Steven Borden’s wrestling career didn’t begin because someone convinced him to carry on the family name. It began because he watched Sting’s career come to an end and realized he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life wondering what might have been.
Speaking with Good Karma Wrestling, Borden revealed that everything changed during Sting’s retirement match at Revolution. Seeing his father walk away from the business forced him to think about his own future, and he decided he’d rather take the chance than live with regrets.
“Pretty much during Revolution at my dad’s retirement match. Watching him kind of ride off into the sunset and realizing that, you know, my life is going to pass quickly too and I’m going to be his age one day.”
Borden said the realization hit him almost immediately. One day he’d be looking back on his own life, and he knew he had two choices: either find out if wrestling was for him or spend years asking himself the same question.
“I could either look back and say, you know, I took the step that I wanted to take…or I could look back and say what if. I just didn’t want to live with that what-if question. So it was right after Revolution pretty much.”
That decision quickly turned into action. Borden explained that the last month has been a whirlwind as he’s bounced from training sessions to television appearances, spending countless hours working with Darby Allin in Atlanta while preparing for this new chapter of his life.
“It’s been a lot of training, a lot of time in Atlanta with this guy. Just trying to get as ready as I can. I think the last month or so has been a whirlwind. You don’t really have time to think about what’s happening. It’s just, you know, the next show. Okay, Dynamite. Okay, Collision. Here we go. But it’s been a fun ride so far.”
Everything has moved quickly since then. Earlier this month, Fightful Select reported that Borden had been training for more than two years and was officially moving forward as a full-time on-screen wrestler in AEW. He made an immediate impression on the September 9 edition of Dynamite, teaming with Darby Allin to defeat Mark Davis and Josh Alexander before pinning Alexander in his first televised match.
For Steven Borden, though, this story started long before that victory. It started while he watched one legendary career come to an end and realized he didn’t want to wake up years later asking himself one question he could never answer: “What if?”
What did you think of Steven Borden’s reason for getting into wrestling? Do you see him carving out his own identity in AEW? Let us know in the comments below.
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