Original subtitles

Oh, my!

Sting! Sting!

Sting is here!

Deep from the top!

He was the flag bearer for WCW, and so for him to come and have that kind of

iconic moment on the grandest stage of them all, it probably gets overused, but

it's the truth, man. It's the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. So it was

awesome, and he knew it, too.

I think the people got a little taste of everything.

They got to see that NWO DX.

swear off that, you know, the match that never happened.

The new world owner, Nash Hogan and Hall.

I got goosebumps.

Go back and tell 15 -year -old me, you're going to go and wrestle, dang it,

WrestleMania in front of 80 ,000 people.

But before you do that, you're going to come up on a riser dressed like the

Terminator with all these Terminator robots around you on this platform.

It's hard to even put into words, just sitting underneath there waiting for

that, knowing all this stuff, and I could hear Arnold's voice.

The whole thing was just surreal.

It's the one thing that I felt like he'd done everything. Gosh dang, you've got

to check that one off the list. For everything that he's done and

man, it's just so fitting to be able to button it up with that kind of finale.

And then just to hear the crowd and the response that they gave, it was, I mean.

Words can't really describe it. What a great moment. I believe it was something

that fans really, really wanted to see. It was like a dream come true.

I knew Sting from when I was in WCW, but at the time, Sting was a top guy,

and then I left, so I really didn't have interaction with him other than if I

said hello, he'd say hello. We really...

Didn't know each other at all, to be honest.

You

reach

a certain level in the wrestling industry and to not look back and say

did anything with WWE.

No WrestleMania.

I just felt like I had something more that I wanted to do, and it was a text

that I sent out to both Vince and to Paul.

You know, Vince responded immediately and said, no, we definitely want to talk

to you.

At a certain point in time, I knew that Sting was interested in it, and at a

certain point in time, I knew that Vince was interested in it.

So then it was just a matter of me speaking to him, Sting, and try to see

could put something together, and that was really easy, to be honest.

It was definitely a good teaser for me. It let me know that fans were still

interested and wanted to see something happen.

And, of course, you know, that put a big fire under my butt to, you know, really

make this thing be as good as it possibly could.

You know, look, the intent on our part was to have him do the video game. It

very meaningful. Have him be here in some sort of way. But given his age, how

long he's been out of the ring, does he want to be in ring? Does he want to not

be in ring? Does he want to do something else altogether?

I think that everybody realized that I was serious about coming up here and

didn't want it to be just like a throw something in at the very end just to say

that you did it. No, I really wanted to do it because I wanted to just have one

last hurrah with the group that I never went and worked with.

I wanted wrestling fans to walk away saying, man, he brought the best he had.

So I went all out.

With the creative and everything else, that kind of morphed over time. He had a

particular...

of folks that he would like to do something with.

Obviously, Taker being at the top of that list but was unavailable.

Yeah, I've been outspoken about that. I always wanted to have that match with

him, and I had so many creative ideas where we could have told a story.

And I'm sorry, this is one time when I think smoke and mirrors would have been

good thing. I always wanted to do it, and that's the one thing. If I did have

regret, it would be that.

I wish I could have had that match with Taker because I think that would have

been a memory for sure that no one would ever forget.

Sting and Taker, like, look, we talked about that at great lengths. Like, is it

that when Taker had creative already, Hunter had some creative going forward

that this Sting thing made sense for, so it was all, you know, the chips fell

where they were.

I do think it's better just to leave that dream match in our dreams.

And then the next one he threw out, I think, was me. So it just, you know, at

that point was me going back to Vince and saying, do we want to make this

happen? And Vince was all for it and we were able to make a deal. Part of the

impetus of the way things turned out with the Sting thing is because I was

already booked to work with The Rock at the following year's WrestleMania.

And we'll build it for more than a year. That was the intent, belief, everything

else. Just as time went on.

Rock's schedule changed much later in the year, and we weren't able to do the

match for the following year's WrestleMania 101 against The Rock.

Everybody always wanted Sting to come and compete in a WWE ring, and who was

going to compete against?

He, to me, felt like the stalwart for WCW.

Hunter kind of felt like that guy for WWE.

So it felt like only right for those two to go head -to -head.

For me, I'm doing WrestleMania.

They haven't turned the page on me.

He said, what about, you know, working with me? And I went, are you kidding?

Heck, yeah. I mean, I'm all over that.

It was a great experience walking through the curtain. You know, Vince

normally, who would not actually be the one to send me through, you know, from

the gorilla position through the curtain, he stood up and removed his

and said, no, I'm going to send Sting.

That was pretty cool to me, too. And so he sent me through the curtain. And then

just to hear the crowd.

And the response that they gave, it was, I mean, words can't really describe it.

I kind of worked behind the scenes, so I had some say in how that got set up.

Dolph was the last survivor, and he came in and saved it by beating up Hunter.

