What does it all mean?

So the big surprise of the Winter is Coming themed episode of AEW Dynamite was the return to TNT wrestling television of none other than Sting.  In what was a rare surprise nowadays (the TV appearance itself, not him coming to AEW) Sting showing up popped a lot of people and took over the twitter timeline this Wednesday. Sting stood face to face with Darby Allin in what was a cool visual and elicited a Nitro-esque (in a good way) call from Tony Schiavone.  For a few moments it was 1997 all over again.  And even as someone who has been very critical of AEW since their inception I kept any hateration I may have had at bay and didn’t crap on the moment that a lot of my friends were enjoying.

But now that the moment has passed, it’s time to start asking questions and firing off takes.  After all Sting did not show up for a one shot, he’s going to be here for a while.  So just what am I thinking, and asking here?  Let’s see:

Is he gonna wrestle?

Sting signed what is being called a full time, multiyear deal to work for AEW.  That it’s being called that and he’s not being lumped in with the other legends there (Jake Roberts, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Taz) suggests to me that he is going to get in the ring again.  We know that he was bummed out with the way his last match, at WWE’s 2015 Night of Champions vs Seth Rollins, went.  (If you don’t know or remember he took a buckle bomb from Rollins and it shot his neck and back to hell, leaving him barely able to get through the match).  And we also know that he chose not to have surgery because in his words it would have rendered him unable to work again,  Now it seemed like a bit of a pipe dream, a long shot that he would be able to go again but ultimately harmless.  But it sure looks like him getting back in the ring is about to be a reality soon.

At 61 years old with a jacked up neck and back, isn’t this a really bad idea?  Well………you can talk me into being ok with it if he doesn’t take any bumps.  If he swings his bat, gets a hot tag, throws some punches, and hits a Scorpion Death Drop he’ll probably be alright.  But will he be able to resist the temptation to show he can still do full service wrestling work?  I hope so because if not (warning: AEW criticism incoming) he is in the wrong company to save him from himself.  Just look at Matt Hardy as I did a few months ago here.  I think there is a safe pathway for him to see some action but I until I see it followed I remain skeptical that the great enabler Tony Khan is going to hold him to it.

What’s it mean for everyone else?

Sting is starting off in some kind of deal with Darby Allin; probably a mentor/partner to start with, but who knows?  And Cody Rhodes looks to be involved as well.  Now the sales pitch to skeptics about this kind of thing is that the old guy will give some kind of rub to whatever youngster he’s working with, and when it’s all said and done the younger guy will benefit from the association.  The track record on that is spotty at best.  The optimal scenario is something like Evolution where HHH and Ric Flair gave the space for Randy Orton and Batista to grow into bigger roles.  But what happens too often is that the older guy gets himself over while the younger guy is just kinda there to do the physical work.  And to be honest that’s already been an issue in AEW with Taz and Roberts in particular regularly overshadowing their proteges.

And what of the rest of the roster?  Dynamite is only two hours long and here’s another guy who’s going to eat up time that could be used by someone else.  AEW already has a too many people, not enough time problem and throwing even five minutes a week to Sting only makes it worse.  And then there’s the issue of overshadowing the rest of the show.  My timeline was on fire for Sting’s return, then subsequently went cold for the main event of the show, a heavily advertised World Title match between champion Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega.  Omega has been getting a multiweek character reinvention as he’s teased a return to his Cleaner persona, the match got the full contract signing treatment last week and yet nobody on my timeline seemed to care until the finish.  Sting is very likely to pop a rating spike in his segment but God help whoever has to follow him, especially in the very next segment.

What’s it mean for Dynamite?

If it wasn’t clear before then it should be now what the strategy is here.  Khan is going all in (see what I did there?) on maxing out every potential ratings point every week.  Chris Jericho was the first piece a year ago, along with judiciously spreading out the members of the Elite across the show.  Bringing in name guys like Roberts and Taz is another piece, then bringing in more recently departed WWE guys like Matt Hardy, Miro, Brodie Lee and FTR.  And now there’s Sting.  The point is to carpet bomb the two hours with these guys to keep people from changing the channel to NXT or something else.  With no real ticket sales to speak of due to COVID and not expanding the pay per view schedule the play is to max out on television revenue.  Which to be fair is probably the right strategy in the short run.

But that doesn’t bold well for the women’s division or for any of the more developmental talent there.  Khan has said that he is meticulous about ratings down to the quarter hour and is going with who draws. That’s been used as justification for minimizing the women’s time on Wednesdays, and is going to affect a lot of the guys too in that anyone who shows they can’t keep up is likely out and relegated to AEW Dark.  Will there come a point where the proverbial torches get passed to guys like Allin, Private Party, etc?  That’s the million dollar (and maybe million viewer) question.  But if I had to guess guys Sting is not here to pass any torches no matter what he says.

Final thoughts (for now)

Good for Sting.  He wanted to be a regular, felt he had something to offer, and didn’t want to settle for a WWE Legends deal.  And secured himself what is probably a real nice sized bag to close out his active career.  Sting never was really a WWE guy so this really isn’t out of the ordinary for him.  I hope he’s smart enough to not take any unnecessary chances.  And I hope that we’re all realistic with our expectations of him.  As for AEW, well…….this should put the nail in the coffin about them revolutionizing the business.  That just is not happening here.  Now who knows maybe they thought about that at first but they’ve decided their best path to success is to get well known people on their show and ride the wave of people who are fatigued or disgusted with the WWE and are more than happy to see someone else do it, even if they are largely doing a lot of the same things.  It is what it is and the game is the game.  Now we just got to see how well it works.