Rob Van Dam on Sting Announcing His Retirement Plan, Recalls Sting Previously Thinking He Was Retired in TNA

– During a recent edition of his 1 Of A Kind podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam spoke on fellow Hall of Famer Sting announcing his plan to retire next year with his last match taking place at AEW Revolution 2024. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

RVD on when Sting was inducted into the TNA/Impact Hall of Fame: “The way that I remember, when we did the first Hall of Fame for TNA/Impact inducted Sting, he gave his speech, and he told everybody that he thought he was done, he was retired already. And Dixie Carter’s husband called, ‘Hey man, we’ve got this thing. We really need you.’ And he was like ‘No, I’m done.’ ‘Hey, it’s just PPV. Once a month or something, once a week,’ or whatever they had. ‘I think I’m done.’ ‘But what about if we give you this much money?’ ‘Okay, I can do it for a little bit.'”

On how Sting thought he was retired at one point but ended up sticking around in TNA: “That’s what I remember from the speech that Sting gave when he got inducted into the Hall of Fame. That they kept saying ‘Well, just another six months or another twelve months. We’ll pay you this much.’ He’d say ‘Well, I guess I’ll keep going.’ That was back in 2009, or 2010 I guess. So that’s why I didn’t know if he already retired or not, but I know it’s been on his mind for a while.”

Sting will appear on tonight’s AEW Dynamite, as he’s set to receive a special gift from Tony Khan.