On the latest edition of the Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross revealed that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wanted a match with Sting at WrestleMania 21 . According to the Hall of Fame-inducted commentator, by the way of 411Mania , WWE officials were interested in recruiting the World Championship Wrestling legend into the fold for the occasion, but it didn’t work out in the end.
According to Ross, the company only wanted to bring Sting in on a semi-regular basis in order to make him feel special. He also revealed that they tried to recruit the star from the moment WCW closed, but Sting chose to let his Time Warner contract run out instead.
“We knew [Sting would] be healthy, he’d be refreshed, and he’d have a full bank account. He should be a happy guy. And we only wanted him for a part-time role at best to maximize the investment, and to not overuse an asset that had more matches in him than he had left. So yeah, we were always talking about bringing him in. Why not? But Rock and Sting would have been cool as hell.”
Part of the reason for the match falling through was because The Rock ended up leaving the company in 2004 to focus on his Hollywood career. Judging by Ross’ words, a match with Sting could have inspired the superstar to extend his WWE tenure for another few months, as the never-before-seen bout appealed to the former World Champion.
According to Ross, The Rock also believed that he and Sting could have had a great match against each other. Even though Sting had been “dormant” for years at the time, “The Great One” was confident in being able to take on most of the workload.
Three years ago today, #TheIcon @Sting kicked off Monday Night #RAW for the first time EVER! pic.twitter.com/fYZs1JxFSi
— WWE (@WWE) March 23, 2018
While The Rock and Sting never got to have their dream match against each other, both superstars subsequently made appearances in WWE. At the time of this writing, Sting’s one and only WrestleMania appearance was against Triple H in 2015, and he lost in controversial fashion.
The Rock, meanwhile, returned for two matches against John Cena at the 2012 and 2013 WrestleMania pay-per-views, along with an impromptu squash match against Erik Rowan at the event in 2017.
The world of sports entertainment is unpredictable, but it’s unlikely that The Rock and Sting will ever face each other. As The Inquisitr previously reported, “The Great One” is officially retired from in-ring competition. Sting, on the other hand, is no longer able to compete after being forced to retire due to injuries.
