Darby Allin defeated Maxwell Jacob Friedman last night at AEW Dynamite: Spring BreakThru to become AEW Men’s World Champion.
Way back at WrestleDream 2024, I asked who was going to stop Jon Moxley. After Bryan Danielson lost the champion and was suffocated, there were a bunch of wrestlers hanging around ringside. Darby Allin. Orange Cassidy. Daniel Garcia. Hook. Who was going to be the one to slay the dragon of Jon Moxley?
Well. None of them. Heck, Daniel Garcia joined the Death Riders.
I wondered if they were going to do a full Sting in 1996/1997 WCW with Darby Allin and have him disappear for months before returning. We kind of got that happening, but not in the same way. AEW told a different story, which is one of failure. Darby Allin did try to climb the mountain Jon Moxley challenged AEW to climb, but Darby got his ass kicked and failed. This failure did lead to Darby disappearing from AEW as he decided to climb Mount Everest instead. That mountain he succeeded.
The problem was the moment passed for him, as it passed for everyone who tried to stop the Death Riders at that point. It ended up being Hangman Adam Page to climb the mountain of the Death Riders and defeat Jon Moxley. It’s kind of funny to think about how Darby would have main evented All In Texas 2025 had it not been for an injury he suffered against Jay White. And Jay White, the man who always has Hangman Adam Page’s number, had to watch Page become World Champion at a time he himself was injured. All of these opportunities and stories created through unfortunate situations.
Page doing it made sense as he was someone who felt like wasted potential at the time, despite being a former AEW Men’s World Champion. It didn’t change the fact we already invested in Darby Allin one day doing it. So Darby returns and he goes after the Death Riders. He still has the goal of destroying the Death Riders and setting things right in AEW. He climbed Mount Everest. He can climb this mountain.
Nothing at the Peak
He defeats the Death Riders in a Lights Out Steel Cage match but in the process AEW loses Will Ospreay. He challenges Jon Moxley in a Coffin match at All Out 2025 and… loses. He eventually defeats Jon Moxley at WrestleDream, one year since Moxley took out Bryan Danielson, but that doesn’t end the Death Riders feud. Now he’s feuding with PAC right to Full Gear. He’s fighting Wheeler Yuta.
Now you got Gabe Kidd, associated with the Death Riders, bringing in his own “Dogs” to create a new fight for Darby Allin. He went from the Death Riders to the Dogs. Darby spent the first quarter of AEW feuding with all these guys. None of which were getting him any closer to the AEW Men’s World Championship.
Because that’s the original mountain. It wasn’t Jon Moxley. It was the AEW Men’s World Championship. Moxley stood atop that mountain as AEW Men’s World Champion and said someone come and stop me. Someone rise up. Someone make this climb. I will make it harder than anything you’ve had to endure. Someone climbed that mountain and took the AEW Men’s World Championship. And then someone beat that guy. And then someone beat the guy who beat the guy. And Darby was still out there trying to climb this other mountain the Death Riders and Dogs were roaming on.
There’s nothing at the top. Nothing at the peak. No flag to fly.
It took Darby almost five months to realize that after beating Jon Moxley he was so distracted proving he could take out the Death Riders he forgot his actual purpose.
Darby would defeat Gabe Kidd in a coffin match and after his tone shifted. Long gone were the interviews talking about how the AEW Men’s World Championship isn’t the goal for him. Suddenly he’s admitting he was afraid of it. For AEW fans this was a whiplash. What happened Darby? Why do you suddenly care now?
It’s because he realized he was left behind.
He was so wrapped up in the Death Riders, in the Dogs, in proving himself, he forgot what it was all about.
Darby’s last singles match loss was to Kevin Knight in the Continental Classic. He’s been on a winning streak since. And now he’s getting a number one contender match against Andrade el Idolo at Dynasty.
Promises and Delays
I thought this was going to be a story about Kenny Omega becoming AEW Men’s World Champion again. A lot of us did.
That story might still be told, if the promo between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega meant anything. And it likely did, because AEW is rarely doing things just to do it.
I wasn’t a fan of Darby Allin seeming lost in his feuds with The Dogs and I wasn’t a fan of him walking right into a feud with the Don Callis Family, on the flimsy excuse it was Maxwell Jacob Friedman paying the DCF to keep Darby away from him. But it all had a purpose.
At Dynasty it was about turning Andrade babyface. He lost to Darby but he shook his hand, and he was never happy with the idea he was helping MJF keep his title. He didn’t lay down for Darby but he certainly wasn’t going to throw a tantrum over the loss either.
AEW did this to let you know that MJF knew Darby was coming. Even if you didn’t know Darby was on a winning streak? Max did. Max may not have known Darby had announced his title shot for Wednesday (my guess was MJF has Darby muted on social media) but he knew Darby was a threat. He knew Darby was eventually coming. And he didn’t want it.
For a lot of people this felt out of nowhere, and a lot of that should go on AEW. It felt like Tony Khan realized that in not doing Darby at All In Texas due to the Mount Everest climb, he pushed back something he was still focused on doing. Hangman got a good title reign (could have been better but that’s what happens when you become Tetsuya Naito) and they transitioned from Samoa Joe to MJF.
