Steven Borden, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Sting, has addressed the possibility of eventually incorporating his father’s iconic face paint into his AEW presentation, explaining why he believes establishing his own identity is more important at this stage of his wrestling career.
Borden has been teaming with Darby Allin since beginning his run with AEW, continuing a connection that previously saw Allin form a successful partnership with Sting before the wrestling legend retired from in-ring competition.
During a recent interview with Trent Osborne of 1010XL, Borden was asked whether fans could eventually see him embrace elements of his father’s famous appearance, including the face paint that became synonymous with Sting throughout his career.
Allin jokingly interrupted with a compliment for his tag team partner, suggesting that Borden doesn’t need the additional presentation. “Look how sexy he is. He doesn’t need it.”
Borden explained that while he remains open to paying tribute to his father in the future, he believes immediately adopting Sting’s signature look could have created unrealistic expectations and potentially resulted in a negative reaction from fans. “Yeah. The last thing I want to do is be playing the greatest hits. I think you can do callbacks when it makes sense at the right time. But I think if I were to have come out with face paint and a trench coat and a bat, I probably could have been booed out of the building in the beginning, and I’m still in the beginning right now. So kind of taking it week by week.”
Rather than relying on his father’s established image, Borden appears focused on developing his own presence in AEW while leaving the possibility of future tributes open when the timing feels appropriate.
Elsewhere in the interview, Allin discussed the importance of maintaining his individuality in professional wrestling, revealing that he made a personal commitment when he first entered wrestling school in 2014 to never compromise his identity simply to achieve success. “It’s really interesting because I feel the most important thing to me in wrestling in general was leaving the same person I came in, and there’s a million routes you could take to make it to the top of this wrestling game, and a lot of that involves compromising your beliefs and how you perceive yourself, and it’s really intimidating to stay true to yourself.”
Allin explained that his commitment to authenticity was so important that he would rather have struggled financially than become someone he no longer recognised in pursuit of wrestling success. “So that’s kind of the first thing I told myself the first day of wrestling school ever back in 2014. I was like, I have to stay true to who I am and I’m not going to change for anybody to make it to the top. I’d rather be homeless under the bridge like I was a few years ago, but stay true to myself as opposed to change everything about myself and I’m looking at myself in the mirror and I don’t even know who I’m looking back at.”
The AEW star went on to explain that reaching the top of the promotion without abandoning those principles has been particularly meaningful. He hopes his journey can encourage younger wrestlers to embrace their individuality rather than feel pressured to change themselves to advance their careers. “That’s the biggest scary thing in wrestling for me is, it’s just a 15 minute ride. So to kind of climb to the top of AEW without changing anything has been the greatest feeling in the world, I know that’s my biggest goal, because people ask like what’s your, what’s your goals in wrestling? I just want to inspire the next generation be like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to change who you are,’ because if you bring the real thing and what’s in this soul, like what’s in here to the world, it shows, and like that’s but wouldn’t it be crazy to get to the top of a profession when you don’t even believe in what you’re doing, just because you’re told what to do if I’m at the top, but that’d be the craziest feeling.”
Allin concluded by emphasising that his ambitions extend beyond championships and personal accomplishments. Instead, he wants to inspire future generations of wrestlers to appreciate their opportunities and approach every performance with the same commitment. “But then I’m like, I don’t even know what I stand for. So yeah, it’s incredible. So that’s my whole goal with AEW is just inspire the next generation of wrestlers just to bring it every single night. There’s never an off night because it is a blessing what we have in front of us.”
For Borden, that emphasis on individuality aligns with his own approach to following in Sting’s footsteps. While he hasn’t ruled out eventually embracing elements of his father’s legendary presentation, his immediate priority remains establishing himself as a performer rather than recreating one of professional wrestling’s most recognisable characters.
