Darby Allin revealed that winning the AEW World Championship didn’t hit him the way most people would expect. Allin defeated MJF on April 15 on Dynamite: Spring BreakThru in Everett, Washington, capturing the world title for the first time in his career.
Speaking with Rob Wolkenbrod of Forbes, Allin said he was so physically depleted at the time that he could barely enjoy the post-match celebration with Sting and the rest of the AEW roster.
“It’s funny because I felt nothing, and that’s because my body was so depleted. I was so beat into the ground leading up to that week, dude. It took everything to get to that point. So afterwards, it felt numb. It was crazy. But moments after, when I finally got to the back and started to decompress, I realized that I climbed to the top of AEW without having to compromise myself, and that meant everything to me.
Because to me, what’s the point of becoming a world champion if you’re just an industry plant and what you’re doing is not from the soul and isn’t pure? Like, hey, we’re going to tell you what to do every step along the way, and then we’re going to put something on you. Well, what’s the point of that? So the fact that I was able to do that in AEW without compromising anything was everything to me. So yeah, that night was incredible.”
Allin’s first reign lasted 39 days and included seven successful title defenses against Tommaso Ciampa, Brody King, Kevin Knight, PAC, Konosuke Takeshita, Sammy Guevara, and Mike Bailey.
His run came to an end on May 24, when MJF recaptured the AEW World Championship in the main event of Double or Nothing in Queens, New York, in a Title vs. Hair Match. After the bout, Kevin Knight attacked Allin while he was still strapped to a stretcher, sparking a new rivalry between the two.
Allin will now get his chance to settle the score. He and Knight are set to clash for the TNT Championship in a Falls Count Anywhere Match at All In on August 30 at Wembley Stadium in London.