Like, it was, holy crap, it couldn't have been laid out any better. It

have been written any better than it was. It was a part of that perfect

I can't remember how long that Ed Benson's thing had been in the ring at

point, but it had been a significant period of time from doing anything on a

major level. I think if he ever had a doubt of, like, this might be too big,

didn't really show because he's a pro.

So while it might not have showed, he might not have let on, it was there.

I'll be honest with you. I mean, it was pretty stressful for me. I wanted to be

able to hang. I wanted to be able to...

You know, go the distance. And I wanted wrestling fans.

I wanted Vince McMahon.

I wanted everybody to say that, you know, not only did he come with

he had, but he pulled it off instead of, oh, man, it was hard watching him, you

know.

He was very nervous about it all. He was and didn't mind telling us about it.

And it just let me know, like, even though he's been wrestling all this

even Sting was in awe of WrestleMania.

And so I remember telling him, like, look, if you fall down and you can't get

up, just push that button on the necklace on your neck, you know. And he

like, oh, F you, dog.

He really got out about that. So literally that was one thing I kept

is, Sting, remember the button on the necklace. Like I just kept going back to

it all through the weekend.

No other pay -per -view or no other event that I was ever personally

with was anything like that.

I mean, the biggest thing that I ever did was WCW couldn't, it doesn't scratch

the surface to WrestleMania. There's just no question.

And for me, just wanting it to be good for him.

This might be the only time he does anything, period, in the WWE.

As much as people will say, well, he didn't need WWE to be a big star.

He didn't, but WrestleMania is WrestleMania.

So it was a lot of pressure and anxiety around wanting it to be right for him

and to be.

All that it could be.

So the first time I heard about having any involvement in the match, I think I

was on my way to do my speech for the whole thing. I ran into Triple H. Paul

asked me, he said, you know, can you go to Levi tonight?

I said, what's Levi?

He said, it's World Mania. It's the field. We want to have some.

For all of us, the clique, so to speak, this is also like our first time of

getting to be in the same area, you know, as DX and NWO.

So we're all just giddy and having fun.

I just want to be in the ring with you guys all tomorrow.

I don't have my knee brace.

I'm going to do something physical tomorrow.

I don't have my knee brace.

Like, oh, gosh.

I remember leaving immediately after the Hall of Fame and going over to Levi's

Stadium and us all kind of getting together, and immediately we sensed this

going to be magic, even if the match sucks. Like, that doesn't matter. You

what I mean? We knew we had magic in a bottle just with the talent, and I use

that word loosely when I talk about myself, but we had that talent around

ring, and we just thought, man, this is going to be cool.

It will be a night forever etched in history.

A night heroes are created, careers are defined, and legends will be born.

Welcome to WrestleMania!

I always talk about one of the things that Stephanie McMahon said to me before

walked through the curtain at Levi's Stadium.

She goes, Sting, just take it all in.

And believe me, I was taking it all in.

He is here!

To walk through on that level, which was a new level for me. It was enormous.

This is not just a wrestling crowd.

This is a WWE crowd.

And they don't care where I came from, whether I was with WCW or TNA or whoever

I was with. It can be so overwhelming that if I'm not careful, getting too

up. And so take a big deep breath.

Let's try to get this match under your belt.

So it was a funny moment under the stage where I had not seen Sting's rehearsal

with the smoke.

And we're all under the stage. Black smoke starts to pour in from everywhere.

People are freaking out. And we don't know what's going on. I don't know if

underneath the stage is on fire.

Funny in retrospect, but in the moment, it wasn't really necessarily so funny.

I remember they had, like, a bunch of drummers and stuff, some, like, Asian

corps thing, right?

Okay, cool, cool.

You know, he's got some guys beat on drums, and here comes the Terminator,

know, walking out with Triple H. Yeah, it's pretty tough to outdo his energy.

He's always going to edge out in that department. Yeah, yeah.

I hear he's got connections.

Yeah, rumor has it.

And for the first time ever at WrestleMania, the match we never ever

we'd see, Triple H and Sting one -on -one.

There was a moment early in the match where his leg got caught.

And I was like, oh my God, we're like a minute in and he just blew out his ACL

or something like that. But then he was okay.

I remember thinking in my head as we started to get into it and things were

that... Okay, now we're about to get to this stuff where they don't know any of

the involvement of the people that are about to come out.

DX ran down. We

looked at each other going, and it was a long entranceway. We go, we're walking,

right? And, you know, they go, go. So we go through the curtain.

And then, oh, there's another long hallway, then another curtain. Because

the pop reaction from the music, and we step out like, oh.

We were down there at ringside, and when that NWO music hit, if you remember

that, this is the part where you B -roll this part in.

Oh, God!

No!

All of a sudden, their music hits, and here they come walking down that ramp.

And for one thing, the ramp was like 500 yards long, and they looked like ants

when they came out, and it took them like 45 minutes to get down there.

But once they got down there, man, it did feel like there was a closing of the

armies. You know what I mean?

I told, kid, you go to Hulk.

