Darby Allin has built a career around accepting risks that most wrestlers would never consider, but the immediate aftermath of one of his most punishing Blood & Guts moments was defined by a quieter act of support from Steven Borden.
Allin recently recalled the night he was driven home by Borden following the November 2025 Blood & Guts match, where Allin joined The Conglomeration against the Death Riders. During the match, PAC sent Allin through a pair of flaming tables near the entrance tunnel, producing one of the most dangerous-looking moments of the bout.
The physical toll did not end once the match was over. Allin explained that Borden took the wheel for a lengthy ride home while Allin tried to avoid allowing the injured skin on his back to touch the car seat.
“Actually last year when I got thrown through the flaming table, he drove me home. It was about a four hour car ride and I had my shirt off because I didn’t want — my whole skin on my back was pretty much gone. I didn’t want it to stick to the seat. So, I was [leaning forward] the whole time while he was driving me.”
For more background on this topic, read Steven Borden Details Concussion Recovery Ahead Of AEW Blood & Guts Return.
It is an especially revealing account because the image of Allin going through flaming tables is naturally the one that has endured from the match. Blood & Guts is designed around a caged, chaotic environment in which teams push the limits of what they are willing to endure to defeat their opponents. The visual of PAC throwing Allin through two tables that were on fire captured that atmosphere, but Allin’s story illustrates the less visible reality that follows a major stunt.
A four-hour drive is difficult under ordinary circumstances. For Allin, it became a test of endurance after a fire-based table spot left him unable to sit normally against the seat. His description of leaning forward for the trip emphasizes how much discomfort he was working through once the live event had finished and the cameras were no longer centered on him.
Steven Borden Saw the Consequences First-Hand
Allin and Borden are set to team together in this year’s Blood & Guts match, giving the story added weight. Borden was not simply watching the 2025 incident unfold from a distance. He was present in the aftermath and personally saw the condition Allin was in following the encounter with PAC.
“He saw the pain I was in last year, so I don’t know if that gets him excited for tomorrow.”
Allin delivered that final thought with his familiar dark sense of humor, but it also speaks to the stakes surrounding their upcoming alliance. Borden knows exactly what Allin has been willing to put himself through in this environment. He has seen the aftermath in a far more personal setting than fans in the arena or viewers at home could.
That experience could shape the dynamic between the two men when they enter Blood & Guts together. Allin’s reputation is closely tied to his willingness to embrace pain, danger, and high-risk situations when the moment calls for it. Yet the 2025 story is also a reminder that those decisions carry consequences beyond the dramatic sequence inside the cage.
For Borden, the previous year’s ride home was an unfiltered look at those consequences. There was no crowd response, no entrance tunnel spectacle, and no adrenaline of an ongoing match to mask what had happened. There was simply Allin trying to make it through a long drive without his damaged back sticking to the seat.
The 2025 Blood & Guts Moment
In November 2025, Allin teamed with The Conglomeration in a Blood & Guts contest against the Death Riders. PAC’s attack through the flaming tables near the entrance tunnel became one of the match’s defining images. Fire spots are inherently memorable because they immediately raise the perceived danger of a match, and this one involved not one table but a pair of flaming tables.
Allin’s recounting does not change what happened in the match, but it adds important context to it. Wrestling audiences often measure the impact of a major stunt by the visual itself: the height of the fall, the sound of the crash, the flames, or the reaction from the building. The wrestlers involved, however, must deal with the physical fallout long after the sequence has concluded.
In this case, Allin made clear that the damage to his back affected even the basic task of traveling home. He did not want his skin to adhere to the seat, so he spent the drive leaning forward while Borden drove. The detail is stark, and it underscores why Allin’s reputation as one of wrestling’s most fearless performers comes with a significant physical cost.
It also puts the upcoming Blood & Guts match into a different frame. The event format already carries expectations of violence, mayhem, and escalating punishment. Allin enters it with direct experience of just how severe the aftermath can become, while Borden enters it having witnessed that aftermath at close range.
A Partnership With Real History Behind It
Allin and Borden will not be walking into their Blood & Guts partnership without understanding the gravity of the setting. Their connection is now tied to one of Allin’s most painful experiences from the prior year. That does not necessarily predict what will happen in their upcoming match, but it gives their team an unusual degree of shared context.
Borden was there when Allin needed help getting home. That is a different kind of bond than one created solely through an in-ring alliance or a strategic partnership. It came after the match, when the excitement of the event had passed and Allin was dealing directly with the effects of the flaming-table collision.
Allin’s comments also preserve an element of unpredictability. His line about not knowing whether the memory makes Borden “excited for tomorrow” suggests that the prior ordeal could be read in more than one way. It may serve as a warning about the danger that awaits, or it may reinforce the resolve needed to step back into a match where restraint is rarely rewarded.
Blood & Guts asks performers to endure a setting built for extremes. Allin has never presented himself as someone inclined to shy away from extremes, and the 2025 flaming-table spot remains a clear example of that approach. With Borden now alongside him, there is an added personal layer to the next chapter.
Allin Heads Back Into a Familiar Environment
The upcoming Blood & Guts match will provide Allin another opportunity to compete in one of AEW’s most demanding team environments. He does so knowing that the format can produce moments that linger physically long after the final decision. His recollection of the four-hour drive is not merely a story about transportation; it is a reminder of the recovery and discomfort that can follow a high-profile moment.
For fans, the flaming-table sequence from 2025 remains a striking image from Allin’s battle alongside The Conglomeration against the Death Riders. For Allin and Borden, it is also a shared memory of the difficult trip that came afterward.
That history now follows them into this year’s Blood & Guts match. Whatever unfolds inside the cage, Borden has already seen what Allin was willing to endure last time around—and what it took for him to get home once the flames had gone out.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.