It Doesn’t Matter What Came Before
From Darby Allin’s first appearance, fans were told to watch closely. That Darby is different from other wrestlers we have seen before.
However, within a few matches, some of Darby’s qualities and inspirations became clearer—a recklessness to do things that would make Mick Foley hesitate and feel uncomfortable. An underdog spirit like Rey Mysterio forged in one of the most depressed and inequitable financial regions of America. An enigmatic alternative charisma beneath the face paint.
Reminiscent of other famous Seattle natives like the musicians Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.
In his first match, Darby faced one of the company’s founders and EVPs, Cody Rhodes. This relatively unknown wrestler, who was sleeping in his car, was signposted as special at Fyter Fest 2019.
This scrawny runt would have been folded like an envelope and put in a pigeonhole at another time or place. If lucky, maybe Allin might have been a great cruiserweight. At worst, Allin might have taken beatings to make big Greek gods of men appear strong and special.
This unknown took the former WWE superstar, a former NWA World Heavyweight champion, and arguably the promotion’s biggest attraction to a draw. This match showed fans a lot about AEW as a promotion. Its ethos and philosophy, as well as showing the company’s possible future.
It started a legacy feud with the American Nightmare. A feud that would take Darby Allin to the next level. Both the structure and success of this series seem relevant to what happened at Grand Slam and what could happen next.
I Felt Pain and I Wanted More
Not long afterward, on the eighth edition of Dynamite, another legacy feud began. Darby Allin took on Jon Moxley. With only two wins and an impressive street fight loss to Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship, an upset wasn’t likely. Yet a David vs. Goliath story, featuring a body bag, presented Darby as more than a tomato can despite taking a beating.
In trying to re-engage and attune the fanbase to the idea of coherent long-term storytelling and character arcs with growth, it worked. We as AEW fans were conditioned and prepared for Darby’s ascension. Mox showed Darby respect. A bond was formed that has been revisited over the years.
Taking a beating and absorbing pain was not the only way Darby got over. Coffin drops on the ring apron, through cracker barrels, dives off the staging, or being tossed down concrete stairs looked and surely felt brutal.
The hurt helped build a parasocial bond between fans and the daredevil. Yet, what separated Mick Foley and Terry Funk from other purveyors of hardcore or deathmatch weekend wrestlers is what they did before and after those spots. In the spaces between moves.
Through his body language, emotive responses, shouts, and reactions, Darby knows how to sell the hurt. Take the beating and somehow feed off it to fire back up. Rally the crowd and himself. And like the best of babyfaces, use both intelligence and skill to compensate.
Using his belt to tie up Brian Cage’s legs showed resourcefulness. Using the skateboard, even his face stamped with spikes as weapons shows a ruthlessness and a take-no-crap attitude that some fighting babyfaces have lacked. It’s the size of the fight in the dog.
I’m Not Settled Until I’ve Done It All and Right
Darby wasn’t ready.
After nearly a year and a half of failure, Darby Allin progressed. First, turning down the invitation of coaching from Taz, prompted a long-running feud that built Darby as more than just an underdog.
As mentioned, intelligence was used to outwit and beat Brian Cage. Against Ricky Starks, Darby outwrestled the other up-and-comer. Then a partnership, not a mentorship as Darby would later make clear, with Sting.
Throughout The Icons run, Darby was an equal. Learning alongside Sting helped Darby progress. The former surfer helped Allin ride the wave of momentum. All the way to Full Gear 2020.
In their fourth encounter, Darby finally beat Cody. Darby won the TNT Championship. Fans were primed and ready. Cody built the TNT Championship into the workhorse championship. A belt that Darby was not only now ready to take but one fan believed he deserved.
It took Darby four attempts. Three failures. Each time so close with Darby recovering and only becoming better. But the last match and the title victory count the most.
It felt right. It felt like Darby was ready for the responsibility in the mid-card.
I Split my Head Open Again Last Night
Yesterday, when I previewed AEW’s Grand Slam, I posed several rhetorical questions with the first draft of this article already written. With the number one contendership for the AEW World Championship on the line and the chance to headline WrestleDream in his hometown, can Darby Allin win?
No. I and many others already knew the answer.
Allin technically faced Moxley four times. In all those previous contests, Moxley had beaten Darby 3-0 in AEW. That first match was on the indies, as Darby said, in a high-school gym.
Honestly, despite being a big Darby Allin fan and despite how it feels like Darby’s time is nearly here… It was not going to be his night.
Darby isn’t ready despite being the man who brought Team AEW victory at Blood and Guts. The loss to Jack Perry at All In, rushed or not, felt like a hint. Even with its finish showing a restrained Darby defiant until the end.
It goes beyond the symmetry of Darby’s ascension with overcoming Cody Rhodes. Moxley has returned with a new zest. There is a bigger story brewing. The Death Rider has been the greatest transitional champion who repeatedly delivered the security needed when AEW has gone through a paradigm shift.
Marina Shafir distracted Darby, thus allowing Moxley the tainted win—something Mox never needed before. In doing so, it foreshadows the future of the AEW World Championship. Something we have seen from AEW this year with Swerve Strickland and then was subverted with Will Ospreay.
Darby Allin will be the world champion. Just not yet. Not until that fourth match, perhaps?
