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For those of you wondering if Sting will appear on Monday Night Raw tonight, I am told the plan was for him to only appear on the PPV this week. We have heard from one reader who said he saw Sting at the airport in St. Louis this AM as the reader was heading for his own flight back to California, so it does not appear WWE made a last second change to plans. It is possible they pre-taped a segment, but if they have, we haven't heard about it as of this writing.
Obviously everyone is asking if Sting is going to wrestle Triple H. As I noted in the Elite section over the weekend, the expectation is that Sting will wrestle Undertaker at Wrestlemania 31 (and on Friday, when I first heard Sting would be at Survivor Series, I was told this was all part of a plan for that match at Mania), but there is also that little show called The Royal Rumble coming up in January in Philadelphia, so we shall see. From a timing standpoint, that would make the most sense and would give fans unfamiliar with Sting a chance to see him in the ring before he potentially faces off with Undertaker. After last night's moment, WWE would be crazy to pass up Sting vs. Hunter in my opinion.
As I wrote yesterday in the Elite section, WWE flew Sting to Kansas City Sunday AM to avoid fans seeing him and then kept him under wraps for as long as possible backstage. At one point, there were plans for him to simply do a cameo earlier in the PPV after his Titantron video played but the creative changed and he was used in the main event. One person I spoke to believed they switched him with Randy Orton for the main to "mess with the Internet" since there was so much talk about Sting the last 48 hours.
I am told the decision to bring in Sting wasn't made until this past Thursday.
Sting was brought in last night for several reasons. One, the company wanted a big surprise to show "anything can happen" on the WWE Network as a way to entice fans to remain subscribers if they were using the free month. Two, now that the next-generation console version of WWE 2K15 were out, it was smart synergy to have Sting at the show to help promote the game, since a big part of it's marketing is built around Sting. Three, all sides knew that with Sting hitting the 30th anniversary of his career (and being 55), it was now or never if they were going to ever do anything. This is going to be Sting's last run, so if you are a fan of his, enjoy it, because this will be it.
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