It’s Friday and that means a new edition of Wrestling Weekly.
Life must go on in AEW after Sting’s retirement last Sunday at Revolution, so Les Thatcher and I discuss what they have got lined up after watching this week’s AEW Dynamite.
We also discuss the big angle leading into WWE WrestleMania 40 as The Rock and Roman Reigns appear to be getting on the same page for now, at least. Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins will answer their challenge tonight on SmackDown to add another wrinkle to the proceedings.
Very few wrestlers in history get the kind of sendoff that Sting has gotten over the past three-plus years, and particularly for his farewell match as the main event of the AEW Revolution show on 3/3 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Sometimes, like with Ric Flair and Terry Funk, they do get a grand sendoff, but then they come back. And their actual last matches in the case of Flair weren’t pretty, although it was among the biggest independent shows of the past 40 years and a legitimate farewell. In the case of Funk, nobody even remembers because it was just a show he did when nobody knew it was his last match. Guys like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Roddy Piper did their share of retirements but never one like this, and always came back until they simply couldn’t do a match again. Dory Funk Jr. retired and still came back. Mil Mascaras hasn’t wrestled in years and is past 80 but still hasn’t retired. Dusty Rhodes never had a retirement match. Jack Brisco just flew home one day and never came back.
As expected, Sting’s retirement match helped last Sunday’s AEW Revolution do big business at the box office.
Venues Now reported Wednesday that the sold out pay-per-view from Greensboro, North Carolina’s Greensboro Coliseum brought in more than $1 million in gate revenue with an attendance of 16,118.
Scott Johnson, the coliseum’s deputy director, stated the average ticket price was $55. No breakdown of paid vs. comp tickets was reported.
Venues Now also reported that gross merchandise sales brought in nearly $349,000 with an average spend of $21.64 — numbers Johnson said were in line with concerts. Additionally, over $306,000 was spent on concessions which doesn’t include suites.
Johnson said the Coliseum generally books four wrestling shows a year, split between AEW and WWE, that all do “tremendously well.”
AEW’s live gate record is for last August’s All In from London’s Wembley Stadium which generated over $10 million according to AEW head Tony Khan, followed by last June’s Forbidden Door which did nearly $1.2 million in Toronto, Canada.
A “Plan B” finish was ready in case Darby Allin was too injured to continue at AEW Revolution.
Sting and Darby Allin defeated The Young Bucks to retain the AEW World Tag titles in Sunday’s main event. During the match, Allin jumped from a ladder in the ring through a pane of glass set up on the outside. After spending some time on the floor, he eventually recovered and hit a Coffin Drop on Matthew Jackson just before Sting made Jackson submit to the Scorpion Deathlock.
However, SI.com is reporting that AEW had a different finish planned in the event Allin was too injured to take part.
“There was a Plan B with a different finish in the event he could not return to the match, which turned out to be no more than a precaution,” wrote Justin Barrasso.
Allin was said to be adamant that he wanted to do the spot. Special safety measures were taken after it was decided he would go through with it.
“A rehearsal occurred earlier than usual in the day, and a stunt coordinator instructed how to place the items and reviewed the proper protocols. There were also nearby doctors anticipating the spot, and they were on high alert,” Barrasso continued.
The commentary team was not given a heads-up about the spot and their reactions were said to have been entirely organic.
Following the match, the atmosphere backstage was such that some said they didn’t want to leave the arena after.
“Photos were snapped, private conversations took place, and there were endless hugs for Sting. The locker room was filled with crying, laughing, and chatter,” Barrasso continued.
Our own Bryan Alvarez would later report that Allin only needed 12 stitches following the spot. He’s scheduled to wrestle Jay White on the March 13 AEW Dynamite in Boston before embarking on his quest to climb Mount Everest.
