Sting Debuts At AEW Winter Is Coming, Multi-Year Contract Confirmed
'The Icon' Sting is officially All Elite after debuting at Winter Is Coming!
Winter finally came to All Elite Wrestling last night - in the form of professional wrestling legend Sting.
The WCW 'Icon' debuted for the promotion after Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin's tag victory over Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. Team Taz swarmed the babyfaces after the bell, with Brian Cage, Arn Anderson (!), and Dustin Rhodes all joining the brawl. The heels had a downed Cody at their mercy after cleaning house. Then, the lights cut, wintery images played across the screen, and unfamiliar music hit.
Cue: Sting in trademark face paint, baseball bat in hand.
The heels scampered, Tony Schiavone marked out, and 'The Icon' went face to face with each of the babyfaces. Extra effort was put into his staredown with Allin, who has been compared favourably to Sting extensively over the past couple of months.
AEW issued a full press release after the show, confirming that Sting had been signed to a "full-time, multi-year agreement."
Tony Khan added the following:-
“The surprise introduction of Sting was a great way to celebrate our biggest episode of Dynamite yet,” said Tony Khan, CEO and GM of AEW. “When AEW launched, I was ecstatic to bring wrestling back to TNT after a very long absence. Sting defeated the legendary Ric Flair in the final wrestling match to be shown on TNT for more than 18 years until the debut of Dynamite in 2019. Now, almost two decades later, it's such a thrill to welcome Sting to AEW and bring him back home to TNT!”
Sting is already being advertised for next week's Dynamite, on which he will break his silence. His AEW signing comes six months after his WWE release.