Sting has called it a career. The Icon retired from in-ring competition earlier this month at AEW Revolution, going out as champion after he and partner Darby Allin retained the AEW Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks. This bout wrapped up a three-year run for Sting in All Elite Wrestling, as The Icon wrestled his debut match for the young promotion back at AEW Revolution 2021. That first match was shot cinematically, leading many to believe AEW would use those smoke and mirrors to get around Sting’s limitations for the rest of his AEW responsibilities. Sting defied the odds two months after that, wrestling a traditional tag team match at 62 years old.
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The Undertaker Praises Sting’s AEW Booking
The Icon has the Deadman’s respect.
Speaking on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker praised how AEW handled Sting in the final years of his career.
“He was booked judiciously. He wasn’t put in situations where he may have got exposed and not be able to keep up with the younger talent,” Taker said. “It was probably him because you have to understand your limitations.”
While the two infamously never crossed paths, The Undertaker and Sting ended up having very similar careers. Beyond their gimmicks both being of a spooky nature, Taker and Sting were similarly revered for their locker room leadership and pushed themselves to compete deep past the age of average wrestler retirement.
“A lot of times, people will get caught up in the moment, ‘Let’s put Sting in the ring with such and such,’” Taker continued. “There would have been tons of singles matches for him, but he took Darby Allin. There was chemistry there.”
Taker himself retired in 2020, also going out as a victor, defeating AJ Styles at WWE WrestleMania 36 in a cinematic match. Like Sting, Taker chased that one last fulfilling match before calling it quits, and it took him nearly six years to get it. Sting also yearned for that final moment for six years but spent that time on the shelf, as injuries sustained in a WWE Night of Champions 2015 match against Seth Rollins initially forced him into retirement.
“In my heart and my mind, if I could, I would still be in the ring,” Taker added. “But I had to come to the cold, hard facts that what my mind, eyes, and what my heart feels, my body wants no part of. It wants no part of it and it doesn’t allow me to do what I want to do.”