MJF now has got probably a Top 3 AEW title reign (Editor’s note: based on how the title picture was booked and not individual performance) out of doing something I said he needed to do at my World’s End After 48. He needs to face the best AEW has to offer. He can’t be feuding with midcarders on pay per view. So what does he do? He beats Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega.
Blame me.
The fact is, it was long overdue to finally go with Darby Allin. Is it also long overdue to go with Kenny Omega for a babyface run in All Elite Wrestling as champion? Yes it is. It’s absolutely long overdue and needs to happen and the clock is ticking. But I really struggle, I really do, fighting against a booker who is finally focusing on wrestlers in the prime of their career over guys getting close to their mid 40s. Hangman, MJF, and Darby Allin are exactly the guys we want to be holding the AEW Men’s World Championship.
That doesn’t mean Kenny cannot, as it would be ridiculous to deny him what you were fine giving to CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Samoa Joe. But it does mean when a booker gives me the option between the 33-year-old who has never won the title and has been a day one guy having the best TV matches in the company or the 42-year-old who has been champion, has been a top guy, and can still be champion one day? I’m not going to fault the booker for going with the younger guy. Especially when it’s Darby Allin.
Dance with the Devil
I saw some criticism on the match itself. Yeah, they didn’t have a giant 30+ minute championship fight. What do you think the next pay per view is for? The rematch dummy!
I saw someone saying it’s crazy for MJF to lose this fast. He lost this fast to Brody King already in this title reign! The title just wasn’t on the line. MJF can absolutely be beaten fast. It’s already established.
AEW also did a smart thing by having Will Ospreay hit his Hidden Blade’s on Jon Moxley at Dynasty quick making people think that much was going to end fast… only it didn’t. It was in your head when Darby hit two of the Coffin Drops. Are they just going to do the Mox/Ospreay match again? Nope. Darby is actually going to hit it again.
MJF also finally lost to the Headlock Takeover after beating Darby with it twice in the past. AEW screwed up the pillar thing making it MJF, Darby, Jack, and Sammy. It should have been MJF, Darby, and Adam Page. They should have swiped from New Japan Pro Wrestling instead of All Japan Pro Wrestling and called them the Elite Musketeers.
Okay, nevermind, that’s bad. Scratch that. Editor note remember to delete silly Elite Musketeers paragraph.
A lot of the criticism for this I find to be dumb (the Bluesky guy claiming Darby won the HEAVYWEIGHT title is probably the dumbest), and when I see people say they put the title on an alleged abuser and the person has a CM Punk avatar, like do you not understand those two are friends? Why are you okay with Punk being friends with an alleged abuser? I thought association meant something to you? I guess this also kills the theory Tony Khan was punishing the friends of CM Punk. Both of them got to squash MJF.
(Darby was alleged to have essentially a toxic abusive relationship with an ex-girlfriend and that sucks. If you don’t like him as a person because of this? I understand. If you think that’s grounds for a person not being in the professional wrestling industry that’s just not realistic. It’s not realistic to any industry really. It’s also not realistic to life.)
I’ve seen criticism that Darby is only good for a short title reign and that diminishes the value of the championship. Diminishes the value? The best title run in the history of AEW in my eyes was Darby Allin’s second TNT Championship run. He was champion for only 28 days, not even a full month, and still cranked out four fantastic title defences on TV before dropping to Samoa Joe. It was must see TV.
That’s the kind of run I want this to be. I want Darby as a fighting champion like no other. I want him to literally defend that title until the wheels fall off. That won’t diminish the championship one bit. It will instead create a standard everyone else will either have to side step or fail achieving. Because that’s exactly what has happened with the TNT Championship.
The funniest criticism was this.
It’s okay if you didn’t like it. It’s okay to not be a Darby Allin fan. You can argue it on whether or not Darby Allin is a top draw in AEW. If he’s their best ratings guy. If he should be the next guy up. I think there’s legitimate criticism to be had. It was absolutely a gamble to try this and Darby is an unconventional AEW Men’s World Champion.
But isn’t unconventional the best thing about AEW?
The New Mountain
So here we are.
Darby Allin was challenged to climb the mountain the Death Riders built with Jon Moxley at the top as AEW Men’s World Champion. He failed.
Darby Allin then climbed a true mountain in Mount Everest, and when he returned? Someone else had already climbed Death Rider mountain. He still went up and eventually defeated Jon Moxley, but with no championship at the top.
He then stayed on that mountain, fighting the Riders and the Dogs, before realizing he had already conquered it and it was time to find a new mountain. While it was a new mountain that MJF was atop with the AEW Men’s World Championship it wasn’t a new mountain in that he had yet to defeat MJF in singles competition, nor had he come through with his promise to pin MJF with a headlock takeover.
Darby has now accomplished climbing every mountain he had set for himself. He’s now AEW Men’s World Champion. He has beaten Jon Moxley and the Death Riders. He has beaten The Dogs. He has beaten MJF.
It is now time for Darby to become the mountain.
It’s now time for people to ascend the mountain he has built and rise to the occasion he has set. That’s what becoming world champion does. You’re no longer an underdog or a challenger. You are now the challenge.
Never in Darby Allin’s career has he had this kind of pressure and responsibility. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it and how things go forward.
There’s a lot of other stories that should be told. Kenny Omega getting a babyface run as AEW Men’s World Champion. Will Ospreay’s Ascension (and Redemption.) If the world is good we get these stories. Just as we finally got this one.
