Sting Announces Retirement on ‘AEW Dynamite,’ Sets Date for Final Match

It’s the end of the road for a professional wrestling legend. On this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, Sting announced his retirement and revealed that his final match will happen at AEW Revolution 2024. While addressing fans on the show, Sting gave praise to some of his most notable opponents, including Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger and Ric Flair. 

“I started my very first match with AEW was Revolution 2021, and my very last match will be Revolution 2024!” Sting said. “One more key thing that you need to know, the only thing for sure about Sting is my retirement at Revolution 2024 is for sure.” Sting’s announcement isn’t a big surprise considering he hinted at retirement during the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door media scrum earlier this year. 

“I have not decided on a date,” Sting said, per SEScoops. “For sure, a lot of people have wondered if I will retire in Wembley, that would be very cool, but I don’t see that happening. I think I’m going to continue on.” Sting, 64, previously announced his retirement during his WWE Hall of Fame speech in 2016. At WWE Night of Champions in 2015, Sting sustained a serious injury during his match against Seth Rollins. 

In April, Sting appeared on the To Be The Man Podcast and talked about the injury. “The power in my legs was just kind of going away. I felt like I didn’t have control over them, and I didn’t. I had a temporary paralysis, and you know, for a few minutes, I thought I don’t think I can continue. I think I’m done,” he explained, per IGN. “Somehow or another, it just kind of came back enough where ‘ok, I can do another minute or two.’”

Sting is known for his time in WCW. He was with the promotion from 1987 to 2001 and won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times, the United States Heavyweight Championship twice and the World Tag Team Championship three times. When WWE purchased WCW in 2001, Sting joined TNA (now Impact Wrestling) and won the World Heavyweight Championship five times. 

In November 2014, Sting made his first appearance in WWE and would go on to face Triple H at WrestleMania 31 in April 2015. His last appearance on WWE television was in February 2019, when he attended Flair’s 70th birthday celebration.