Darby Allin’s AEW World Championship reign lasted just 39 days, but he packed it with a level of intensity few champions have matched. Between April 15 and May 24, Allin rattled off seven successful title defenses before dropping the belt to MJF at Double or Nothing.
Allin captured the title for the first time by defeating MJF on the “Spring BreakThru” edition of AEW Dynamite. Speaking recently on The Mark Hoke Show, he admitted he was so drained after the win that he couldn’t even celebrate.
“I honestly had no emotions left inside of me. I spent all my energy just that day talking in that promo before the match about what it meant to me. And I was so depleted that I had nothing else, so as I’m holding this, I feel just complete emptiness in a way that it took everything to have that happen, and I had no energy left. I was grateful, but as I look at this, I was like, ‘Man, there’s nothing left in me. It took everything.”
“But it was so amazing, now looking at it and what I’ve done with my time as champion. And I was willing to go places that nobody else was willing to go every single week. And we’re not talking about ‘Oh, let’s have a night off and a quick defense.’ There were times I thought the championship — especially in my first defense against Tommaso Ciampa. That was my first ever defense and champion. And I literally thought with some of the spots we did in the match, that, ‘This championship run cam be ended from injury.'”
Over the course of his reign, Allin put the title on the line against Tommaso Ciampa, Brody King, Kevin Knight, PAC, Konosuke Takeshita, Sammy Guevara, and “Speedball” Mike Bailey. His final defense against Bailey came just four days before the loss to MJF.
Allin made it clear he has no intention of changing that approach.
“That’s the thing is, I’m never going to slow down. Because the moment you slow down — to me, the moment you slow down, the passion is gone. Why else are you doing this? So it’s gotta full throttle, you’ve gotta give everybody, every single night, everything you have. Otherwise, get out of here… I cannot slow down. If I slow down, then I lose the passion, and I’m a very passionate person.”
As for the brevity of his title run, the former champion said he has zero regrets.
“I have no regrets with that. I was burning the candle at both ends, but I have no regrets at all because you live by the sword, you die by the sword. If it was a short and sweet championship run, that’s my motto. You just have to bring it. I honestly have no regrets.”
The loss to MJF immediately kicked off a new storyline. Kevin Knight attacked Allin while he was still strapped to a stretcher at Double or Nothing, and on July 22, Knight defeated him in a TNT Championship match.
Allin now gets another crack at Knight at All In on August 30 at Wembley Stadium, with the TNT Championship on the line in a Falls Count Anywhere Match.