Backstage Report On What Sting Footage AEW Has Obtained

With a decorated career spanning nearly 40 years, Sting's upcoming retirement match at AEW Revolution is going to be a moment fans around the world will talk about for decades to come. However, said career has seen "The Icon" wrestle in WCW, WWE, TNA, and beyond, and there has been an attempt to gather as much footage as possible to showcase what a journey Sting has had.

That is no easy task considering different companies own different parts of his career, but according to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, AEW has done quite well in tracking down some of the more obscure moments in Sting's oeuvre. Meltzer says AEW has already obtained permission to use footage of Sting in NJPW thanks to their working relationship with the company, and can probably clear footage from his match in Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2023 during which he teamed up with The Great Muta. Meltzer also noted AEW would be able to get hold of footage from a match he had in AAA, but it would end at just the one match.

As far as the bigger moments of Sting's career, Meltzer noted that WWE owns all the footage from his time in WWE (obviously), WCW, and the NWA, which includes Sting's match against Ric Flair from the first Clash of the Champions that took place at the Greensboro Coliseum, the same venue as Revolution. Unsurprisingly, it's expected that WWE won't allow anything it owns to be used by AEW, but it's unclear at this time on whether TNA will lend a hand in letting AEW use footage of the run Sting had that stretched between 2003 and 2014. There is also footage available from All Japan Pro Wrestling and Sting's days in the Memphis territory, but Meltzer is unsure exactly who owns the latter.