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With AEW All In rapidly approaching, it seems like all 100 of the promotion's wrestlers – that's actually a conservative estimation – have been lining up interviews to help promote what is being billed as the biggest show of all time. Some are using this expanded external interest to hype up their matches in London, others are taking shots at WWE for letting them go, and others still are declaring that they have no interest in ever joining The Fed because of how much they value the freedom AEW provides them inside and out of the ring.
For Darby Allin, the two-time TNT Champion, he firmly falls into the final category, as he has no plans to leave AEW for WWE no matter what, as he considers himself a live-or-die AEWer.
“I can't say enough good things about working with Tony Khan. It baffles me that people can take it for granted. I don't know if people realize how fortunate we are to be wrestling at such a high level with such an open-minded owner,” Darby Allin said via 411 Mania. “What you see out there is 100% Darby Allin. Nobody tells me how to walk, talk, or act. It's 100% me. To have that free reign to collaborate with Tony and create such good storylines leading to Wembley, you can't say enough good things. I'm super stoked about everything and my whole growth with AEW, but them letting me be me. I haven't shied away from this, I tell Tony that I'm maybe the worst businessman in pro wrestling because there is never going to be a bidding war for Darby Allin. I love AEW so much, I'm not playing games. I'm not going to be like, ‘What if I went somewhere else?' No, I'm just being real, Darby Allin is going to live and die in AEW.”
Now, for fans who have been keeping up with Allin's career, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, as Sting's best friend has made similar assertions throughout his career, including on television during his Four Pillars program with MJF, Jack Perry, and Sammy Guevara. If AEW were to go away for one reason or another, that would be one thing, as Allin would likely have to look for employment elsewhere, but until that day happens, Paul “Triple H” can cross his name off WWE's wishlist between MJF and Will Ospreay.
Tony Khan comments on the dissent inside the AEW locker room.
Sitting down for an interview with The Hollywood Report to help promote All In, Tony Khan was asked about AEW's locker room, which isn't exactly in the best place right now.
While Khan would obviously like to see all of his AEW wrestlers get along so he can tell whichever stories he would like, in the end, he acknowledges that it's just part of the business and he has to work with it instead of fighting against it.
“The most important thing to me as the CEO is the wrestling fans. I’m a huge wrestling fan, and I try to think like a wrestling fan. I want the best wrestlers here in AEW. I want the best roster. And there may be some of them that don’t get along with each other backstage or on TV. It’s not ideal, but it’s a reality, and I can’t make everyone get along. I’m not sure it’s necessarily even in the best interest of pro wrestling for everybody to get along. But ideally, everybody is going to be able to focus on their matches and putting on the best shows for the fans. And I think that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve had really strong ratings. So even though … wrestlers backstage hate each other and don’t want to be friends with each other, I think we all agree this is a really exciting time for the company. And it’s a really exciting time for the wrestling business and for the wrestling fans,” Tony Khan told The Hollywood Reporter.
“There are a lot of people around here who think they’re the best. And I think a lot of them have a valid claim that they’re the best. And what I’m trying to do is to create an environment where everybody can go out and prove it multiple times per week and create a platform where the fans can decide who the best wrestlers are, what the best rivalries are, what the best matches are. As long as I can keep the top talent in AEW, we will have the best matches and the best big events. The lineup of wrestlers competing on AEW All In is the strongest group of talent we’ve ever assembled on one show, it features some of the biggest matches in the history of this company, and I think it’s going to be one of the greatest days ever in pro wrestling this Sunday.”
Is Khan correct? Is AEW able to harness the drama to build up the best wrestlers, wrestling, matches, and rivalries around? Or will the drama between The Elite and team CM Punk come to a head eventually, with the Brawl Out II set to happen sooner rather than later? Fans will have to wait and find out, as when you play with fire, you never know exactly when you're gonna get burned.
