When Darby Allin decided to put over Cody Rhodes in a promo designed to trash his future AEW Revolution opponents, the Young Bucks, it drew a myriad of different reactions from around the professional wrestling world.

Some fans liked the promo, celebrating Allin for being real and giving credit where credit is due, while others, most notably Dave Meltzer, were much colder on the call, with the Wrestling Observer scribe trashing the decision to follow up a brutal baseball bat beatdown with a promo that got fans cheering for WWE's biggest babyface, especially considering it largely relied on verbiage directly borrowed from noted AEW detractor Jim Cornette.

In the end, which side was right? Well, it's impossible to say, but when asked about the promo in an interview with Digital Spy, Allin felt no need to backtrack or apologize for his choice of words, instead doubling down on his praise for the “American Nightmare” as he's the reason he landed an AEW contract.

“He’s the reason I’m in AEW. You think back to my debut, I wrestled him at Fighter Fest and we went a 20-minute Broadway draw. For him to take a chance on me that early… I was relatively super unknown still, I was never really the guy on the independent scene. He did that. You’ve got to give respect where respect is due. I feel very strongly on paying homage to how I got here because I never thought I was going to get here. I begged people for jobs, I wasn’t part of the little ‘California Crew.’ I had to sit by and watch all these press conferences and have all these people that had no business being on national television get on national television,” Darby Allin told Digital Spy.

“Meanwhile I knew exactly what I was capable of doing if I was given the opportunity. Fast forward all these years later and now look at me. My biggest problem is when people try to ignore the history of things as if something never happened. I’m like, we’re not stupid, come on.”

No matter who banged the proverbial table to add Allin to the AEW roster, it's clear the decision paid off to an incredible degree, as not only has he become one of the top performers in the promotion both in terms of titles and popularity, but he's also proven to have quite the cross-over appeal, with appearances on Nitro Circus and with Tony Hawk drawing outside eyes into AEW. All in all, talk your talk, Allin; it's clear the Bucks will have something to say in response soon enough.

Dave Meltzer hopes AEW's TV momentum translates to ticket sales.

As AEW barrels towards what is shaping up to be a very successful Revolution weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina, Dave Meltzer reflected on the promotion's recent string of television successes, with Collision and Rampage doing big numbers in the lead-up to NBA All-Star Weekend.

While it's never a bad thing to draw in big crowds weekly to watch the promotion's five hours of televisioned content, Meltzer believes the next step in Tony Khan's AEW-renaissance needs to come from in-person ticket sales, as that's the next step in really juicing thing back up into the future.

“They appear to have some momentum. Last week, Rampage did their best number of the year, best number in a long, long time. Collision did their best number of the year. Dynamite did not do their best number of the year, but considering the night, did freakin' great. They beat everything on television except for CBS and ABC head-to-head. So they had a great number on Wednesday. We'll see if the momentum continues,” Dave Meltzer explained on Wrestling Observer Live via WrestleTalk. “To me, the real sign is when you start seeing ticket sales go up. And, we monitor that stuff close, it's not there yet. It has not happened. Ratings-wise, yes, there appears to be some momentum there. But the key still to me is getting people to come out for these shows. The show this week, first time ever in Tulsa, and they're under 3,000. They may top 3,000 by Wednesday, but to me, first time in Tulsa should be 4,500 people. And obviously, there'll be more than half of that, but it may not even be two-thirds.”

Does AEW need to put a few more butts in seats? Honestly, who is to say? Only a select few people know what the promotion's break-even number is in terms of ticket sales, and when you favor in their media rights deals plus very lucrative Pay-Per-View schedule, who knows, maybe live events are more a cost of doing business than something the promotion relies on to keep the doors open. Still, from an optics perspective, having more butts in seats is more impressive than having less butts in seats. Therefore, Meltzer is certainly onto something.