Sting Confirms AEW Retirement: 9 Highlights From The WWE And WCW Superstar's Historic Career

For nearly 40 years, Sting has been one of the most popular, prolific, and successful wrestlers to ever step in the ring. He’s come back from career-ending injuries, reinvented his look and persona multiple times, and put on killer matches in promotions around the world. Few wrestlers, outside of the likes of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan, have had as long and storied of a career as the WCW, TNA, WWE, and AEW veteran, but like those legends, his in-ring career is coming to an end.

In light of the 64-year-old wrestler’s announcement that he will be stepping away from the squared circle, we thought now would be the best time to take a look back on the moments, feuds, and accomplishments that turned Steve Borden into  “The Man Called Sting.”

Sting Made A Name For Himself With The Blade Runners Alongside Ultimate Warrior

Long before Sting was teaming with the likes of Darby Allin, Kurt Angle, and even Lex Luger, the decorated grappler made a name for himself alongside the late Jim Hellwig, better known to most as the Ultimate Warrior. The pair would go by various names in promotions throughout the United States like Memphis’ Continental Wrestling Association before moving to Bill Watts’ Universal Wrestling Federation where they adopted the Blade Runners moniker.

Though short-lived, the pairing would be the first time he started calling himself Sting (he went by Flash prior to this), a name that would stick with him for years and decades to come.

Sting's Heated Feud With Ric Flair Culminated In A World Heavyweight Championship Victory At WCW Great American Bash '90

Starting in the late 1980s, Sting took part in an incredible series of matches with Ric Flair, a heated feud that saw both competitors push his opponent (and himself) to the breaking point.

This all culminated more than two years later at The Great American Bash ‘90, where Sting defeated Flair in a classic main event match for the World Heavyweight Championship. However, the feud would pick up right where it left off shortly after, with the two trading title wins along the way.

Sting And Lex Luger Took On The Steiners At SuperBrawl I In 1991

Over the years, Sting and Lex Luger participated in some of WCW’s best tag team matches, including their victory at the 1988 Crockett Cup, one of wrestling’s most prestigious tournaments. Three years later, the team would give fans what Pro Wrestling Illustrated named the 1991 Match of the Year with their hard-fought battle with future WWE Hall of Famers, the Steiners at SuperBrawl I. Though Sting and Luger would come up short in defeating the smash mouth team of Rick and Scott Stetiner, this is still considered one of the greatest tag team matches on American soil 32 years later.

Sting's Squadron Defeated The Dangerous Alliance In A Historic WarGames Match At WrestleWar '92

The WarGames match is one of wrestling’s best creations, and one that typically leads to brutal and hard-fought battles between two teams with a lot of bad blood. Case in point, WrestleWar ‘92, which saw Sting’s Squadron take on Paul E. Dangerously’s (Paul Heyman) Dangerous Alliance, one of the baddest groups of shit-kickers the world’s ever seen.

This match is in a league of its own and one of the most violent entries in the WarGames saga. If you were to show one match of this type to someone, this would be it. Also, WrestleWar featured The Steiners against the team of Takayuki Iizuka and Tatsumi Fujinami, which is just so ridiculous to think about.

Sting Adopted A Crow-Esque Image Upon The Arrival Of The NWO

Sting had already stopped dying his hair blonde and let his locks grow out by the time the NWO arrived on the scene at Bash at the Beach ‘96, but the multi-time World Heavyweight Champion went even darker in the months following the faction’s domination of the WCW. As the months went by, and Sting became detached from the other members of the WCW roster, he adopted what would become his signature look, a persona modeled after the titular character from The Crow.

With white corpse paint as opposed to his flashy surfer tones he had been using up to this point, a trench coat, a bat, and a habit of hanging out in the rafters over the course of the next year, Sting looked like a Batman villain. Interestingly enough, he would later adopt a “Joker” persona in TNA. .

Sting Avenged WCW By Defeating Hollywood Hogan At Starrcade '97

Some will say the Starrcade ‘97 main event match between Sting and Hollywood Hogan was an overbooked mess that took all of the steam out of the story WCW had spent the past 18 months building, and they’re not entirely wrong. Yeah, the booking of the match is a prime example of why the company would fold less than four years later, but it did finally see Sting avenge WCW and get back at Hogan’s NWO for everything that the stable did since Summer 1996. Also, that promo package hyping the match was absolutely incredible.

Sting Finally Showed Up In WWE In 2014

Following the dissolution of WCW, Sting spent a fair amount of time in TNA (now known as Impact Wrestling), instead of jumping over to WWE like so many of his fellow wrestlers. Over time, it felt like “The Man Called Sting” would never wrestle for his former rival company. Well, that all changed in July 2014 when the dynamic wrestler was revealed to be a part of the WWE 2k15 roster, which led fans to believe he was finally going to make the jump to WWE in real life in addition to virtually.

That November, at Survivor Series, Sting made his surprise debut and immediately entered a feud with Triple H. Though they would have an OK match at WrestleMania 31 in March 2015, the fact that we got to see Sting in a WWE ring was enough for most.

Sting Was Inducted In The WWE Hall Of Fame In 2016

Though Sting only had a few matches in WWE before he suffered an injury and was forced to retire in early 2016, the WCW legend was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the night before WrestleMania 32, where he gave an emotional speech about his career and everything that led to that impactful moment. Many of us thought this was the end of the line for the iconic wrestler. And it would, but not for good…

Sting Made A Shocking Return With His 2020 AEW Debut

In December 2020, four-and-a-half years after announcing his retirement from professional wrestling, Sting made a shocking return with his AEW debut, something that few thought would ever happen. Not only did the Stinger come out with his signature trench coat and bat, he also brought quite a whooping on anyone in his way. Upon joining the ranks of other former WWE superstars in AEW, Sting would go on to pull off things in the ring that he hadn’t done in years, like jump onto tables from the ring apron.

But all things come to an end in professional wrestling, and Sting will hang up his boots for good at some point next year, as he announced he’ll retire at AEW Revolution 2024, which hasn’t been given a date yet.

There will never be another wrestler quite like Sting, especially in terms of longevity in the ring. And while you’ll have to go elsewhere to catch his TNA and AEW matches, you can watch the vast majority of his career with a Peacock subscription, which is home to the WWE Network.