With the death of Ole Anderson this week, we have a giant issue of the Observer with a huge bio of Anderson, talking about his entire career in the business, as a wrestler, promoter, booker and later executive with WCW. We talk about the beginnings of Georgia wrestling on national television, the expansion, Dusty Rhodes vs. Ole Anderson, The Black Scorpion, The Four Horsemen, Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Black Saturday and so much more. This issue includes:
The life and times of Ole Anderson
A story on the death of Mike “Virgil” Jones
Update on WrestleMania
Coverage of Elimination Chamber
Rock on Smackdown
Updated Mania lineup
Business notes on Elimination Chamber
Update on WWE & UFC 2023 business, along with 2024 projections and why the stock price dropped
Sting’s last match and AEW Revolution preview
Secondary market notes
History of Greensboro sellouts
Darby Allin and Young Bucks talk Sting
New Japan after Okada looked at
What New Japan needs to do
How Matt Riddle and Nic Nemeth started in New Japan
New Japan Cup news
Rundowns of New Beginning in Sapporo
UFC from Mexico City rundown
2023 Shad Gaspard/Jon Huber Award winners
Triple Crown winners of Wrestler of the Year, Most Outstanding and Match of the Year in the same year
The most detailed look at the ratings of all the shows, segment-by-segment, demos, competition and weekly placings as well as comparisons to one year ago
First ever all women’s Friday night show at Arena Mexico
Notes on the next CMLL tournament
Wrestlers leaving AAA
Stardom Cinderella tournament
Two major Stardom stars confirmed as staying with the promotion
Movie coming out on 70s star
More on MLW lawsuit settlement with WWE
More plans and changes at TNA
Shocking PPV number and trying to explain it
Tony Khan talks business and how many PPV shows per year is optimum
WWE Rivals (Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage) and WWE Biography (Sgt. Slaughter) on A&E Sunday were both down from last week’s season premieres. Rivals scored 316,000 viewers with a 0.06 rating, while Biography did 276,000 with a 0.07.
Sting’s son Garrett wrote on his YouTube channel about his experience dressing as ‘surfer’ Sting as part of his dad’s final match at Revolution:
“Alright, it’s time for an update and a bit of a reveal. Last night, my dad, Sting, retired from his completely legendary pro wrestling career. My brother and I got to play a small part of his final match as younger versions of his character. I’ve got the American outfit, my brother has the red (or, Surfer Sting and Wolfpack Sting for any wrestling fans!) It was absolutely insane, and by far the coolest night of my entire life. The admiration and love from the fans toward my dad made me even more proud of him than I already am.
So, this is obviously why I’ve been a bit absent the past month or so. I was largely focused on looking as good as possible for the show, so lots of hours that would have been spent grinding Destiny were instead spent in the gym haha. All that to say, thanks for being patient. I can’t wait to upload again soon, and I’ll for sure try to do a recap video that goes more in depth on this weekend.”
The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, where Sting taped the vignette that aired before AEW Revolution’s main event, commented on Sting writing “An honor! We [heart emoji] @Sting.”
Dark Side of the Ring returns tonight on Vice at 10 pm ET, focusing on John ‘Earthquake’ Tenta.
Minoru Suzuki vs. Royce Issacs has been added to Bloodsport X.
A tribute show to Mad Kurt can be found here. A GoFundMe has been set up to help his family here.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez, Mike Sempervive and Lance Storm is back with tons to talk about including Lance’s thoughts on AEW Revolution, the Sting match, the rest of the show, and more, plus WHO SAVED THE ORTON VS. THEORY SPOT, RAW notes from Monday, Rock and Roman, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Sting won his retirement match on Sunday, teaming with Darby Allin to retain the AEW Tag Team titles against The Young Bucks in a tornado match. The titles have since been vacated, and a tournament will begin this month to crown new champions.
