WWE News: Sting Explains His Decision To Retire From Professional Wrestling

In the weeks leading up to this year’s WrestleMania weekend, there was a rumor going around that Sting, who made his debut in WWE about a year and a half ago, was going to announce his retirement from professional wrestling during his Hall of Fame speech. But The Icon himself ended up refuting that rumor in various interviews leading up to the WWE Hall of Fame event, and he even made it seem like he wasn’t planning on retiring until he got his wish, which was a one-on-one match with The Undertaker.

Sting’s Hall of Fame speech may have been the best of the night, but unfortunately, when the fans in attendance began to ask him for one more match, he responded by saying that he was going to retire from in-ring competition. The announcement was met with a few boos, but the boos were quickly drowned out by a standing ovation.

Newly inducted into the @WWE Hall of Fame, @STING announces his retirement from the ring. #WWEHOF #ThankYouSting https://t.co/5ru7YswgVI

— WWE (@WWE) April 3, 2016

It’s easy to see why WWE fans were disappointed when Sting announced that he was done — they never got to see him in the aforementioned dream match with The Undertaker. Also, his WWE run wasn’t all that great, as he lost both of his big pay-per-view matches. But, that doesn’t seem to bother Sting, as he’s just glad that he finally made it to the number one wrestling promotion in the world.

In an interview with ESPN‘s Jonathan Coachman, Sting admitted that it was hard for him to retire, especially because the fans were telling him that they wanted to see him wrestle again. The Icon also admitted that he too wanted to have another match, but he just felt that, because of the neck injury he suffered during his match with Seth Rollins last September, it was time to hang it up.

“[My retirement] was a difficult moment for me because you’ve got the crowd chanting ‘ONE MORE MATCH!’ and I wanted that one more match, but I just know it’s [time to retire] for several different reasons. But it was hard to do after 30 years.

“It was Night of Champions against Seth Rollins last year, and it was just a weird deal. It was a whiplash type thing that happened two times during the match, and the second time it happened, I lost control of my legs. I’ve got spinal cervical stenosis in two areas of my neck, and the neurologist said to me ‘you’re lucky that you walked out of there.’ So, I was lucky there wasn’t a catastrophe.”

Spinal stenosis has forced several wrestlers to retire in the past, most notably Edge, who was forced to retire in his mid-thirties. So it’s easy to see why Sting made the decision to hang up the boots at the age of 57.

Sting’s WWE future is still unknown. Of course, he’ll probably remain a part of the company going forward. But at this point, no one knows if he’ll ever be used on WWE television for anything again. His character isn’t one that could be a manager, and him being an on-screen authority figure doesn’t really seem like a possibility.

His role will probably be an off-screen one, as WWE will almost certainly want him to be an ambassador for the company, much like many other WWE Hall of Famers are. As for a permanent on-screen role, well, there doesn’t seem to be a spot for him to fill, at least for now. But an on-screen role may open up for The Icon at some point in the future.

[Featured image via WWE]