Sting admits his body was ‘in shambles’ after his comeback match

Sting shocked the wrestling world in early December 2020 when he signed a multi-year contract with AEW. One thing that’s become clear is The Icon is definitely not on a part-time schedule with All Elite Wrestling; Sting has appeared on pretty much every episode of Dynamite since his debut.

After 5+ years away from the squared circle, Sting’s comeback match with the promotion took place earlier this month at their Revolution pay-per-view. It was a cinematic street fight that was filmed ahead of time. Sting has previously indicated that he intends to do these types of cinematic matches at 62 years old, and in theory it sounds like a much better way to go than asking him to compete in live matches in the ring on television or pay-per-view.

But cinematic matches come with their own unique set of challenges, and as Sting explained it to Bleacher Report, his comeback match at Revolution left him hurting:

“The cinematic was fun. I would like to do more of those for sure, but I came out of it in shambles. It took its toll on me. It was two nights of filming and that was pretty tough. It can be taxing on the body especially at my age. It was 12 hours instead of being in the ring for 30-40 minutes. I love filming. I have done movies and TV, and I always have fun with that stuff. The tough part was all of the hours and the recovery time.”

Sting’s description is consistent with how The Undertaker and AJ Styles have described what it was like to film their critically acclaimed Boneyard match last year at WrestleMania 36. It’s easy for silly bloggers to say that cinematic matches provide the ideal environment for legends near the end of their career to have their best chance for success, but in practice it can still take a great toll on their bodies.

Sting followed that up by teasing some talk of him actually wrestling on Dynamite:

“I had no idea what I could offer AEW but I called Tony [Khan] and he asked if I would be interested in doing cinematic matches. I said I would like to do that and now, Tony is talking about matches on Dynamite. We’ll see what happens there. To be back on TNT is a cool element to it. It’s great to have guys like Jim Ross, Tony, Dustin [Rhodes], Tully [Blanchard] and Arn [Anderson] around.”

Are you down for seeing Sting go one-on-one against a Murderhawk Monster on Dynamite, or is that match still best left in the cinematic arena?