The beauty of wrestling in terms of both participants and fandom is that it often celebrates the different and the unique. Sure, there are some who step into the ring or cheer from the sidelines that don’t exactly embrace this openness with their fellow peers, but for the majority, wrestling celebrates individuality.
Individuality of expression and what makes a person themselves is something that Darby Allin holds in the highest of regards. Asked about the possibility of previous contact from the WWE, Allin was clear in what drove him in and out of the ring. ‘There’s a thing inside me where I really want to be creatively in control at all times’, emphasised Allin, before a brief aside about the dangers of potentially becoming the guy who will cut promos in the attic spoke to the way his way of life could easily be misconstrued and manipulated.
This singleness of mind and his overall presentation Allin attested to a harrowing episode from his childhood: ‘When I was 5, my uncle was drunk driving and he crashed and there was an accident and I was in the car with him and he passed away from this accident’. This scarring incident left Allin feeling ‘50% dead’, a numbness to life that carried into his skateboarding and eventually his wrestling career. By his own admission, he did a lot of crazy, reckless activities during that time.
Inside the ring, Allin isn’t just about mindless violence for the sake of it. Indeed, the wrestler he looked to the most for inspiration in his formative years getting into the sport was Rey Mysterio Jr. The evasions, the movement, the way he used his body to escape bigger guys all fired up the creative juices of Allin. A man who felt he had been fighting from underneath his entire life wanted to do the same in the ring, using his quickness and athleticism in an attempt to stay one step ahead.
Allin was clear on his psychology behind his moves – ‘I don’t pick anybody up’ – believing that whilst wrestling could be a wonderful world where anyone can do anything, it didn’t fit with the way he wanted to present himself. In Allin’s eyes, it was a gift to be small: it forces him to be more creative in what he did in the ring.
Creativity often bleeds into violence, quite literally in Allin’s case. In his first shows outside of North America, Allin lost to Paul Robinson in the first round of the Super Strong Style 16 tournament, whilst he was unable to be victorious in the Wasteman Challenge on Day Three. However, his skateboard-assisted top rope stomp earned his trio a victory in the middle of these contests, whilst his decision to bite through his own lip to draw blood in the Robinson contest was one of the more arresting visuals of the weekend.
With a new continent under his belt, Allin’s recent signing to AEW also potentially put him in a position where partnerships with AAA (although he had already wrestled in Mexico before) and OWE could see him travel more often, following where the wind takes him. The response from the UK fans was at least heartening; a long line at the merch table assuring Allin from an early stage of the weekend that the fans did give a f*ck about him.
Someone who definitely felt that way about Allin was Cody Rhodes. It was he, fresh from watching an Allin versus Pentagon contest on an independent supershow, who first made overtures with regards to an AEW contract. Any concerns that this might curb Allin’s creativity where staved off at least initially during recently filmed promos for a match between Rhodes and Allin – nothing was controlled in terms of Allin’s aesthetic, actions or what he was allowed to say.
Time spent in AEW may at least go some way to making a match against Jimmy Havoc a much more likely proposition; oddly, the two men have yet to be booked opposite each other in what feels like an obvious piece of business. When asked, Allin stated ‘(I) feel like it’s a long time overdue to be honest and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened’. One other potential dream match that was posited was perhaps a little more tongue in check; following an admission that he doesn’t often watch wrestling, Allin voiced the desire to meet Ricky Morton in a No-Ring Death Match some time down the line.
When not watching wrestling, Allin choses to direct movies (his first due in August) and skateboard. Unsurprisingly, this alternative approach to life within the wrestling bubble – characterised by the impact the world has had on him from a young age – seeped into his desire for his career in wrestling from the day he stepped foot in the ring. Rather than the lofty goals of some wrestlers who envision main eventing Wrestlemania as the ultimate and epitome of any worthwhile career, Allin’s goal when first entering the business was admirable in its honesty and simplicity. ‘(To) leave knowing I was me the whole time and not morphed into something’.
When you look into the eyes of Allin and listen to him speak from the heart, it is hard to argue against him achieving that goal.
