When AEW Collision was announced for Charlotte, North Carolina, it felt like a borderline guarantee that Sting‘s manager, the “Nature Boy” himself, Ric Flair, would be a fixture of the program.
A native of Memphis, Tenessee, Flair cut his teeth in the south working for Jim Crockett's promotion and continued that trend into the 1980s and even the 1990s when he became one of the top performers in WCW, before Eric Bischoff wormed his way into creative and sent “Natch” on a one-way ticket to The Fed that kept him gainfully employed over multiple different runs – with some time in TNA sandwiched in between – until signing with AEW in 2023.
Now back in the city he's billed from to this day, Flair opened up the show as a manager for Sting and Darby versus the Workhorsemen before cutting a promo backstage alongside his fellow faction members to let fans know about what's next for the “Man Called Sting.”
“Good win tonight, Stingerman, Darby, looking like only you can look. How about this, though, guys: Charlotte's last turnaround with Sting,” Ric Flair told the fans in Charlotte. “The next big stop and the last stop? Greensboro in the great state of North Carolina. But before all of that, next week, a really big week in Jacksonville; it's where he returned to wrestling, AEW, first match in six years. It's where they united and became this entity that's unbeatable right now, I mean unbeatable. 26-0? Next week, it'll be 27-0. They're gonna be at Daily's Place, can you imagine that? Sold out to the rafters. Stinger, Darby, and the ‘Nature Boy!'”
Sting jumped into the action next, and after listening to his best buddy address his loyal fans, Stign decided to get in on the fun with a throwback promo that would have surely sold a few tickets to the show if it wasn't already (almost) sold out.
“Yeah, I'm ready, Ric, I'm ready, how about a retro promo from the Stinger? I'm standing here next to the ‘Nature Boy!' I'm standing next to Darby Allin, the best tag team partner I've ever had!” Sting announced. “And I'm on my way to Jacksonville, Florida, Daily's Place, and I've got a smack-talking guy talking about how he's going to take us out. Don't think, Don Callis and company, that the Stinger is just going to coast his way through the last few weeks. No, that isn't the case! Because I've got the ‘Nature Boy' with me, I've got Darby Allin with me; I'm coming to Jacksonville, Florida, where I debuted, and the only thing that's for sure about Sting is that at Daily's Place, it's gonna be ‘Showtime!'”
Do you know what? This was actually a pretty good way to use Flair if AEW wants to keep him on television for at least the next few months; he walked out to the ring to an incredible reaction from “his crowd,” he didn't have to take any distracting bumps, and ultimately got to cut a promo that could be recorded as many times as necessary should he say something potentially cancellable and/or if he loses track of time. If that's AEW's plan moving forward, it could be a whole lot worse.
#TheIcon Sting and Darby Allin are hyped up going into their HUGE tag match this Wednesday on #AEWDynamite:Homecoming against The Don Callis Family!
Watch #AEWCollision LIVE on TNT!@Sting | @RicFlairNatrBoy | @DarbyAllin pic.twitter.com/SRjlCSaCJk
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) January 7, 2024
Matt Hardy predicts who Sting will wrestle at Revolution.
Speaking of Sting's final match in AEW, while tickets are reportedly selling very well for Revolution in Greensboro, his opponent remains a mystery for the show, with everyone from Tony Khan to “The Icon” himself keeping quiet about who will stand on the other side of the ring.
But who could it be? Will Sting go up against Darby Allin? That seems to be the logical choice, but others, like Matt Hardy on his Extreme Life podcast, believe it would make more sense for the duo to go out on the same side of the versus symbol instead of opposite ends. Why? Well, because they're a tag team and should go out as such.
“I don’t know. I could possibly see Sting and Darby in a singles match at Revolution,” Matt Hardy said via Fightful. “I almost feel like it would be Sting and Darby together. I could almost see Sting and Darby winning the tag titles and maybe losing them in that final match. I don’t know, there’s a couple of ways it could go. I think that’s something Sting would be up for doing. I don't know. I think his match at Revolution is going to be a tag match. My gut tells me it won’t be a singles match.”
Would it be a tad unconventional for Sting and Darby to go out together in the former's final match? In a word, yes, fans have long assumed that Darby will earn the Stinger's rub in this final match in a sort of passing of the torch moment, but hey, if they go down together, that could be cool too, especially if it rockets the 31-year-old to new heights in 2024.
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