During an interview with BleacherReport.com, AEW President Tony Khan said the following about Sting’s retirement…

“The greatest thing we’ve ever done in AEW, in my opinion, is the retirement of Sting and the way we handled Sting’s final years as a pro wrestler. He had one of the greatest careers ever in wrestling and when he arrived in AEW, he did not feel that his prior run had been what he was looking for. When he had previously competed in WWE, I don’t think he had a great experience with WWE. He was looking to do something very different. When I first talked to Sting, he was interested in having a comeback, but I don’t think Steve [Borden] ever imagined it would lead to a three-year run in wrestling that would become legendary.

“It is an immortal series of matches. Sting was undefeated in his arrival, teaming with Darby Allin in every match. The two of them came together to be the most successful team in the history of AEW. They had some of our best matches ever, some of our biggest moments, and it built to them becoming the AEW world tag team champions. Sting’s final match, Sting and Darby vs. The Young Bucks at AEW Revolution, was, in my opinion, the greatest sendoff ever in pro wrestling. And Sting deserves that because he’s one of the greatest wrestlers ever, and we were very lucky to have him in AEW.”