“That’s not the Sting that I was watching”- Former WWE star not happy with how AEW are using Sting

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3 years ago

Sting shocked the world by making his AEW debut at Winter is Coming (AEW)

Former WWE star Stevie Richards is not happy with how AEW are using a legend like Sting

It has been close to 6 months since Sting made his hair-raising return to TNT on AEW: Winter is Coming, sending the pro wrestling world into a frenzy.

Now into his 60s, Sting was never signed as a talent that would mesmerize fans by his in-ring ability. Signing him was a financial masterclass from Tony Khan just because of the hype he created.

And since then, Sting has never really got his hands dirty. He has been by Darby Allin’s side, as he was during the TNT title match against Miro, without stepping into the ring himself.

He did have a street fight a couple of months back, but that was about as close to an official in-ring return as the Stinger got in the last 6 months.

But in all of this, one thing irked Stevie Richards, who spent close to a decade with WWE during his heyday- Sting’s second appearance.

AEW return killed the mystique surrounding Sting, according to Stevie Richards

The limited crowd that was present in the arena during Sting’s appearance on the 9th December 2020 episode of Dynamite, started chanting ‘This is Awesome!’, and Sting chimed in on that as well.

According to Richards, this killed the mystique that Sting’s character had and it has since been difficult for the promotion to find it again. He said on The Hannibal TV:

“I think Sting’s mystique, especially with the way he comes out and everything… they could have re-did the whole crow thing to some degree with mystique. Instead what I understand was, week 2, he came out and cut a promo like the old Sting; had him chant ‘this is awesome’ with the fans and completely killed any kind of mystique that he might have had for me to wonder what’s going to happen… The minute Sting stars chanting ‘this is awesome’ with the fans… that’s not the Sting I was watching who was up in the rafter, was kind of like the crow. I think that’s what people want to see, right? If he wants to dress like the old Sting and sound like the old Sting, he should dress like the old Sting too.”

Richards is being a little harsh here considering that moment was a huge milestone in Sting’s career and for AEW fans as well.

The poster of Sting and Darby Allin vs Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky at Double or Northing where The Stinger makes his in-ring debut on AEW. (Image Credits: @darbyallin on Twitter)

And on top of that, it hasn’t been repeated since then with Sting behaving much like the Sting of yesteryear. Even if AEW wants to inject some originality, they are well within their rights to do it.