He dragged Flair out of the room and looked directly into the camera, where he called out Triple H.

“Hey Hunter, do I have you attention now? Huh?” Bautista said, shouting the last line.

“The Animal” has publicly stated in numerous interviews that he wants another match with Triple H at WrestleMania, though the company has (as he tells it) given him the cold shoulder over the years despite his successful Hollywood career. However the seed for a match between the two was finally planted at SmackDown 1000 in October, when Bautista mentioned during an Evolution reunion that Triple H had never beaten him one-on-one.

The rumored match was thrown into jeopardy when Triple H suffered a torn pectoral muscle during the tag team main event of Crown Jewel between D-Generation X and the Brothers of Destruction, but by late January he was already out of surgery and cleared to return to working out.

Should a match between Bautista and Triple H happen at WrestleMania 35, it will join a card that already features a Universal Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins and a Raw Women’s Championship main event between Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair and (presumably) Becky Lynch.