Darby Allin recently spoke with Inside The Ropes for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
CM Punk returned to wrestling in August 2021 at AEW Rampage in Chicago, challenging Darby Allin to a match at AEW All Out the following month, which was also his first match in over 7 years. Allin recalled his nerves ahead of time, given the enormity of the contest and the fact that it was Punk’s first match back:
“That was very insane. In an interview recently he said that was his favourite moment in AEW. I just remember how insane that day was and just everything that was going on. I was the most nervous I’ve ever been for a match, because I was like, oh man, I never thought this guy is going to return to wrestling and then you’re having his first match back.
I was super nervous and I was puking because I was so nervous. Sting is a religious man, and I’m not religious at all. Sting saw how nervous I was and he’s like, ‘Darby, do you mind if I say a prayer for you right now?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, go for it, anything.’ I just had my head down, I’m so nervous.
Then he said the prayer, we went out there, and we had such a fun time. It was so fun working with Punk, it was really cool. I saw him a few weeks ago, it was fun to just catch up and be like, thank you for kind of giving me that opportunity to be the first guy to bring you out of, I’m not gonna say retirement, but you know what I mean, whatever hiatus he was on from the world of pro wrestling. So it was really cool.
Right when we got done he gave me a big hug and he said thank you. Then it was just like woah, we did it. When I broke my foot and I was gone for two months, when I came back for my first match back I was like oh man, I’m kind of nervous. He took a break for seven years. I couldn’t even imagine how that must have felt for him from the nerve level. So it’s really cool that he had the trust in me to kind be the first one to do that. I think there was definitely for both of us that relief of it’s over. We got that over with, and we killed it. It was super fun and it was awesome.”
At AEW Revolution 2024, Sting wrestled in his final match. Once again partnering with Darby Allin, The Icon’s longtime tag partner knew they wanted to do something special to give Sting the send-off he deserved, and he has no regrets about that night:
“So earlier in the day, Sting is like, ‘Man, you’re not your normal self, you seem a little off’, because normally I’m like just chilling. Then I look at him and I’m like, ‘Dude, how can I be chill? This is your last match! We have to hit it out of the park, you only get one shot at this.’ So we laid it all on the line that night, that was a pretty wild match.
At the end of the night, Sting came up to me, I’m all covered in blood and glass, he comes up to me and he’s just like that was easily one of my top three favourite matches of all time. That’s why we did what we did out there. So that moment, it was all worth it so he doesn’t go at the end of the night being like, Yeah, I had a good career, but that last match was bad. So, there were no regrets that night.”
