The events of AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night made one thing clear: Steven Borden’s TV debut is coming sooner, not later. But how exactly might that event unfold?
Borden’s appearance on Dynamite came after Darby Allin defeated Mark Davis. RPG Vice, Davis’ teammates in the Don Callis Family, attacked Allin, only for Borden to hit the ring and make the save. However, Josh Alexander (another Family member) then attacked Borden from behind, allowing Davis to recover and plant Borden with a piledriver.
The obvious endgame here would be to team Borden & Allin against Davis & Alexander. That will almost certainly be the match at All Out, and AEW may hold off on debuting Borden until that night. However, there are three episodes of Dynamite between now and then. That’s still plenty of time to get a TV match in there, and there are plenty of Family members to pit against Borden & Allin.
That starts with RPG Vice, the team of Trent Baretta and Rocky Romero. They were front and center in the Dynamite angle, and it would make some sense to get Borden & Allin a win over somebody before a bigger match at All Out. Baretta and Romero are no joke in the ring, having won New Japan’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships four times. But frankly, they are jokes in AEW, almost always losing, often in humiliating fashion. You’d be hard pressed to find a team on the roster better suited to make Borden look dominant in defeat than these two.
After that? If AEW wants to give Borden another TV shot before the big show, there are plenty of other Don Callis Family members to go through. (El Clon? Hechicero?) There’s no reason to limit Borden’s opponents to Callis’ crew, either. He already has a dark match win over Mansoor—perhaps the MxM Collection could face Borden & Allin at some point.
At some point, Borden will need to wrestle singles matches on television. But with so many veterans on hand, it makes more sense to surround the 34-year-old youngster with as much experience as possible until he gets more established in the ring.