After spending a number of years with TNA, Sting had a brief run with the WWE in 2014, losing to Triple H at WrestleMania 31. He returned that fall in a match against Seth Rollins where he suffered a neck injury after taking a turnbuckle powerbomb. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016, where he announced his first retirement. He stayed retired until returning to the ring in 2021 for AEW.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including AEW Revolution, an all-time great AEW show with an incredible Sting retirement, Smackdown with an awesome Rock segment, why RANDY ORTON saved the botch in his main event, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
During the main event of AEW Revolution, Allin jumped from a ladder in the ring and went through a pane of glass set up on the outside. The glass shattered on impact and blood was seen pouring out of Allin’s back after the move.
Our own Bryan Alvarez provided a surprisingly positive update on Allin’s condition during today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live.
Alvarez said:
I looked at this guy’s back last night and it was like he was wearing a red cape.
I thought, ‘Oh my god, they’re not going to let him back in the match.’ They did. He’s still streaming blood everywhere out of his back.
He needed *pause* 12 stitches.
I heard that and I was like, ‘Okay, hold a second, you mean 1200 right? 12,000?’
12 stitches. I don’t know how but thank god, and that’s the story. So, he’s on his way to Everest.
“Impossibly, Darby only needed 12 stitches,” Alvarez also wrote to his subscribers on X.
Allin has one more match scheduled in AEW before he leaves to tackle Mount Everest. He’s scheduled to wrestle Jay White on March 13 in Boston at AEW Big Business. Mercedes Mone is believed to be making her debut on the show.
The city officially proclaimed March 3 as “Thank You Sting Day” in recognition of the icon’s final match taking place there on Sunday night.
Additionally, the Greensboro Coliseum presented Sting, Darby Allin, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, Tony Khan, and Ric Flair with commemorative black baseball bats to mark the occasion.
Talk about an ICON-ic night! Coliseum Deputy Director Scott Johnson presented this group of LEGENDS with their custom bats, and Chris Wilson, Deputy City Manager of @greensborocity, presented Sting with a proclamation that March 3 is officially THANK YOU STING DAY in Greensboro! pic.twitter.com/uLmTcvgKmP
At last night’s press conference, Sting revealed he told the Young Bucks that Sunday’s match was among the top three of his career. He said, “I just left a meeting with The Bucks and I told them, I said this was up there with the top 3 matches of my career.”
Today is a celebration of one of the greatest performers ever in pro wrestling. From the first time I held a mic for @Sting at the TBS studios in 1987 to the career making match against Flair in 1988 to watching him doing crazy things in the ring here in AEW, I’ve been amazed at… pic.twitter.com/XnscUgTga3
Today I plan to watch #AEWRevolution while celebrating the career of the legendary @Sting . Win, lose, or draw he’s given us a ton of incredible memories that fans both old and new will talk about for generations to come. #ThankYouSting
Sting ended his career at Sunday’s AEW Revolution on his own terms, capping off what will probably be one of the top shows of the year.
Over 16,000 fans packed North Carolina’s Greensboro Coliseum to watch AEW Tag Team Champions Sting & Darby Allin team together one last time to defeat The Young Bucks in a fantastic, heated, bloody and brutal match that gave us the happy ending that everyone wanted: Sting winning his last match with the Scorpion Death Lock.
It wasn’t the best match on the show, but it was the perfect one to end Sting’s career.
Allin nearly killed himself (and I mean that literally) by taking a huge bump off a ladder through a real glass pane on the outside of the ring. I cannot stress enough how crazy of a bump that was on a show full of crazy bumps. But this was Sting’s time to shine, kicking out of all the Bucks’ finishers as the crowd ate it up. After spending most of the match recovering from his insane stunt, Allin helped Sting pick up the win.
Sting could have spent the last three years of his career doing nothing and he still would have got a big response because he was a star in one of the most successful eras of pro wrestling ever in North America. But he did the complete opposite: working his butt off in every match, giving us amazing moments that I don’t think anyone will forget anytime soon, including on Sunday.
For that, thank you, Sting.
