Sting To Retire From Pro Wrestling, May Announce At WWE Hall Of Fame

After he took a power bomb from Seth Rollins at Night Of Champions last September, something in Sting‘s body was not right. He lost to the WWE World Heavyweight Champion in what would turn out to be his final match and found out shortly afterward that his neck injury was possibly career-ending. If that was the case, he went out with a good match against a great young star with the world title in the line.

As it turns out, that was indeed the final match in the 30-plus year career of the 56-year-old icon of the pro wrestling business. He was diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis, an injury built up from years of abuse and finally exacerbated to the point of no return after a bad bump into the corner from one of Rollins’ patented moves.

There has been speculation for months that he was planning to try to work out and rehab to move toward a return, maybe even a match at WrestleMania, but that does not appear to be the case. In fact, rumor has it that Sting will officially announce his retirement when he is inducted into the Hall Of Fame on April 2. One year after his first WWE match may mark the end of his career overall.

His legacy isn’t marred, not even a teensy bit, by what most would deem to be an underwhelming stint as a part of Vince McMahon‘s circus. He ended up wrestling in four sanctioned matches, two of which happened on the same episode of Monday Night RAW. Sting will go down as 2-2 in the WWE record books, with a loss to Triple H at WrestleMania, a DQ victory over Big Show on RAW and a tag team win with John Cena, defeating Seth Rollins and Big Show, and finally a loss to Rollins at Night Of Champions with the WWE Championship on the line.

That’s not stellar, not by a longshot, but four matches over the span of fewer than six months is not the type of run that ruins the kind of career that The Man They Call Sting has enjoyed. Anybody who thinks that McMahon or Triple H tarnished his legacy by booking him the way they did has no idea what they are talking about. A match with The Undertaker was never going to happen, and that’s okay.

Go relive all of the great things he did on the WWE Network and search YouTube for his above average tenure in TNA. Don’t complain about what WWE didn’t do with him. Be excited that you can experience what he did as a whole. Show some respect.