At AEW Double or Nothing 2021, Sting made his in-ring return in front of fans, teaming with Darby Allin to take on Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page.
Sting had previously made his return to competition at AEW Revolution, teaming with Allin to take on Brian Cage & Ricky Starks, in a cinematic match. Sting had retired after WWE Night Of Champions 2015 when he suffered a neck injury against Seth Rollins.
Speaking on Hawk vs. Wolf with Tony Hawk, Darby recalled how he was feeling heading into the match.
"It's his first live match back in front of an audience, and a week earlier, I was filming some skating down at the Gates of Hell in Phoenix, Arizona. The video I sent you [Hawk] where, I went down, but then hit the crack and flew into the wall, I thought I broke my wrist and kneecap all at once. I'm just laying there in blood. I'm in a red ant hill and shit. I went to Jaws' [Skateboarder Aaron "Jaws" Homoki] house. I was contemplating going to the hospital, but I told Jaws, 'I'm going to sit in the bathtub for two hours and if I piss blood, I'll to the hospital, but if I don't, I won't go,'" he recalled.
Allin continued, revealing just how banged up he was going into the match and hiding how the injury happened.
"It was a week before he made his return on pay-per-view and the whole week, I was limping on my knee and icing it like crazy. I didn't know how to tell anybody that I flew into a wall skateboarding. It was a pay-per-view and so much riding on this match. I showed up and told everyone that I was training and I smashed my knee. 'Dude, you're really messed up.' I low-key told Sting behind the scenes, 'What really happened?' He knows that I'm crazy outside of the ring. I showed him the video and he started laughing. That was pretty stressful," he said.
Allin made it through the match, picking up the victory alongside Sting.
Allin most recently teamed with Sting, and the Great Muta, in Muta's final bout to defeat AKIRA, Hakushi & Naomichi Marufuji.
Allin will defend his AEW TNT Championship against Buddy Matthews on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite.
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