On the latest edition on The Hall Of Fame With Booker T & Brad Gilmore, T and Gilmore touched upon the rumors of Sting perhaps heading to AEW. Booker believes that The Icon is indeed eyeing an All Elite run, one that even includes in-ring competition.
“Brother, you know what? Anything can happen in this business. These old guys, man, always feel like they wanna jump. They always feel like they got something left in the tank. Always feel like they got one last run in them. I would not doubt for one minute that we see Sting back inside of the squared circle wrestling against…Darby Allin. Sting vs. Darby, you know what I mean?”
Booker believes it boils down to Sting wanting to end matters on his terms rather than accepting that his final fight was the one he had with Seth Rollins back at Night Of Champions in 2015.
“WCW shut down and Sting went radio silent for a long time up until TNA came along and then he was a part of that, but that did not to my estimation live up to the expectation of what we wanted to see from Sting. So he had to make a trip to WWE to get that time.
“Sting was no spring chicken. Sting was the oldest guy in the locker room. Sting could not go out there and perform at the level he once could as well as father time catches up with everyone.”
“I’m sure he would have liked a better run. I’m sure he would have liked to made a bigger impact in WWE,” Booker continued. “I’m sure Sting, his mind wanted to do so much more than his body would let him and once you get an injury like that in WWE, they put you on a no-touch list. So him doing something there is slim to none as far as going out there and having that WrestleMania moment with The Undertaker, slim to none. So for him to see him make the jump to AEW. I could see that. I could see Sting doing that because right now Sting probably still feels like he’s got something left to give as well as Sting probably feels like he wants to end it. A lot of wrestlers have that bravado. They want to go out some special kind of way, you know what I’m saying. I think the rumors are true and I think they’re saying, I’m just reading that ‘WWE Hall of Famer will not appear at Double or Nothing PPV,’ but that just could be smoke and mirrors.”
Gilmore asks Booker straight out if he believes Sting should take that risk of stepping back in the ring.
“No, I don’t. I don’t. I mean I don’t. Especially with the style that they work in AEW, unless they put him in there with someone with Chris Jericho, someone who could go out there and take care of him and protect him a little bit, but then again (pauses) you know, nothing against these guys coming back and trying to get in the ring or anything like that, but Sting is well past his prime and for him to go back out there and do it, it would just be for him and him only because I know all the fans, they’re going to love Sting whether he gets in the ring or wrestle ever again. His fans are going to be there for him. He show up and do his autograph signings whatnot, but just like taking his bad bump with Seth Rollins and coming up lame the way he was in the ring from that debilitating injury as far as what was going on in his spine, what was going on in his neck.
“I’ve seen that before, I’ve actually had that paralysis before myself. I know how scary it is when you’re laying on the ground on your knees and wondering what the hell is going on. ‘Am I gonna be able to get up and continue and finish this out?’ I’ve been in that position before. I know exactly what it feels like and for me, I chose to never put myself in this position again unless I was in a real fight with someone and I had to protect myself, but as far as getting back in a wrestling ring? I chose to never do that ever again. Other than jumping in a Reality of Wrestling ring (laughs).”
Gilmore and Booker then talk about the demand for fans wanting to see Sting vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania now that cinematic matches are a way to orchestrate storytelling in WWE, but that match today doesn’t hold a whole lot of interest to Booker. He compares it to how the fans clamored year after year for Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao and how that fight didn’t live up to expectations.
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
You can see the whole video of the two talking below:
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