'Anything is possible': Darby Allin, Sting and the full-circle journey that has shaped AEW

(Ricky Havlik, AEW)

In any normal reality, none of this ever materializes between Allin and Sting.

Sting’s pro-wrestling career should have been over after an injury sustained in 2015 put an unexpected end to his four-match WWE stint. Absent from the game for more than five years, any chance of seeing him in the ring again had seemingly gone out the window.

But sometimes wrestling lives in an alternate universe, appropriately often referenced as a never-say-never business. At 61 years old, Sting unexpectedly made the leap to AEW in 2020, pairing up with Allin as two guys who had plenty more than face paint in common.

They both started out with no money. Neither were second-generation wrestlers. They came into the business without much help, were at times forced to live out of their cars, and both eventually rose to the top of their respective promotions through a combination of work ethic and sheer will.

Behind the scenes, Sting developed early impressions of Allin as someone who “lives, eats and breathes” professional wrestling.

“He had this ability in the ring to be very believable, a risk-taker,” says Sting. “We all know that to the point of, ‘Come on Darby, this is insanity what you’re doing here.’

“But he’s somebody who’s just balls to the walls every single day. It doesn’t matter if there’s 150 people if he’s doing an independent show, or 20,000 people or 70,000 people. He’s the same no matter what.”

(Lee South, AEW)

That work ethic — and the will to do whatever it takes to get AEW to the next level — was clear even in those early days, and it’s why Sting remained steadfast in his belief from the very beginning that Allin would be a future world champion.

“I had somebody like Ric Flair that had the ability to make or break me. And I think I probably had the ability to do the same thing with Darby, even though we weren’t opponents, we were on the same team,” Sting says.

“But I saw something in him, he saw something in me, and the rest just clicked.”

About five years since their very first match together, plenty has changed. Allin and Sting rode a 27-match win streak into the icon’s final match — a perfect swan song in early 2024 for a Hall of Fame career that spanned nearly 40 years.

Allin remembers people questioning Sting when he returned, asking questions like what he had to prove and why he was coming back.

With all of the numerous qualities they share, perhaps the strongest is their mutual unwillingness to allow the universe to determine their fate. While Allin did everything he could to control how his career unfolded, Sting took hold of the last few years of his own career unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“He had nothing to prove, and then that night, his last match, he went off the wall. He did not phone it in,” Allin says.

“Just every night that you step through this curtain, treat it like it's your last, because who knows, it might just be. So, never phone it in. That's kind of the work ethic that I picked up from him.”

(Lee South, AEW)

As Sting reflects on his AEW journey, he says there wasn’t another person on Earth who could have been his tag-team partner, who could have enabled him to do what he did for that final run.

“I don’t know how else to say it, but I’m convinced that without Darby, maybe I could have made it a good three and half, four-year run, but it wouldn’t have been nearly the same magnitude. It wouldn’t have been as good. It wouldn’t have been as fun,” Sting says.

“This is something like a God-ordained thing, it seems, because Darby was real quick to figure out what my strengths and weaknesses were. And of course, I knew his as well. We kind of worked together on that to help [each other]. He would help me overcome, I would help him overcome. And even from creative ideas, in-ring stuff, the physicality of it all, it was just a great synergy that we both had together. Man, I’m convinced that he’s the only guy I could have done it with.”

Sting reflects on his AEW stint as “the greatest run” and he calls his retirement match alongside Allin against the Young Bucks at AEW Revolution the greatest moment of his celebrated career.

“When people ask me, what was the greatest moment in your entire career? And all the big pay-per-view matches, all the big arenas, and selling out arenas, and breaking attendance records, and pay-per-view buy rates being broken, and the biggest pay-per-view in the history of pay-per-views, Hulk Hogan and me in 1997,” Sting says.

“It was the very last match that I had. It was Revolution, with AEW, with Darby. Ric Flair, who put me on the map to begin with, was there ringside. Even Ricky Steamboat was there. The Young Bucks, the greatest opponents. I mean, yes, I chose them. And having Darby as my tag-team partner and to go out like that, wow. Unbelievable. It was an unbelievable night.”

Allin’s time in the passenger’s seat alongside Sting gave him a front-row view to the type of professional he always aspired to be. That journey lasted all the way up to Sting’s final night in AEW and beyond.

Sting says he spoke with Allin just days before the 33-year-old won the AEW World Title, and they shared a meaningful conversation where Allin thanked him for sharing his humble approach to life and wrestling.

They spoke on the importance of treating everyone the same and never parading around as the “big superstar guy.”

“I’m proud that he noticed that, and that he’s got that approach, and that mindset now,” Sting says.

“And so I hope that will propel him even further along, and that he’ll have some of the young guys eventually come to him, saying the same things, and wanting to do what he did. ‘Oh, can you give any advice for me?’ And he’ll have advice for them.”

(Ricky Havlik, AEW)

More than just what he’s seen behind the scenes, Sting gushes at how much Allin has developed. He sees elements of lessons he passed down to Allin during their time together — like how losing the right way can get you over. Or how taking a second to listen to the crowd and acknowledge them can help develop a stronger relationship with the audience.

He’s seen Allin balance rising up the card simultaneously with out-of-the-ring accomplishments like climbing Mount Everest. And now he’s seen him become the face of AEW and the world champion.

“He’s killing it. I mean, Mount Everest — I think he wants to even go into space. I’m serious,” Sting says.

“He’s got a leadership quality about him. I told Tony Khan at one point, I said, I think he’s going to end up running the company at some point or he could. But he has no interest in doing that at all. But he could be somebody that could right the ship when you’re getting off course.”

Allin takes pride in what he’s been able to accomplish on his terms. Before he’s done, he hopes to evolve and move the professional wrestling world into a space that no longer carries the stigmas of years past.

“Break down all the walls, stereotypes that a champion has to be a certain way, and a champion has to fit a certain structure, and really lay down the groundwork for future generations,” Allin says of his ambitions.

“People that are watching at home that may be in high school, or whatever, and they have this dream deep inside, but they don't have the confidence. And then they can see me, like, ‘Yo, if all you have to do is work your ass off and risk — like, truly risk it all — then anything is possible.’ That's what I want to lay down more than anything.”

The journey as the torch-bearer for AEW never ends. Allin has a will to live life to the fullest, taking absurd risks not for the fans, but for the thrill of being one foot in death’s door as long as it moves the business forward, even incrementally.

“I don't know what to say, man,” he continues.

“I have a drive like no other, and I won't stop at nothing until I get to where I want to be — and where I want AEW to be as a company. Now here we are, so yeah, let's f***ing roll.”