When wrestling icon Sting announced his retirement last November, he chose the date and the venue with it being at AEW’s flagship pay-per-view Revolution. This would be Sting’s second retirement announcement–the first being at his WWE Hall of Fame induction–but this time, it would be on his terms.
After 35 years in the sport, Sting chose his tag team partner Darby Allin to face the Young Bucks for Sting and Darby’s tag team championship. Before the match, a retrospective video package was shown as Sting sat to rewatch some of the biggest highlights of his career. It was filmed at the legendary Plaza Theater in Atlanta, the wrestler’s former home. After the victory, Sting and Darby addressed the crowd as Sting soaked up the crowd’s adoration one last time. Then, as things were getting emotional for the veteran, as he thanked the Greensboro crowd, he paused. “I gotta wait, I’m getting cues, hold on.” Then the pay-per-view stream ended.
His farewell speech would not be televised for the fans at home, but AEW posted the speech in its entirety, and the AEW locker room also got to thank Sting. You can watch the full speech below.
Sting brought his sons into the ring, both dressed as different versions of the Sting character, with one of them in the actual ring gear he wore at the 1990 Great American Bash, where he won his first world championship. The other was the red and black attire of the WCW faction, the Wolfpac, where Sting said the design by name. “We’re off the air now, I can do that.”
The wrestling legend addressed the crowd and tried to come up with the words to thank them after rotating chants of “thank you, Sting” and “you still got it.”
“I love you all so much,” Sting said. “Big time.” He then called out AEW owner Tony Khan and said the last three years of his career wouldn’t be possible without him. Khan came down the ring and thanked the crowd for coming out tonight and paying tribute to Sting.
Afterward, Darby thanked his mentor and left to “go to the hospital” to get his wounds attended to, so Sting then wanted to bring up commentator Tony Schiavone. Schiavone had been the voice of WCW and had called some of Sting’s greatest moments of his career. Schiavone led the crowd with a large “it’s Sting!” chant before Sting joined the AEW roster at the ramp.
Sting has won championships across AEW, WCW, TNA, and NWA and is a 12-time world champion, multi-time tag team champion, and United States champion.
What will Sting do next?
