AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin has opened up about signing with All Elite Wrestling and how he feels about being compared to Jeff Hardy.
Speaking with Inside the Ropes, Allin shared how the moment he discovered Cody Rhodes was interested in signing him, he immediately took the initiative and reached out.
“I heard that he was interested in hiring me, and the moment I heard that I just blew his phone up, and I was like, ‘Dude, I need this, I need this. Like, there’s nowhere else I want to go. I want to have my creative freedom there. This is it, get me involved.’ So I just called him off the hook.”
He explained how the key phrase that enticed him to AEW was the promise “creative freedom.” Allin stated how “[…] if I’m going to make it in this world, I’m going to do it as Darby Allin. No one else. I’m not going to have anybody change who I am. Period. So, AEW is my calling card.”
Darby Allin On Jeff Hardy Comparisons
When asked about comparisons between himself and WWE Superstar Jeff Hardy, Allin shared how he’s “fine” with being compared.
He confessed he “never searched” to be compared to anybody but acknowledged how “if it’s there, it’s there.”
Ultimately, he believes there will only ever be one Darby Allin, just like there will only be one Jeff Hardy.
Allin also shared his interest in a potential matchup against Jeff Hardy. He admitted he would “[…] love to step in the ring with someone who is as creative and driven as artistically as he is, I feel like he would always be able to go. Even with Matt, I want to step in the ring with him and just create some art.”
Having won singles gold in AEW, Allin has already set himself another goal for the future: main event an AEW pay-per-view.
“I want to make the TNT Championship one of the most important things in professional wrestling, period. I want to main event a pay-per-view. That’s a big one. So right now the TNT Championship is my biggest concern and then main-eventing a pay-per view.”
Darby Allin teams with Cody Rhodes this Wednesday on AEW Dynamite. The pair face off against Team Taz, represented by Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs.
