Sting’s goals remain the same as they always have, even as his legendary in-ring career comes to an end.
It doesn’t matter if it was his first game or his last after 39 years. The wrestling icon scored one goal as he and Darby Allin defended their AEW World Tag Team Championships. Sunday’s Revolution pay-per-view at Greensboro Coliseum (8 p.m., Bleacher Report).
“I just want to entertain the wrestling fans,” said Sting, 64, who debuted in AEW in 2021. “I want it to be a night to remember, a night where no one goes, ‘Oh, that was a little sad.’ You can say it just passed him by. Well, I’m glad he’s done with it now.”
“I don’t want that to happen. I want them to think, ‘Oh my god, how would he do that?’ I want everyone to say that the Bucks, Derby, and Sting were all very entertaining. It was a memorable night. That’s all I ever cared about. ”
Sting (real name Steve Bowden) has reached the major leagues in the way he envisioned and now has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to say goodbye.
The match will take place at the same venue where Sting fought Ric Flair to a 45-minute draw at Clash of Champions in 1988.
“A lot of wrestlers get forgotten, right?” said AEW broadcaster Tony Schiavone, who called the match in 1988. “You’ll never see them again.” That’s a great ending. I think every professional wrestler would have liked it to end like this.”
Allin believes AEW’s response to Sting’s last match is an example of how a legend should be treated after all the years and sacrifices he has made.
“AEW and [president] Tony Khan actually gave this guy a proper send off and told them to do what they want. It’s not like there’s a million people trying to impose our agenda on you. ”
Part of doing it his way is making Sting’s family part of the story for the first time. Three weeks ago, his sons Garrett and Steve Jr. were attacked by the Bucks while they were in the ring celebrating his father and Allin winning the tag titles.
“My sons and daughters were the catalyst.” [Gracie] They knew very little about my wrestling career early on,” Sting said. “They hadn’t really been around it as much as a lot of other wrestlers and their kids had seen.
When they were young, they weren’t even allowed to watch their father on TV.
“They had no idea what was going on,” Sting said. “They couldn’t understand why no one was asking about them.” [friends’] Ask dad for an autograph or where’s the “dad doll”? action figures. They thought every family, every father had an action figure.
He said he was walking through a Toys R Us one day and saw kids playing the Nintendo 64 game “WCW/nWo Revenge” and it clicked.
“Garrett said, ‘Dad, look, look, look.’ Then I saw the kids playing, and I saw them using me, and I said, ‘Oh, this is everyone’s dad. You’re different.’ You’re different,’” Sting said.
Sting was a bit reluctant to bring up the recent passing of his father, Robert Lee Borden, during a promo with Allin on Dynamite two weeks ago.
According to Allin, they had about an hour to shoot the promo, and upon hearing the idea for his role, Sting initially had no intention of bringing a sad period in his life into the story, but decided to incorporate his father’s death into the story. He thought it was a great opportunity.
“We don’t really see that side of Sting, but he was very open about it,” Allin said. “In the end, I felt it was good for him to do it for himself.”
It became what many consider the best promotion of Sting’s career.
“I just said, ‘Hey, there’s a few things going on in my life, thinking it’s probably the first time I’m going to be vulnerable with wrestling fans in the TV world. I’m affected like everyone else,”’ Sting said. “I’m not invincible. This makes me think about my own mortality, and it keeps happening. It’s a very humiliating situation.”
Sting is a devout Christian who is forever admired by his colleagues for his honesty, kindness and professionalism behind the scenes.
He credits that to his father, who served in the Air Force, raising him as a father and coach to three sons who played soccer, baseball and basketball.
“My father taught us respect, how to respect adults and the people around us, and how to treat others,” Sting said. “I learned everything from my father. There is no ‘sissy thing.’ Nothing to crybaby about. I don’t think he ever told me he loved me until we were adults. That way it was easy for us to say, “I love you, Dad.” “I love you too, Steve.”
Allin recalled that Sting was “so generous” to his opponents that “I thought he forgot he was Sting” during his matches.
He remembers the 2021 matchup between Angelo Parker and Matt Mannard. There, a simple warm-up match turned into a brawl around the arena as Sting showed a willingness to cooperate and “give them something.”
“No one can say he tried to make them big,” Allyn said.
