Sting says he needs neck surgery, was lucky 'a catastrophe didn't happen' at Night of Champions

Ric Flair had Sting on as a guest on his latest WOOOOO! Nation podcast on CBS Play.It and the two old friends immediately got into all the latest on the Stinger's health.

When Ric asks if he's okay, Sting explains what happened in his match with Seth Rollins at Night of Champions, where he suffered a neck injury:

"Yes and no. Obviously that night I had some problems. Both buckle bombs -- not Seth's fault, completely mine, I have no idea what I did, I have no idea -- but my neck whiplashed on both of them. On the second one, he picked me up and I'm having a casual conversation in my own mind as I'm hoisted up on his shoulders thinking 'okay, Steve, tuck your chin. Do what you know how to do. This is ridiculous.' I wasn't worried at all, even though the first one I had a shock going down the left and right thigh down both down to the fingertips. And I thought 'oh man' you can see me in the ring trying to shake my hands out and get feeling back in my hands. And then the second time, again, having the casual conversation, and then for whatever reason I clicked out, checked out, I don't know what happened but I did the same thing. This time, it affected my legs. Yeah, there was just no strength. The power in my legs was just kinda going away and I felt like I didn't have control over them, and I didn't. I had a temporary paralysis. For a few minutes I thought 'I don't think I can continue, I think I'm done. But I can't do this, the stakes are so high, and I can't do this to Seth.' Anyway, then the crowd starts chanting and everything else. Somehow or another it just kinda came back enough where 'okay, I can do another minute or two here and get out of this thing.'"

Then, the big news that he'll need surgery to repair the damage:

"Yeah, MRI's and neurologists have been looking at it, Dr. Maroon out of Pittsburgh, he's looked at it. He's telling me that I'll have to have a surgery. The dust only in the last couple weeks has kind of started to settle a little bit for me, just trying to get so much done in life but now it's time to go get this thing taken care of. No, I'm hoping (they don't have to do a fusion surgery). I know that's one of the techniques that they use and I'm not sure if Dr. Maroon will have to do that or not. I've got two spots in my neck that are troublesome. I guess it's called cervical spinal stenosis. That's what it is. I have two areas in my neck where the spinal canal, which holds the spinal cord, it's kind of choked off in two different locations. Lucky that a catastrophe didn't happen that night, long story short. I've gotta go get it fixed. I guess John Cena had something very similar, he had his fixed, and Dr. Maroon has done several of the WWE guys up there and all with great success."

Not that there were any plans for it, but this almost certainly means he won't be working WrestleMania 32 next year and at his age and the status of his career, this should probably be it for Sting. Here's to hoping WWE goes all out with a Hall of Fame induction sooner rather than later.

And, of course, all the best to Sting in his recovery.