Darby Allin was one of the first unknown names that AEW helped bring the spotlight on during the company’s initial days. Only 26 years old at the time of his signing, Darby’s daredevil style of wrestling instantly attracted people and made him a star. Though despite his early success, the former TNT champion had his own struggles before being signed. Just like he does in the ring, he also made some crazy decisions in his life to improve his chance of success. This includes going homeless for a few years.
The AEW star was the most recent guest of Renee Paquette’s The Sessions podcast. During the interview, he recalled the time he went homeless during his early days of wrestling. The high-flying star explained that he wanted to give it his all:
“Yeah, that’s when I moved from Seattle to Atlanta. Because Seattle was the black hole of wrestling. There was no shows at the time. This was before Defy and everything, you couldn’t wrestle in the state. The commission wouldn’t let you have pro wrestling shows in the state. So we’d always have to go to Vancouver, Canada, or Oregon or something like that. I was like ‘I gotta do something. I gotta get out of here.’
I just didn’t have a comfort zone. I feel like a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, I really want this to work out,’ But they don’t put everything into it. I wanted to look at myself in the mirror and be like, ‘Yo, you dedicated everything in this so you have no fucking excuse if you don’t make it.'”
‘Why The Hell Does It Smell Like Salmon?’: Darby Allin
Darby Allin later detailed the struggles he had to go through during his homeless days. He recalled living in his car and cooking food in the bathroom of a gym:
“When you don’t have the comfortability to sit down on the couch and be lazy and watch episodes of whatever. When you’re living in your car. Especially in Georgia, it was so hot in the summer. I would have to have like a strict bedtime so I got decent sleep before. Then I parked in this hotel parking garage.
It was connected to an Anytime Fitness and I got the Anytime fitness membership. Then I was just like, cooking all my food there at the George Foreman grill in the bathroom at like one in the morning. There would always [be] like one random guy that’s in there like ‘Why the hell does it smell like salmon in this fucking gym?’ Then I’d walk out like I didn’t know what he’s talking about. But it was fun.”
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If you use any quotes from the article, please credit SEScoops with an H/t for transcription