I said, Kev, you and Billy go beat each other up. I said, I'm going to Road

Dogg.

I mean, Billy got me, you know, came at me at 100 miles an hour.

So I looked over. Me and Scott Hall are like, we may as well be dancing over

there. We may as well be doing ballroom dancing.

And I look over and Kevin's on the ground just like holding his knee in

And I'm thinking, man, I'm glad I'm not fighting with Billy tonight.

I didn't get to be up there during all that. I'm in this other part of the

stadium where I'm going to come run it out. I'll say this. One thing I know for

sure is that I rolled out of the ring and started talking to Ronda Rousey

because she was ringside.

Oh, it was just awesome.

There's a certain point in time in your career where things stop being about

getting to the next level and moving up, and now it just goes. It's about going

out there and having a good time.

performing, and there's a lot of pressure on it and all that, but

doing it and to be able to go out there and do it with your buddies and your

friends and these icons of the business.

It's funny, I can distinctly remember lying on the canvas watching the guys on

the outside going at it, and I felt like a little kid, like a little fan,

watching this moment, but seeing their faces, the...

excitement, joy, the amazement of where they were in that moment, and for all of

us to be out there kind of sharing that and doing that together, it was just

really cool.

This is a moment that wrestling fans are never going to forget, and I'm part of

it.

It's unbelievable to think that you're a major ingredient in this whole thing.

It's a 20 -year story, basically.

It's all kind of coming to a crescendo.

And that's closure in itself.

Here is your winner,

Triple H!

You know, there are people that will say, well, I should have put him over to

give him the moment. And that's arguably to say that you should have. The Rock

situation made that impossible, which didn't happen.

But that's the truth of it. Like, are there things that could have been done

differently? Yeah, I don't know that it took away from anything.

Yes, I've had wrestling fans constantly talk about that. You know, he didn't let

you win, you know, blah, you know, and all this kind of stuff. And I go, what

you guys remember about that night?

They start talking about seeing everybody out there, the NWO, DX.

Isn't it funny that you guys don't talk about who wins or loses?

You just, it's a memory, right? It's a memory. It's a great memory.

I remember sitting when we finally were going over the finish, and, you know,

Chip Blake was laying it out, and then he goes, then I'm going to hit him with

the pledge hammer, one, two, three. And it still worked out great.

But I admit I was surprised.

The end of the match was going to go differently, but there was creative

forward. So it went one way for one reason, and then that creative that was

going forward never happened. So it was, in retrospect, we probably wish we

would have done things a little differently. But, again, iconic match.

Fans thought they'd never see that. I thought I'd never see that.

And there I was standing in the middle of the ring being a part of it. It was

really cool.

Whoa, there's a WrestleMania moment.

We may have never thought we were going to see it. I'm certainly glad we did.

I think for wrestling fans, especially if we're not going to take it any

farther, and we were not going to, that was a one -off. There's a shaking of

hands, there's an embrace, and it's almost like a mutual respect kind of a

thing, and I think it ended perfect like that.

There's a point in time, though, I think, in those moments where fans are

willing to accept that the show is now over and everybody's just coming out and

taking a bow together.

That is a real moment in there, and that's...

It's really cool when you can be involved in a sports entertainment

that's real life oriented and everybody's in on it. You know what I

that's that kind of moment where it's like, heck yeah, man, it's a good day to

be a fan.

Fans, they got to be inside. They got to be in the moment backstage when we

would have normally walked back through the curtain and gave each other a big

hug. They get to sit and watch us do that part. And in the right

in the right moment, I think that is huge and meaningful.

because we let them be a part of what was real, Don.

I do have those moments where I think, you know, every time I hear Flair, for

example, telling a story, I told Vince 20 years ago, 25 years ago,

he's the guy. If Sting would have ever gone up to WWE way back when, oh, my

gosh, and then the stories they tell.

Sometimes I think, why didn't I do that?

And then on another day, I'm having a conversation with people about

WrestleMania and the good moment that we had with all the characters. and I

think, wow, I think it ended just the way it should have ended.

I was happy because, I mean, he probably got a chance to get that recognition to

be a WWE superstar.

What the hell?

Oh, my God, it's Sting!

It was really cool personally for me to get to reunite with him and then to have

fun with him, too, even if it was poking at him a little bit. Like, he poked at

me, too, believe you me, but we had a good time.

And then we put out a good product. And so, man, it's good friends and good

times and good raffling.

I love it.

It meant closure in a way. I mean, I did it. I'm here.

Came in here late, had a crazy cool moment, just relit that everything about

Sting was.

It just was all really cool.

was done in a great way. Was it perfect? Was it all the things that, if you

could have written it fantasy -wise, maybe not, but it was probably as close

it as you could expect to get.

Every appearance that I've ever done since then, you know, wrestling fans,

they talk about that, they just, they cannot believe what they saw that day.

I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I think it's going to have to go down in

history as one of the greatest moments in WrestleMania history.