Sting recently appeared on the AEW Unrestricted podcast on which he talked about joining AEW:

“Here recently I didn’t want it to end the way it ended [in WWE]. I was pushing to get a cinema style match with Taker. For probably a litany of different reasons it just wasn’t going to happen.”

“So, when Tony called and, you know and spoke with me, he said ‘are you interested in doing cinema style matches?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am [laughs] I am.’ So, I thought I’d like to come back and do that and not disappear again with my tail between my legs. I’d love to be able to go out and, I don’t want to go out on top, just to go out in a positive light, you know?’”

Sting also talked about his history with Tony Khan:

“Anyway, so I met Tony and long before AEW, long before anything ever happened. Then my son, my second oldest son, actually tried out with the Jaguars. He tried out with four different teams, the Jaguars being one of them. So, there’s some history with Tony.”

“He called me again about maybe a year ago or so. He didn’t call me. He sent a text. I was still with WWE so I had to be careful how I handled that kind of stuff, so I just kept it superficial. That was that.”

“Then maybe two months or so ago, somewhere around there I reached out and I said, ‘Hey are you still willing to talk?’ He said, ‘yeah,’ and here we are.”

Thanks to Ringside News for the transcription.