Justin Barrasso has just released his latest Week In Wrestling feature on SI.com.
As part of this week’s feature he included the following transcribed highlights from Sting’s recent Q&A at the Arizona Comic Con.
On why he announced his retirement at the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony:
“I didn’t know if I was going to make any kind of announcement until I did it at the Hall of Fame,” said Sting. “I was wavering, I was kind of back-and-forth on it. I got hurt wrestling Seth [Rollins], and the neurosurgeons and everybody [were] saying I needed surgery, and then I had trouble with cervical spinal stenosis, or whatever they call it, and there were two areas in my neck that were really messed up bad, although I don’t have any pain or side-effects. One more bad fall and it’s not going to be good for me, so I just thought enough was enough.”
“Undertaker,” confirmed Sting. “Now do I regret not leaving [sooner for WWE]? That’s actually a good question, but a tough one to answer. On one side, it’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, I wish I would have gone earlier.’ On the other hand, I really don’t have any regrets. But my dream match for more than a decade, or maybe two decades, was to have a good match against ‘Taker. I always wanted to have that.”
“One of the toughest opponents I had in the early days was Big Van Vader,” said Sting. “But in my later years, it was Kurt Angle. They called him ‘The Machine,’ and Kurt is a machine. He just does not stop. He’s pretty relentless and very physical. You’ve got to be at the top of your game to wrestle Kurt. He is a perfectionist and demands a lot of everyone around him.”
Sting
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Sting #1
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #2
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #3
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #4
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #5
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #6
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #7
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #8
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
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Sting #9
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 09: WWE Professional Wrestler Steve Borden aka Sting attends day 3 of Wizard World Comic Con at Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 9, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
