While Sting's final match in professional wrestling was about as pitch-perfect as “The Icon” could have hoped for, with fans calling the match a perfect retirement for one of the best wrestlers of all time mere hours after AEW Revolution, his exit from the sport left his ultimate dream match forever a “What if” moving forward: Sting versus The Undertaker.
Alas, ever since the former surfer donned the white crow makeup and began hanging out in the rafters, fans wanted nothing more than to see the spookiest performer in WCW test his mettle against WWE's Deadman, with a throwdown at WrestleMania a borderline lock to still some serious tickets and draw even more money when you factor in merch sales and sponsorship opportunities.
Discussing the match that theoretically could have happened during a very small window of time when the duo were both cashing paychecks from Titan Towers, The Undertaker reveals on his Six Feet Under podcast that the match ultimately didn't happen for one reason and one reason alone: Vince McMahon didn't want it.
“That would have been huge box office. It just didn’t work out. He had a short run in WWE and Vince [Vince McMahon] didn’t want it,” The Undertaker revealed via SE Scoops. “For whatever reason, I don’t know what it was. He just didn’t feel it. Everybody else was like, ‘People have been clamoring for this match for quite a few years.’ A year or two into that character change, people were already sending me artwork with the billboard or poster. It just never worked out. Then, when he got there, the match would have been good, but I don’t think it would have lived up to the expectations that people have for it. People always think about things in a certain sense. I think they thought in their mind of Undertaker 2007-2008 vs. Sting. It was later on than that. I can say, I was way on the backside of what I was going to do when he got there.”
Gosh, how could Mr. McMahon have missed the mark that severely on such a marquee match? It's not like he tried to bury the Stinger when he showed up in WWE, as he was booked for matches with Triple H and Seth Rollins before his run came to a crashing end. If he didn't think the match would live up to expectations, that would be one thing, but considering Sting was still having 4.75 star matches a decade later, it's safe to say the “Icon” would have still been able to show out in a major way.
The Undertaker reveals he still has the urge to wrestle for WWE.
Elsewhere on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker discussed his desire to get back into the ring, which, despite being half a decade removed from the Boneyard Match, has remained an itch he can't seem to scratch any other way. While he may not be where he wants to be physically at this stage of the game, that doesn't mean the 58-year-old doesn't still feel like he could go deep in his bones after nearly 2,500 matches on his resume.
“For me, it was extremely tough. I still struggle with it. This will light up the internet. I just got back from Australia. I was having a moment. I looked over at Michelle [Undertaker's wife, Michelle McCool], and we're trying to get on the same page since I've been gone. I was like, ‘I'm thinking about maybe coming back.' She looked at me for like 15 seconds. ‘Are you freaking kidding me? You would risk all the stuff you've had fixed already, now that you've been retired, you would risk that?' I was just in a mood. ‘Yeah, I would.' 30 seconds after that, she was like, ‘Well, when are you going to start training?' I was like, ‘D**n, you really want to collect that insurance policy, don't you?'” The Undertaker joked.
“I think I'm over it now, but sometimes I get the itch. It's weird. I was at the Rumble, obviously I went to Australia, I was at Elimination Chamber. I have to leave. I might hang for one match or two, but then I have to go. It's hard for me to watch because I still want to be out there so much. Most of the time, I'm good, I love doing the 1deadMAN show, it's a lot of fun, but nothing will ever replace getting in the ring and doing that. Things are different too. ‘I would do that so much differently than how they're doing it,' then I get caught up in that. I'm like, ‘You're going to sound like that crusty old timer,' because I'm all about storytelling.”
While it's not totally unprecedented to see a 58-year-old work a match in professional wrestling, as Sting didn't retire until he was 64, and Ricky Morton is still going strong at 67 in 2024, after having his own perfect exit from the game, dubbed the best cinematic match by many fans at the time, a half-decade ago in 2020, it's hard to imagine Taker making a proper return to the sport that isn't just hitting a chokeslam in a semi-surprise return to NXT last year.
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