In 2016, Sting announced his retirement during his WWE Hall of Fame speech. Sting suffered a neck injury against Seth Rollins at WWE Night of Champions 2015.
Sting came out of retirement in 2021, wrestling a cinematic match at AEW Revolution and then returning to the ring in a semi-regular capacity for AEW. Sting wrestled 28 matches under the AEW banner, teaming with Darby Allin in all of them, before retiring at AEW Revolution 2024.
Speaking to The David Difference of Kayfabe Friends, Sting was asked if he misses the crowd and how he fills that void.
“Anyone who would say that they would not miss that is a liar, so of course I’ll miss that. But I’m never gonna come back to wrestle again. I know that. I did retire with WWE, but I also said the only thing that’s for sure about Sting is nothing’s for sure. This is just ‘see you later,’ basically. I did leave it open-ended pretty much, I didn’t really want to retire at that time. It was kind of like a mutual deal that I did with WWE at the time. Vince [McMahon] wanted me to retire under his umbrella, and at the time, I was okay with that. It was five-plus years that I was retired, but I came back because like I said in my little speech there, I got that phone call from Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes, ‘Want to come back and play one more time?’ So I did, and the rest is history," said Sting.
Sting did return for a post-retirement appearance at AEW All In at Wembley Stadium, helping Darby against Jack Perry and The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson).
Elsewhere during the interview, Sting commented on signing a legends deal of sorts with AEW. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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