It’s well known that WWE had been trying to sign Sting ever since the fall of WCW. According to Jim Ross, in 2005, they tried to lure him in with a dream match vs The Rock.

When WCW fell in 2001 into the hands of WWE, many WCW stars decided to sit at home thanks to their guaranteed contracts still being valid.

As a result, WWE had to wait months, sometimes even years before they were able to sign some of WCW’s biggest stars.

The one WCW star that got away from them for years was Sting, but they did finally manage to sign him in 2014.

However, speaking on his recent Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross talked about a dream match that was proposed to Sting in order to try and get him to sign for WWE around 2005.

That dream match was a clash with The Rock.

Ross said, via NoDQ: "Look, we were trying to recruit Sting, Conrad, ever since WCW closed their doors. And then subsequently when he finally got all his money from Time-Warner that he was owed.

“We knew he’d 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.”

Ross continued: "And Rock — look, the thing about this, and I may have mentioned this before. It’s worth reiterating as far as bookers are concerned.

“Bookers find out that the top talents who are gonna draw the money and put an ass every 18 inches know exactly who they can and cannot work well with.

“Meaning that a great attraction like The Rock fighting another great attraction like Sting at the biggest event of the year like WrestleMania for the first time ever is money.

“Here’s the key though. Rock knew in his heart that he could get a match out of Sting, who had been dormant for quite a while, without any problem. Full confidence. And I believe that too. So anyhow, yeah it was a topic we talked about."

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has added to Ross’ comments, saying The Rock wanted to have dream matches against Sting, Macho Man Randy Savage, or Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania in the same year as well.

2005 was the year of WrestleMania 21, so it would have been an awesome sight to see The Rock take on Sting in Los Angeles.