Darby Allin recently spoke with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes about his AEW debut versus Cody Rhodes and why he always goes full speed in his matches.
Allin made his AEW debut against Cody Rhodes at Fyter Fest 2019. Although many fans had seen The American Nightmare, Allin had not. Needing to create a difference and leave a lasting impression, Allin explained why he had to put everything on the line and has continued to do so ever since:
“Going into that match, I literally knew I had to do everything. I had to knock it out of the park. You only get one chance at a first impression. So on the independents I was never really the guy, I was never really given the main event spot. I was always kind of either starting the show or the mid-card, I was never in anybody’s cliques. There’s a lot of cliquey stuff on the independents and I don’t know, I just never really vibed with a lot of people to be one of the boys.
So I was given this opportunity and it was Cody’s idea to work me. I was like whoa, this is crazy, my debut in AEW. Considering I was never the top guy on the independents, to get that opportunity I was like this is gonna be crazy. I gotta knock it out of the park. I was obviously super nervous for that. Then afterwards, I really felt like people like that didn’t know who I was and saw me out there and were like, whoa, who is this Darby guy? He’s so wild! Why did we sleep on him for so long? It’s not my fault. It was just this cliquey, independent crap.
That’s why I have such a vendetta against The Elite. I have such a vendetta because I didn’t even think I was going to be able to make it to AEW when it was first starting and I saw guys like Jack Perry just walk right in the door not really having to work that hard for it. I was like, man!
So that’s why that night and honestly every single night I act like it’s my debut. I act like it’s the first time I walked through that curtain at Fyter Fest, because I don’t take any for granted. You’re never gonna see Darby Allin phone it in, it’s impossible. I do not have it in my DNA to phone it in. I can’t, even if I tried, I can’t do it.”
