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Sting Reveals What The Undertaker Dream Feud May Have Looked Like & Whether He Blames Seth Rollins For His Career Ending Injury

Sting Reveals What The Undertaker Dream Feud May Have Looked Like & Whether He Blames Seth Rollins For His Career Ending Injury
(Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)

Bill Apter and Josh Shernoff hosted another edition of The Apter Chat and this time their legendary guest was WWE Hall of Famer Sting, who concluded a two part interview with the duo. Sting opened up on a myriad of wrestling related topics including his relationship with Hulk Hogan, his dream match with The Undertaker, and his career ending injury.

On His Relationship with Hulk Hogan:

Everything’s great between Hogan and me. We go all the way back to the very beginning even before I started wrestling. He’d come in to the Gold’s Gym that I co-owned. People’d freak out. It was in California. At the time we were in Reseda on Sherman Way, right in the San Fernando Valley. I grew up in the Santa Clarita Valley which is just 20 minutes north of the San Fernando Valley depending on which area you go to; but, in Santa Clarita we didn’t have pro wrestling on TV, so I didn’t even know what it was and the people in the gym would be freaking out and I’d say, ‘Who is it?’ They’d go, ‘Hulk Hogan.’ I had heard the name Hulk Hogan; but, I didn’t know who Hulk Hogan was. ‘Pro wrestler.’ This and that. ‘He was in the Rocky movie.’ ‘Oh that’s the guy from the Rocky movie? Oh wow!’ That’ the only way I knew him, you know? So we go all the way back then. Then I go through the whole wrestling camp thing. I’m approached by somebody and I end up in pro wrestling, rubbing shoulders with Hulk Hogan and all the rest of them. It was a small small world. I dubbed myself from Venice Beach as well and I felt like I could do that because one of the owners of my Gold’s Gym in the Valley was Ed Connors, who was the treasurer of the Mecca, the main Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach and I’d work the counter in there. I’d be working for the Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach. You know, Sylvester Stallone, [Arnold] Schwarzenegger, all the best bodybuilders in the world. All the freaks everywhere. Especially in those days, they were in there and I would come and run my club in Reseda and Ed was my partner and Hulk would come and the rest was history. Yeah, crazy and wrestling with him and being in story lines with him all those years later and we got close enough at one point where he had me do his TV series Thunder in Paradise. He had such incredible ratings; but, they didn’t pick it up for a second season. No one could understand why. It was only for one season. I did 4 episodes and the last two, it was a sequel. Then they were offering me, they wanted me to be a regular on the show. It was fun though. See, I never forgot that. I never forgot that Hulk invited me. He didn’t have to do that. I know he saw something that could help his show possibly to get all the help he could get, ya know I didn’t have great acting abilities; but, I was just starting to take acting classes and I never forgot that and I was always thankful for it. Then we he came to WCW everyone said, ‘Oh man, that’s kind of uncool. You were the franchise and now Hulk is here. You’ve got to step aside for Hulk.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Everybody was saying this, ‘Are you offended by that?’ I said, ‘I’m not offended at all. I’m so glad that Hulk Hogan is here because he’s gonna add something to this company. Plus I don’t have to do all the meet and greets and travel all over the place and do all the promoting for all the tours in Europe and everywhere else. Hulk is going to be doing a lot of that now. He’s gonna help our buy rates. He’s gonna help our ratings. Everything is gonna go up. Paychecks.’ I was glad to have him. I was really glad to be involved with him in the story lines with The Crow and all that. I thought it was awesome.

On A Dream Match With The Undertaker:

It’s a dream match for sure with wrestling fans all over the world and it was a dream match for me too. I never heard Undertaker reciprocate that once, so I’m not sure how he feels about it exactly. I always wanted to have one match with him and by the time I got my foot in the door with WWE and did my first WrestleMania I still had hopes that somehow or another I could end up doing – and I wanted it to be my very last match against Undertaker, to go out like that. I think probably there was potential for it to happen and then I got hurt.

Sting Offers A Sneak Peak On What The Undertaker Feud May Have Looked Like:

I had so many idea that developed over a couple of decades based on his character and my character and some of the ideas I had in my head, someday somebody’s gonna do cool stuff like that with characters that are similar and it all has to do with slight of hand and special effects and holograms and oh man, I had some ideas that would have rocked everybody. It would have matched his character and mine. I believe it would have left people with their jaws open and they would have been very entertained. Let’s just say disappearing acts. You remember years ago with the whole Sting thing with all the portals in the arenas? You’d see Sting come out of the portal over there on the north side of the arena. No, there he is on the east. No there’s another one. There were a whole bunch of Stings, you know? This kind of stuff; but, possibly with the real Sting at one point where it’s most definitely me. Let’s just say disappearing acts. That’s all I want to say.

On Whether He Blames Seth Rollins For His Career Ending Injury:

It was just a freak accident. I’m telling you, Seth, it is not his fault. I mean not even the slightest percentage of anything. It was without question, it was me. To this day I can not figure out what the heck I was thinking. My neck I whip lashed back really bad two times in a row. The first one caused the shock to go all the way down both arms, left and right, all the way down to my fingertips. It felt like my fingertips were stung by bees. The second one, I mean, I got up to my feet and we were trying to continue the match and my legs started to feel like rubber bands and I realized I don’t have control over my legs. I’m afraid that if I start running the ropes right now, I’m gonna blow my knee out, break a bone, tear everything up ’cause I didn’t have any control, so I went down to all fours. I tried to figure out what the heck is going on; but, it wasn’t his fault. He did nothing. Period, just end of story. No fault whatsoever. What do I have to say about Seth? He dressed up like me for Halloween. I’m flattered. I have bragging rights. This was my last match against one of the greatest, really. He’s gonna go down as one of the greatest wrestlers. He is extremely talented in the ring and very easy. He’s just a pleasure to work with in every way and so accommodating, so respectful. He just wanted to make it right and so did I. To say that I had my last match with WWE for the World Title against Seth Rollins, I’m bragging. This is good. I’m glad I can say that I went out like that.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Sting also revealed what advice he gives to younger wrestlers, as well as his favorite persona, and favorite all-time opponent.

Readers interested in listening to The Apter Chat in its entirety may do so below:

 

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