Sting Returns To Wembley At AEW All In After Darby Allin Takes First Coffin Match Loss

The 2024 AEW All In pay-per-view was infused with a number of surprises, including the in-ring debuts of Ricochet and Nigel McGuinness, and the return of former AEW Women's Champion Jamie Hayter. The latter trend continued in the aftermath of Jack Perry vs. Darby Allin, in which Perry successfully defended the TNT Championship in what many consider to be Allin's signature stipulation — the Coffin Match.

The closing moments of the match saw Perry tape Allin's hands together before binding his feet with his own belt. With Allin's physical movements now limited, Perry seized the opportunity to stuff him inside a body bag and place him inside the ringside coffin. A resilient Allin kept the fight alive by poking his head through the top of the bag, but a running knee from Perry took him out of the fight for good. Perry then closed the coffin for the win, handing Allin his first-ever Coffin Match loss in the process.

In the aftermath, AEW EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson (The Young Bucks) emerged with a gas tank with the intent of setting the coffin containing Allin on fire. Sting, however, had other ideas. As The Bucks poured gasoline over Allin and the enveloping container, Perry flipped open a lighter, but before he could connect the flame to the gasoline, the Wembley Stadium lights flickered off and on, revealing Allin's former tag team partner equipped with a baseball bat. The Elite retreating to ring while Sting made his way towards it to the sounds of Metallica.

Desperate, Perry attempted to take down Sting with a chair, but instead found himself retreating further. With Perry on the outside, Sting then delivered a double Scorpion Death Drop to the Bucks and freed Allin from the coffin while the crowd at Wembley Stadium went wild.

All In 2024 marks Sting's first on-screen appearance since his retirement match at AEW Revolution in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he and Allin successfully defended the AEW Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks. Sting retired while holding the tag titles, which were subsequently vacated. The Bucks would end up winning them anyway (with Perry's help) and successfully defending them against FTR and The Acclaimed not long before Sting's return.

Sting's arrival was a surprise for the London audience, though it had been reported that he was on his way across the Atlantic and would attend the event. As of this writing, there is no word on whether he will have any additional roles in the company going forward. After failing to capture the TNT Championship, Allin will now prepare for an even bigger challenge, as he will be wrestling for the AEW World Championship at "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam." The prospect of that match has perhaps become more daunting for Allin now that the title held by "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, who seems to be mirroring Sting's final run in AEW by also winning championship gold as he prepares to wrap up his in-ring career.

Sting retired in March 2024, concluding a career that began 40 years earlier in 1985. He went undefeated over the course of his final run, winning 29 tag team matches with Allin (and sometimes others) by his side, with no draws and no losses. He was part of AEW's inaugural Wembley Stadium event last year as well, teaming with Allin to defeat Christian Cage (who won the Casino Gauntlet match for a future world title shot at All In 2024) and Swerve Strickland (who lost that same world title to Danielson in the main event) in a tag team Coffin Match at All In 2023.