Here are thoughts on the rest of the card, which is very easily a show of the year contender:
The AEW World Championship match was an excellent three-way bout. It was pretty hard to have to follow a match like Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita, but they held their own with Samoa Joe retaining by choking out Hangman Page. I think one of the stories for 2024 has to be Swerve Strickland getting the win and the title. It doesn’t have to be now, but I think with his recent face turn, he should be at the top. His time seems to be coming.
Ospreay made his AEW debut with an incredible match against Takeshita, as expected. Getting match of the night honors on a show like this is extremely hard, but these two got the job done. They put on a clinic and did all of their crazy moves as one would expect in a big time match like this. The sheer drop brain buster into the turnbuckle was sick and one that made Ospreay’s back looked so trashed afterward (although Allin outdid him later). Ospreay was also super over with this crowd — so much so that it’s plainly obvious he should be one of the top babyfaces on this roster.
There’s not much to say about the Women’s title match which was two people wrestling and doing okay stuff in front of a crowd that absolutely did not care. Despite her work elsewhere, Deonna Purrazzo just hasn’t connected with the AEW audience and while Toni Storm’s act does connect, for whatever reason, it almost never results in a good match. People want to cheer her, but she’s a heel doing heel things. All of this, of course, is a backdrop to Mercedes Mone’s eventual debut at Big Business on March 13th, so we’ll see if the division picks up from there.
Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong told a very good story. There are some who absolutely loathe the character, but these people never want to accept how good of a worker Cassidy is. His selling here was so great and Strong was excellent as being the heel in control and working on the back, naturally as he’s the messiah of the backbreaker. Kyle O’Reilly made his return after Strong won the International title, but didn’t immediately join with his friends, so there’s some drama here for the near future.
Boy, was FTR vs. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli fun to watch. I don’t know how long they went but every minute felt like a tribute to tag team wrestling with tons of cool callbacks to teams of the past and some hot near falls. None of these four wrestlers ever have a bad pay-per-view match and this more than delivered. Both teams should absolutely be in the upcoming Tag Team title tournament and probably in the finals.
Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson had an excellent match. This would probably rank as the second or third best match on this show, but easily could have been the top match on any of the big shows last year. A battle of attrition that just kept going, this was a tribute to Japanese pro wrestling in North Carolina. I think at this point, Danielson needed the win more as he’s been doing plenty of jobs lately, but I can’t complain at all. It was excellent.
The opener for the pay-per-view saw Christian Cage retain the TNT Championship against Daniel Garcia. This was a great opener and the last few minutes were fantastic with some great near falls. Of course, this was a buffer match for the eventual Adam Copeland return, which I am guessing will be at AEW’s next pay-per-view, Dynasty, in April.
Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingaledefeated Julia Hart and Skye Blue. These four have been feuding with each other for what feels like forever and all of them just seem to be treading water. What is the Stokely Hathaway stuff leading to? Is Willow going heel? Is Statlander turning on someone? The story is moving so slow, I just want it to go somewhere. They tried here and this wasn’t a bad match, but a lot of stuff looked sloppy.
The opener, pitting the Bang Bang Scissor Gang against Jeff Jarrett’s crew and Willie Mack, was good. This was nothing special, but fine work. I feel like everyone in the Bang Bang Scissor Gang feels less over being in this group for some reason. There really hasn’t been much advancement in the story and Max Caster is now doing a gimmick where he can’t rap anymore. I don’t like that.
And that will do it for Revolution as AEW’s next big show will be April’s Dynasty PPV in St. Louis. After ending 2023 on a sour note, I hope we see more shows like Revolution from the company. WWE is hot right now, but they aren’t putting on these kinds of shows which needs to be AEW’s strong suit going forward.
Sting brought out AEW president Tony Khan, who thanked everyone for being part of the “greatest wrestling pay-per-view ever.” Darby Allin also thanked everyone before saying he was going “to go to the hospital real quick.”
Sting then turned his attention to Tony Schiavone at ringside. Schiavone gave the crowd one more “It’s Sting!” from ringside.
The segment closed with Sting and his sons hugging in the ring.
