Sting health update – procedure scheduled, “catastrophe” avoided at NOC, more

Wrestling legend Sting made it sound like he and WWE avoided a catastrophe at the Night of Champions PPV based on the condition of his neck that was discovered after his WWE Title match against Seth Rollins in September.

Addressing his recovery from the neck injury on Ric Flair’s latest podcast, Sting said that he has been diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis and he will need a procedure in his neck.

“There are two areas in my neck where the spinal canal, which holds the spinal cord, is kind of choked off in two different locations. (I’m) lucky that a catastrophe did not happen that night. So, I’ve got to get it fixed.”

Sting he hopes he does not need neck fusion surgery, but he has been told that is one of the techniques that Dr. Maroon and his team in Pittsburgh will consider for the procedure.

Sting also recapped the scary situation after taking two Bucklebombs from Seth Rollins, which he called completely his (Sting’s) fault for not taking the bump properly.

“Both Bucklebombs, I have no idea what I did, but my neck whiplashed on both of them,” Sting said. “On the first one, I had a shock going down the left and right side going down to the fingertips. You can see me in the ring trying to shake my hands out and getting feeling back in my hands.

“On the second time, for whatever reason, I checked out and I did the same thing (not tucking his chin). This time, it affected my legs. My legs just – there was no strength. The power in my legs was going away and I felt like I didn’t have control. I didn’t. I had a temporary paralysis. For a few moments, I thought I couldn’t continue and I was done. But, I was like, ‘I can’t do this!’ Then, the crowd started chanting. Somehow, it came back and I was like, ‘I can do another minute or two and get out of this thing.'”

Sting, 56, also talked about the challenge of wrestling at his age, especially in the ring with an athlete like Seth Rollins.

“You put 20,000 people around you and just the ambience around can gas you. And, just the stress of it. Everything comes into play,” Sting said. “Nothing is the same as being in the ring, especially at your age and my age working with somebody like Seth, who is a tremendous athlete.”

Sting said the medical review by neurologists and decision to have an operation came down in the last few weeks, so he’s still in a bit of a fog processing the events from the past two-and-a-half months since Night of Champions.

However, his health condition is not affecting his ability to travel and do everyday life after going through the fall-out from Night of Champions, which included an overnight hospital stay.

“I was in pain that night – the spasms, whatever it was. It was intense, Ric. It stayed really tight down into my left trap and down the left side. It was just an aggravating dull ache. It was strong enough that night that they were pumping me full of pain medication to get the MRI,” Sting said.

“But, the funny thing is I feel normal. Aside from an occasional (pain) when I sleep or sit in a car too long or sitting down for too long or if I’m standing in one spot for too long. Gravity is just not my friend. Otherwise, I feel normal. I can stay in the gym and function absolutely normal.”

– Sting’s health update opened the podcast with Ric Flair. The two colleagues then discussed a lot of wrestling memories from NWA/WCW and now into WWE.