TMZ reported last week that future WWE Hall of Famer Sting will be officially announcing his retirement soon. The report mentioned that Sting has been diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis and that doctors have advised him to hang up the boots for good.
TMZ caught up with Sting himself on Sunday night and asked him about the rumors face to face. He was asked about his neck and he said that his neck is ok. When asked if he was officially retired he said the following:
“I’m not officially retired. Nope. There’s a lot of rumors out there but I’m not officially retired.”
So as of right now Sting is not officially retired, but that doesn’t mean the announcement isn’t coming. In the original report TMZ’s sources claimed that Sting may be making the official announcement during the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 2. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Sting wrestled his last match against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions in 2015. During the match Sting suffered an injury that seems to have ended his career. He told his WWE Hall of Fame inductor Ric Flair a few months ago on his WOOOO! Nation podcast that at some point he will need surgery.
“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.”
TMZ also asked Sting to comment on the recent Hulk Hogan/Gawker trial and he declined. You can check out the full video here.
It also happens to be Sting’s birthday today and his WrestleMania 31 opponent Triple H had some kind words for The Icon. You can see what he had to say below.
Happy birthday to the standard bearer of #WCW, the icon, and soon to be #WWEHOF member. Happy birthday, @Sting! pic.twitter.com/izjMnNjCOc
— Triple H (@TripleH) March 20, 2016