At the post-event press event later that night, Khan announced that since Sting and Allin retained the tag titles and Sting was now officially retired, the belts will be vacated. A tournament will decide the new champions. Khan promised to reveal more details about the tournament’s format shortly.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including a full recap of AEW Revolution with Sting’s final match, all the rest of the show and where it would rank in terms of best AEW PPVs ever, plus notes on Smackdown and Collision and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Sting retires at AEW Revolution
11:30: The rest of AEW Revolution
46:29: AEW Collision recap
51:10: WWE SmackDown recap
1:01:48: Lineups for the week, Dave on how pro wrestling has changed over the years
Both Sting and Tony Khan talked to the media following AEW Revolution.
Sting discussed why he chose AEW as his final destination, as well as what he would like to do in the future with the company. Khan talked about a variety of subjects including AEW’s upcoming television deal, Big Business, AEW’s relationship with CMLL, and more.
Highlights from the scrum interview are below:
Sting & Darby Allin
Sting was first asked about why wanted to come to AEW. He said that he saw an opportunity and liked the wrestlers involved, both male and female. The brand fit him, and felt like AEW was the best fit compared to his runs in WWE and TNA.
When asked if he would be doing work for AEW in the future, Sting said that he and Tony Khan haven’t really worked anything out yet, but will likely have to talk about it in the future. He ruled out becoming a manager or a road agent/producer.
He was asked about reflecting on splitting with Jim Hellwig (Ultimate Warrior) after their run as The Bladerunners in the UWF ended. Sting said that it was for the best as they were two “roided out” guys that were ready to kill each other. Sting said he stopped doing steroids by 1990.
When asked about how hard it was to leave the ring following his match, Sting said that it couldn’t have gone any better. He put over how great it was for his two sons to come out wearing his surfer and wolfpac gear.
Sting said he had just gotten out of a meeting with the Young Bucks where he said Sunday’s match was among the top 3 matches of his career, and it couldn’t have gone any better.
He joked at one point everything went so well, maybe he could make it to Wembley Stadium again, but then said there was no chance of that happening.
Regarding his health, Darby Allin said that he came to the presser in the middle of being stitched up, but said he feels fine. He also said he would be leaving to climb Mt. Everest on March 27.
Tony Khan
He described Sunday’s show as a “perfect night”, that top to bottom this was one of the best shows AEW has ever done. Also said that the show was likely to be one of the best gates they’ve ever had, though did not put out specific numbers.
Regarding Sting, Khan said that Sting is very giving, and not political. He never pushed to have an undefeated run but he felt very strongly about pushing him the way that he did.
In regards to Saturday & Sunday pay-per-views, Khan said they were based on the NFL’s schedule, saying more shows were likely to take place on Saturday due to NFL games.
Denise Salcedo asked a question about the status of the AEW Tag Team titles. Khan announced that the titles would be vacated and a tournament will start this month. Darby Allin is also set to face Jay White at AEW Big Business.
Khan called Sting “one of the most unselfish people in pro wrestling.”
While he is very optimistic on a Kenny Omega return, Khan said it wouldn’t be fair to create the expectation for him to appear at AEW’s upcoming events in Winnipeg.
Khan sidestepped a question regarding Kyle O’Reilly’s status, instead putting over the momentum he had before becoming injured.
Regarding Eddie Kingston, Khan said he was “absolutely planning” on having him at ROH Supercard of Honor.
One person asked if contract negotiations were underway for AEW’s TV rights deal, and if other companies beyond Warner Bros. Discovery were interested. Khan responded by saying they are still under an exclusive agreement with WBD and they are very proud of what they are doing with TBS and TNT. He said that WBD’s current management group has embraced them more than ever before.
Khan mentioned that Stephanie Vaquer was someone that he would love to have in AEW, and their working agreement with CMLL would allow women talent to come in.
In regards to the rumors revolving around Ricky Starks, Khan said that Starks is definitely under contract.
