Jim Ross says Darby Allin is one of the most unique athletes in wrestling and that he does not want him going any further with the stunts, and that Sting’s son is going to be a player.
Both men were in the same match. Allin beat Kevin Knight for the TNT Championship in a Falls Count Anywhere match at All In: London, and Steven Borden appeared during it alongside his father. Sting ran in against Brian Cage and Jake Doyle, and he and his son set up a ladder and climbed opposite sides before Borden dived off onto both men.
Ross gave his reaction on Grilling JR, watching from home in Oklahoma after his doctors advised against flying.
On Allin, he started with what the work costs.
“Between point A and point B, there ain’t no Hollywood. It just takes balls and guts,” Ross said.
He said the size Allin gives up is the thing people use against him, and the thing he has always beaten.
“Darby Allin is one of the most unique athletes in the entire pro wrestling business. He’s 170 pounds, which will automatically get him on some wrestling fans’ shit list because he’s not a monster,” Ross said. “His heart is a monster. He has no fear, and he comes up with most of the stuff that he does.”
That last part is what Ross kept returning to. He said as a former booker and head of talent relations he cannot imagine being the one to ask a wrestler to do it.
“You wouldn’t go to a guy and say, hey look, we want you to jump off this trussing,” he said.
Ross said the motivation is not insecurity about his position on the card.
“He’s not doing it because he’s worried about losing his spot. He wanted to do it, add to the show, and give guys like you and me something to talk about, and he succeeded,” Ross said. “But I am not for him continuing to push the envelope. I would not want to have a conversation with him where he gives me a couple of ideas of what’s next. What’s the next stunt?”
He was more enthusiastic about a quieter change in Allin’s work, pointing out that he has started using submissions and calling the decision to attack a joint a smart one for a wrestler his size.
Allin’s stunts have included being thrown off a scaffold and, outside wrestling, an ascent of Everest in 2025.
On Borden, Ross said the performance surprised him.
“He’s a former D1 athlete. He’s got a great frame to put on more pounds and more definition. He’s going to be a player. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Ross said.
He went further on where that could lead.
“He’s the kind of guy that when you get comfortable with his work, you could figure on making one of your featured acts on the weekly TV, either wrestling or talking or whatever,” Ross said. “He impressed me. He did some things I was really pleasantly surprised by.”
Ross has a longer view on the family than most. He was working for Bill Watts out of Tulsa when Sting broke in, and saw him closely across his first two years in the business, including the run with Eddie Gilbert and Rick Steiner in Hot Stuff International with Missy Hyatt at ringside.
He said the resemblance jumped out at him during the ladder spot.
“There’s one shot in particular where Steven Borden was up the ladder, and in the face, he looks like his dad,” Ross said.
Ross also said he had not known Sting would be at the show at all.
The view runs counter to Eric Bischoff, who said on 83 Weeks that the same appearance showed AEW pushing Borden too early, that he barely knows his way around the ring, and that he risks ending up where Eric Watts did in WCW. Conrad Thompson noted on Grilling JR that Borden has been working dark matches and training with Dustin Rhodes in Texas.
The two verdicts are not as far apart as they look. Bischoff’s objection was to the position rather than the man, and Ross’ praise came with the same qualifier attached, that Borden becomes a featured act once the company gets comfortable with his work. Neither of them said he is ready now.
