Sting's Retirement Acknowledged During WWE Raw

Sting's professional wrestling career came to an end on Sunday, March 3 at Revolution as The Icon and Darby Allin successfully defended the AEW World Tag Team Titles against The Young Bucks in a match that has been widely praised.

Tributes poured in for Sting in the minutes following Revolution, including from one of Sting's former employers in TNA Wrestling. WWE, however, did not immediately congratulate Sting on his retirement, instead tweeting about Tony D'Angelo vs. Carmelo Hayes at NXT Roadblock.

WWE have since rectified this as Michael Cole paid tribute to Sting during Monday Night Raw, saying at the start of Gunther vs. Dominik Mysterio: "Sting has retired from professional wrestling. Thanks for the memories, congratulations to Sting." 

Pat McAfee then stated that Sting had an "absolutely epic match" at AEW Revolution.

Sting was the final holdout from WCW to head to WWE, debuting in the company at Survivor Series 2014. Sting then made his in-ring debut at WrestleMania 31 in a surprising loss to Triple H while WWE commentators attempted to bury The Icon during the live broadcast. Sting had two more WWE matches before he suffered what was initially a career-ending injury at Night of Champions 2015.

Sting remained under contract with WWE until 2020 and he made his AEW debut at the end of that year at Winter is Coming. Sting then came out of retirement at Revolution 2021 and had a critically acclaimed three-year in-ring run until his retirement on March 3, 2024.