Sting’s son, Steven Borden, who now teams with Darby Allin in AEW, addressed the possibility of someday wearing the face paint his father was known for.
Since his pro wrestling debut in October 2025 at the 52W Hardway show in New York, Borden has never wrestled in the face paint. He has competed under his real name and in just black pants.
In a recent interview with Trent Osborne of 1010XL radio in Jacksonville, Allin was the first to address the subject. He said any change has to come from Borden himself and can’t just be a repeat of what Sting did in the past.
“Look at how sexy he is, he doesn’t need face paint…,” Allin said. “Big thing about that is it’s gotta come from him. He’s gotta feel it otherwise it’s just like playing his dad’s greatest hits. Everybody will see right through that. So whatever he decides to do, it comes from here (points to heart) and it’s like pure to him, then incredible. But you can’t just take the easy way out and go, ‘Alright Steven, you’re gonna rock the bat, you’re gonna have the face paint, you’re gonna come down from the ceiling.’ No, we’re not doing that. We want him to write his own chapter, his own book with this world of wrestling.”
But Borden left the door open for some references to his father at the right time, though he admitted he could have been booed if he had debuted in full Sting gear.
“Last thing I want to do is be playing the greatest hits,” Borden said. “I think you can do callbacks when it makes sense at the right time. But I think if I would 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. Kind of taking it week by week.”
Borden wore his father’s face paint once before, when he appeared as Wolfpac Sting in Sting’s retirement match alongside Allin against The Young Bucks at AEW Revolution 2024. He later revealed he was originally supposed to come out as Crow Sting, but Allin suggested a change.
Sting himself retired his face paint in December 2025 at WrestleVerse Fest in Pittsburgh. The show was the final stop of his “2025 or Never” tour, his last run of convention appearances in character.
Borden came back on October 21 after the scary moment at AEW All Out, when he collided with Kevin Knight in midair and was stretchered out. He will team with Allin, Will Ospreay, Adam Copeland and The Young Bucks in tonight’s Blood & Guts match against the Don Callis Family (Kazuchika Okada, Kyle Fletcher, Kevin Knight, Wardlow, Mark Davis and Jake Doyle).