WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW legend Sting made his surprise arrival in All Elite Wrestling a little under a month ago. “The Icon” still hasn’t gotten physical inside the ring, but all signs point to him having matches of some sort involving Darby Allin, Team Taz and Cody Rhodes at some point down the line. The 61-year-old hasn’t wrestled a match since suffering a career-ending neck injury back in 2015, but admitted in an interview on AEW Unrestricted that Tony Khan pitched him to work cinematic matches in the future.
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During an interview with Chris Van Vliet this week, fellow former WCW star Booker T was asked to give his thoughts on Sting returning to action.
“For Sting to have a match, I wouldn’t advise it,” Booker said. “He’s 61 years old. Is it worth it? I don’t know, to him it might be worth it. I say wrestling is a young man sport, that’s why I got out [when I did]. I said I was going to retire when I was 40, when I turned 40 I went, ‘Man, I’m still pretty good. I’m still better than these suckers on the roster.’ So I pushed it until I was 45 and then I walked away from it. And I tell you, I don’t itch to put my boots on and go do that ever again.
“But Sting, he was doing it well before I was doing it,” he later added. “It’s something that he’s done his whole life, it’s in his blood.”
Booker then recalled an interview where Sting said the reason he didn’t sign with WWE originally was because of how he was WWE treated the five-time WCW Champion when he first arrived on Raw. He said he took no offense with how WWE used him, and said for Sting to base a major career decision on something like that was “a very unwise thing to do.”
Sting emphasized in his AEW Unrestricted interview that a big reason he signed was his desire to leave pro wrestling on a high note.
“I was pushing to get a cinema-style match with Undertaker,” Sting said. “For probably a litany of reasons, it just wasn’t going to happen. When Tony called and spoke with me, he said, ‘Are you interested in doing cinema-style matches?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am.’ I’d like to come back and do that and not disappear with my tail between my legs. I don’t have to go out on top, I’d like to go out in a positive light.”