Schiavone said that years ago when he called the front desk about memberships at Sting and Lex Luger’s Main Event Fitness gym, Sting called him right back and said he wouldn’t be charged. I remember that.
He sees Sting as someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously and is able to differentiate between characters and men.
“This is who I am, this is my job to wrestle with, and I’m the person behind this job. I always got that from him,” Schiavone said. “He made it more human.”
It was as a human being that Sting believed his career was over after sustaining a serious neck injury during a match against Seth Rollins at WWE Night of Champions in 2015.
He still holds out hope for one more fight and was encouraged when cinematic bouts gained traction during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. .
The internet was buzzing about a dream match between him and The Undertaker, and Sting thought, “Yeah, yeah,” but that didn’t happen because The Deadman retired after WrestleMania 36.
Sting signed with AEW to do a cinematic match in 2021, but the idea to do more came to him not long after filming began for his first match at Revolution.
“We’re about halfway through filming, but Cody… [Rhodes] And Darby and Tony [Khan] Some of them were like, “Hey, you still got it.” Cody Rhodes will never forget Sting saying, “Your kinetic energy hasn’t changed.” “At first they were saying, ‘Stop, stop, don’t even try, don’t even try. But they kept going and kept going.’
His contract was restructured, but the problem of regaining his confidence remained.
Allyn played a “huge role” in that.
“He was willing to work with me,” Sting said. “He kept encouraging me, saying, ‘I think you can do this, I think you can do that.’ ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ There were other times when things turned around. I’m like, “I’m going to do this,” and Darby’s like, “Don’t do that.” Don’t do that. ”
Sting then entered the ring for the first time with Chris Jericho, CM Punk, and Adam Copeland, and a three-year period of exciting matches ensued as he faced off against AEW’s young stars.
He even managed to wrestle The Great Muta one more time in Japan.
The undefeated multiple world champion in AEW was seen jumping off balconies and stages and through tables. Asked about it, Sting said that diving through ropes and getting slammed into tables by the press was a big part of his early days as a performer.
Even at his age, it was vintage Sting.
“I don’t know how many tables there are, but… [I’ve been through] Throughout my career,” Sting said. “But to be doing it at this point in my career, at this age. Why would I choose now? (Laughs) I don’t really know that either. I think you can get miles.
“I’m having a lot of fun. The crowd seems to be eating it up. The wrestlers all seem to be having fun and I’m really having fun too. Yes, I’ve had a few setbacks and a few accidents here and there, but I I’m still working hard.”
Schiavone apparently wanted to say something to Sting at Dynamite in June when he dived from a ladder onto Sammy Guevara as he lay on a table outside the ring.
But while he views such moments “with horror” and worries it could end someone’s career, telling Sting to slow down is He said that could lead to further acceleration.
“I just walked into the doctor’s room and saw him,” Schiavone said. “He looked at me. I saluted him and walked away thinking he would do it again.”
Part of the philosophy Sting believes in over the years with Jimmy Crockett Promotions, WCW, TNA, and now AEW is to “throw the ball against the wall,” aiming for a match that no one can top that night. I believe it has helped me connect with my fans throughout my career. The fans kept coming back.
It’s the spirit he sees in Arin.
Now, with Flair by his side, the two are trying to bring some empathy to Sting’s career.
Sting rappelled from the rafters once more during the final dynamite attack.
According to Allin, Sting had been talking about doing it for a while, but couldn’t find the right time.
“I always remember him saying, ‘It would be really cool to do it again,'” Allin said.
Allin is also pleased that his month-long saga with the Young Bucks didn’t drag on.
“It was short and sweet, but it didn’t stop us from welcoming people like, ‘God, just play the game now, Jesus,’” Allin said. He said: “I felt he had won all the important points.”
Schiavone expects there will be a lot of emotion Sunday, with Sting’s family in attendance and former wrestlers expected to come out at some point to say hello.
He said Jim Ross, who brought Sting and Flair together in 1988, will also be in attendance, but it is unclear whether he will be part of the commentary team for the final.
Sting leaves the ring with “every part of his original body” and jokes that he still “feels great” physically, but he knows exactly how he wants to be remembered. I am.
“I want to be remembered as the Sting who brought it every night,” he said. “Sting is a guy who hasn’t changed at all. He’s been a solid, man of God through the years.”