This Is Not Your Company Anymore
Already this year, AEW attempted another huge company-changing storyline with The (Corporate) Elite trying to save AEW from itself. This is not the first time this device for the artificial battle for AEW’s heart and soul has been used. Think The Blackpool Combat Club vs. The Elite in 2023.
Although my optimism for The Elite vs. AEW turned to disappointment due to its large gaps in logic and lack of stakes, I’m excited to see where this development goes.
Jon Moxley looks engaged for the first time since his International Championship feud with Orange Cassidy. This is a fresh and more detailed character.
The change of direction for Blackpool Combat Club could address a larger issue with the supergroup’s infrequent and malleable presentation. PAC’s brooding “bastard” persona has never felt more dangerous.
Compared to the tongue-in-cheek borderline WWE parody of authority figures by The Elite, this grittier path of violence feels more direct in addressing the criticism aimed at the company criticism. By making the issues feel personal.
However, there are still plenty of overlap and similarities between the two stories. Some are worrying. Again, a group saying AEW is broken. Intended or not, it connects to real perceptions of the current product.
I’ve written elsewhere about how an issue of admittance and acknowledging criticism has only made critics seem right. Both offer a reinvention a disguised solution, if the locker room just does what they say.
Both offer an obstacle for babyfaces collectively and individually to overcome. And more importantly, and something some critics seem to selectively overlook. A story as a vehicle to try and elevate specific talent.
The Elite takeover aimed to put over Kazuchika Okada and Jack Perry as characters.
I Fell
Compared to the other day one AEW youngsters like Kip Sabian, or fellow pillars like Sammy Guevarra and Jack Perry, Allin’s intangibles go beyond performing moves. Darby’s in-ring style is carelessly intelligent. His insane psychology is underpinned by an amateur free-style wrestling background.
On the other hand, even in AEW, the face of the company needs to be able to hold his own on the microphone. Not just through art-house vignettes in black and white that Allin filmed himself. Not just through the physical theatre.
Darby has grown as a promo guy. With time, Darby’s confidence in delivering cutting jabs and zingers has progressed in controlled bursts. Although a year ago the build to Double or Nothing, rather than the main event match itself, demonstrated the potholed road that leads to wrestling nirvana. What’s become a feature rather than a bug of AEW?
Along with Perry and Guevara, Allin’s weaknesses and limitations on the microphone were exposed before, during, and after the four pillars tournament. Darby was a far second to MJF on the microphone and at times appeared heelish disrespecting Jack Perry.
Rather than a justified babyface as Allin did this year in the build-to All In.
No one then was on the level of the devil. Darby was a distant second.
In the time since, Allin has grown in confidence and consistency on the stick. Even with the artificial language associated with AEW’s battle for its heart and soul, Allin tore through the BS of Moxley’s agenda before Grand Slam. Closer to being the new conscience of AEW.
The Money is in the Chase
Some of AEW’s greatest successes have come in the chase. When the babyface’s journey to the championship is clear, something within the challenger must change. In the first character arc of “Hangman” Adam Page connected to real-world issues of anxiety and imposter syndrome.
This year Swerve Strickland before becoming world champion shifted alignment to avoid Page’s mistakes as the world champion.
Darby’s character and story are in many ways more traditional to the wrestling narrative of the underdog. One similarity in some regards with the current AEW World Champion, Bryan Danielson in having to fight from underneath to be taken seriously.
Although some development, some change, even minor, might be needed to convince everyone that Allin deserves the company’s most prestigious championship.
The match between Danielson and Darby was mine and many others number-one dream match for this year. And yet, I’m happy if this match doesn’t happen. Instead, it could happen years down the line if/when Danielson is in (hopefully and healthy) semi-retirement.
Both are unwavering faces in AEW this year. One becoming a situational heel does not feel right. Especially given the stakes of Danielson’s career and Darby in many ways being Danielson’s successor. It would be risky.
Danielson vs. Mox, while not one of the rematches I initially wanted/predicted, is a strong story. Made undeniably compelling after the violent splendour of All Out and the plastic bag spot. Their history in AEW founding the BCC is logical and personal.
While Danielson could pass the torch to Darby or another young heel wrestler, it seems cleaner to have Mox stoke the flames and make it bigger.
You Light a Match, Now Watch it Burn
Set Mox as the big bad. When predicting the next two AEW champions for each title, I wrote how someone needs to step up to beat the monster. It places Darby, like Sting, as the defender of the company. The man to tear through the BCC.
Imagine the roadblocks and big matches and opponents Allin will have to beat to get to Mox. PAC. Claudio. Other roster members who take their side. The potential bangers and moments slowly add armor to a potential world champion’s presence.
There’s a pattern with Darby’s history, the same as there is a pattern that “Hangman” Page currently finds himself as he relapses. If repeated and a fourth match is built up, with the stakes being the AEW World Championship, Darby with the right build and right steps will be undeniably ready.
Although Darby might have been doing media appearances and promotion for AEW, it seems like Darby is representing the company in front of bigger media platforms, like Busted Open. Allin sounds comfortable. Prepared.
The fuse is set. It’s ready to be lit and Darby Allin seems poised to walk through fire to become the champion.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – AEW – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Rampage airs on TNT at 10 PM EST every Friday night. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content available on their YouTube
