Sting's Retirement and The Dream Match That Never Happened

Sting is perhaps heading back to the rafters.

After a 30-year career that saw him win 14 world championships and compete for the NWA, WCW, TNA, and finally WWE, Sting is reportedly calling it a day. The Icon is heading to the WWE Hall of Fame and if the retirement rumors are true, it would be the ultimate way to bring his story to a close.

But the Undertaker match never happened and that is just unacceptable.

It's an old subject, a tired story, that just won't die. The desire to see these two mix it up has existed for years, dating all the way back to The Monday Night Wars. Fans were debating the topic then, hoping against hope that somehow it would happen.

Fans wanted Taker and Sting to somehow end up in the same company at the same time, and it just seemed like an impossible proposition.

Even when WCW folded, the likelihood of it happeneing disappeared quickly. When word got out that Sting was unhappy at the way Booker T had been treated in WWE, it practically ended the conversation for good.

Then TNA happened and suddenly, Sting was once again the face of a wrestling company. Undertaker was light years away from him.

But when the impossible became possible and Sting signed with Vince McMahon, everything changed. The Icon was finally in WWE and now the dream match to end all dream matches would happen. How could it not? How could it not happen, when both guys were finally in the same locker room at the same time?

The key here is money. The match would have to happen when the most money could be made, not only for both of them, but also for the company. A massive payday was needed, and deserved. Each guy had worked a lifetime for an historic match such as this, and it needed to be on a stage that would earn the most for everyone involved.

That stage was WrestleMania 31.

But instead, Sting worked Triple H and lost, while Undertaker worked Bray Wyatt and won. Neither match felt legendary, and neither match had any long lasting ramifications for WWE. The company wanted fans to believe Sting versus Triple H was a monumental occasion but it felt forced. Wyatt was presented as Taker's equal but in the end he went down like any other challenger.

Photos of Sting and Taker backstage at Mania surfaced online, adding more fuel to the already raging fire.

Why was the match not booked? What could possibly have been the reason? Every analyst from Jim Ross to the dirtsheet writers had their own theories, and most of them involved the question of who should go over.

How could WWE hand Undertaker his second consecutive loss at WrestleMania, especially at the hands of WCW's former top guy? How could Sting accept his first loss in a WWE ring, when he very clearly deserved to have an epic WrestleMania moment?

How could anyone even care about any of that?

Looking back on it, the issue of who should go over shouldn't have been an issue at all, and if anyone in WWE was worried, they shouldn't have been. This was a dream match that needed to happen and it could have.

It should have. But now it may all be over.

Rumors are rumors and a lot of them have been proven untrue in the past. Nothing has been verified as of this writing, but considering the injury Sting suffered against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions in 2015, his potential retirement is not that surprising.

But it is disappointing, on so many levels.

The fact is that Sting gave everything he had to the business. He made money, he was a locker room leader and he leaves behind a legacy that no one will ever be able to match. If he is truly done in the ring, then his contributions will certainly be celebrated and his career will be remembered for years to come.

But the match that never happened will always be remembered as well.