Sting Reportedly Will Retire from Wrestling Following Neck Injury

After suffering a neck injury in a match against Seth Rollins at WWE Night of Champions last September, wrestling legend Sting is reportedly ready to call it quits.

According to TMZ Sports, doctors told the 56-year-old member of WWE's 2016 Hall of Fame class that resuming his in-ring career would be "too risky." While Sting has yet to make an official announcement, it is believed that he has competed in his final match.

The Stinger was the face of WCW from the late 1980s until the end of its existence in 2001, and he achieved no shortage of accolades, with six WCW World Heavyweight Championships to his credit.

There was a great deal of hope among wrestling fans that The Icon would join WWE after it bought out WCW, but he stayed away for 13 more years and primarily competed for TNA from 2003-2014.

He made his long-awaited WWE debut at Survivor Series 2014 and immediately entered into a feud with Triple H. The pair of legends locked horns at WrestleMania 31, and The Game surprisingly came out on top in what will go down as Sting's first and only bout on the grandest stage of them all should he retire as expected.

The Vigilante had one final high-profile match against Rollins at Night of Champions for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but it was marred by the neck injury Sting suffered due to a Turnbuckle Powerbomb.

He was barely able to finish the match, but despite the scary situation, he had nothing but good things to say about his opponent afterward, per WWE.com (h/t WrestleZone's Nick Paglino):

"

Really, I can't say enough. He poked his head in the ambulance and said, "Man, I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened." I said, "Seth, don't worry about it. It's not your fault." And he, for 15 minutes, he said, "I just wanted to tell you what an honor it was, what a pleasure. I can't believe I had a chance to get in the ring with you and work with you. I was you for Halloween when I was a kid." He was on and on about it, but man, this young guy, he doesn't have any idea how much I appreciate being able to work with him.

"

While Sting had an opportunity to compete in a pair of fantasy matches that few could have ever envisioned happening, a titanic clash with The Undertaker at WrestleMania may always be viewed as the one that got away.

The Icon against The Phenom is perhaps the greatest dream match—due to the perfect symmetry between their characters—that has never happened in the history of wrestling, and now it appears as though it cannot take place.

There will likely be plenty of second-guessing among WWE's higher-ups moving forward, since they had the opportunity to make that match happen last year, but the fact that Sting competed for WWE at all remains a major coup for the company.

Sting didn't necessarily need a WWE run in order to validate his career, but now that he has one to his credit, he can step away from wrestling knowing that he's experienced essentially everything it has to offer.

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