Darby Allin On Signing With AEW, Choosing AEW Over WWE

All Elite Wrestling’s Darby Allin was a recent guest on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk is Jericho. During their conversation, Allin opened up about how he signed with AEW, as well as why he decided to choose AEW over WWE.

Allin was quick to credit one person in particular for his signing: Cody Rhodes. Turns out that Rhodes was in attendance for a match between Allin and another AEW star, Pentagon Jr. That match impressed Rhodes and helped to get the ball rolling until, eventually, Allin debuted for the company. 

“Yeah, Cody was the man who kind of made it happen. Yeah, I think he saw this match I had at Northeast against Penta,” Allin explained. “And, like, it that rate, before that, I think he thought I was just this stunt dummy guy. Do you know what I mean? Like, just do all these crazy stunts. But then, I think he saw that match and he’s like, ‘yo, this guy can actually, like, work.’ Do you know what I mean? And then, the ball started rolling, so it was very nice that I got to wrestle him in my first debut in this company. So yeah, it was good.”

Jericho, who has previously compared Darby Allin to Jeff Hardy, noted how Cody’s experience on the indies helped in scouting potential talent for AEW. Alongside Allin, he pointed at names such as Sammy Guevara, Joey Janela and Maxwell Jacob Friedman as top indie talent that could be assets to the promotion. 

Darby Allin’s Decision

Reflecting on his decision to side with AEW, Allin recalled being offered an opportunity with WWE—one he ultimately turned down.

“Yeah, they had Canyon [Ceman], they wanted to do something where, like, I go to the Performance Center,” Allin recalled. “Not for a tryout, but I get signed and I go to the Performance Center for like a year. And then, debut a year from [then] or some crazy s—t.”

He continued, “I was just like, that’s the beauty of AEW. They’re just going making people instead of like… if I was there, God, it’s crazy to think about. A lot of my friends that got the opportunity, AEW or WWE, they chose WWE because it’s like I don’t know, ‘I just want to say I was in WWE’. I’m like, ‘come on, guys.’ Like, you can’t. That goes back to being the fanboy. Do you want to be the 100th guy who never sees the light of day, or do you want to be on the forefront of what we have? And a lot of guys just want to go brag to their friends and family, ‘oh, I’m in WWE.’”

Darby Allin competed on last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite in a losing effort to Pac.

H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.