On October 16, 2024, I asked the question of who can stop Jon Moxley and his Crusade of Death Riders in taking over All Elite Wrestling.
My definitive answer was Darby Allin.
Everything about this storyline is truly about Darby Allin’s ascent to the top of AEW. At Revolution 2024 he won the AEW World Tag Team Championship with Sting. Sting has been his protector, his friend who has been guiding him to the top since Sting’s debut in All Elite Wrestling in 2020.
Sting did once save Darby at All In 2024, but otherwise he’s without the man who had his back all year. It’s finally time for Darby to go it out alone and it hasn’t been easy for him. He got injured in his first match after Revolution against Jay White. He returned at Double or Nothing to fight off The Elite, and feuded with them all the way up to Blood and Guts. With an opportunity to end The Elite’s reign of terror he used the moment just to get a TNT Championship match with Jack Perry at All In.
Darby would lose the coffin match and his chance to get the TNT Championship. But why was Darby even back after the TNT Championship? He tasted a World Championship at Revolution and he should be going after another. That same week of winning Blood and Guts with Team AEW, Darby won a number one contendership for the AEW Men’s World Championship.
Post All In, Jon Moxley returned from hiatus wanting to talk to Darby Allin. He wanted his shot. Bryan Danielson wasn’t ready to compete at Grand Slam, and instead of just delaying the match to WrestleDream? Moxley convinced Darby to just put the shot up against him at Grand Slam. Darby did it and Darby lost.
Darby had to walk into his homestate not as AEW Men’s World Champion and not as number one contender in the main event. He had to walk in as just a guy, accepting an open challenge to Brody King. Darby would end that night tied to the ropes and watching Bryan Danielson get suffocated and retired from full-time competition. Jon Moxley now had his championship. He walked into a trap and he knew it.
Sting isn’t around to save him.
The Valley Below
We’re now two weeks away from Full Gear and Darby isn’t anywhere closer to the Men’s World Championship. It would be Orange Cassidy stepping up to challenge Jon Moxley because Darby was gone after WrestleDream. Orange Cassidy is going to try and do what Darby Allin has been unable to do: defeat Jon Moxley. OC has done it before. Darby hasn’t even got that close.
But there’s something important Jon Moxley said when it came to facing Orange Cassidy as I stated in The Death Riders: Orange Cassidy doesn’t get to fight Jon Moxley on the mountain top.
The top of the mountain is for Darby Allin. Orange Cassidy only gets the valley. This is the beginning of a long term story and it’s going to take some losses from the AEW Originals before we get to the glory of victory.
The problem of course is that AEW is an ADHD promotion. It’s very hard for AEW fans and AEW booking to stay focused. How long are they willing to wait to see Darby climb from the bottom of the mountain to get to the peak to fight Jon Moxley at say Revolution? Revolution is three PPV’s away: Full Gear, World’s End, and Grand Slam: Australia. Are fans going to be patient seeing Darby fail and struggle and win small victories in climbing up through it? Will the trigger have to be pulled earlier?
Having Darby Allin finally defeat Jon Moxley at Revolution 2025 would be a full circle moment. The moment he finally gets to take up the mantle of Sting as the protector of All Elite Wrestling. Once World Tag Team Champion and now World Champion. That also means four more months of Jon Moxley wrecking havoc in AEW and narrowing escaping defeat from allcomers.
It means after Orange Cassidy you need another contender that isn’t Darby for World’s End. It means after World’s End a contender for Grand Slam: Australia. You basically want AEW fans screaming at the company to go with Darby Allin instead of these other guys who can’t get the job done. No different to when J.J. Dillon came out to Nitro to offer Sting a match at Starrcade against Syxx instead of Hollywood Hogan.
It’s at that point you put Darby Allin against Jon Moxley.
The Long Ascent
But I should state that the end isn’t simply Darby Allin becoming AEW Men’s World Champion. The resistance to the Death Riders has been slow and so far ineffective. It’s hard for them to really get rallied into this war because Jon Moxley opened up the gate for other monsters to enter and slow down the rest of the roster.
Will Ospreay and Powerhouse Hobbs can’t fight for AEW because they have to fight the Don Callis Family. Swerve Strickland can’t fight for AEW with the Hurt Syndicate in his way. Hangman Adam Page and Jay White are fighting each other instead of fighting for AEW. The Young Bucks went home. Even if Kenny Omega’s return was around the corner and he was ready to go, he’d be quick pickings for a couple of Death Riders until he’s 100% and back in Best Bout Machine form.
The Death Riders have successfully divided the roster and focused on the weakest of the bunch, the smallest of the bunch, and the most worn down of the bunch. But it’s also some of the fighters with the most heart. Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin will fight to the bitter end, and in the bitter end? They might not have much left to fight on.
Even if and when Darby becomes champion it’s going to be just as hard in stopping the next Crusade by the Death Riders to get the gold back. We saw how effective they were in walking in and taking over. How effective do you think they will be when they get a chance to regroup? Who might join them once that time comes? Look at what they’ve done with a conflicted Wheeler Yuta.
The Golden Peak
Darby Allin isn’t a perfect face for AEW. He’s too reliant on work shoot elements in live promos (an issue he shares with the other Pillars), he doesn’t have the typical size for a heavyweight champion, he’s got a troubled background, and he doesn’t get the protection from the company guys like Will Ospreay has had.
But Darby is one of the best wrestlers on the roster. He makes everyone who wrestles him better. He shows up for public appearances, he’s loyal to a fault to All Elite Wrestling, and he’s an original we’ve watched grow up into this position. Adam Page had The Elite. MJF had Cody. Swerve had proving WWE wrong. Darby Allin was being groomed for a spot on 205 Live by Gabe Sapolsky as his ceiling before All Elite Wrestling came around. And now he has an opportunity after five years to become the face of All Elite Wrestling.
That’s why this story is being built around him. That’s why Jon Moxley’s Crusade is all about working the complacency out of the AEW Originals, and out of Darby Allin. This is why Darby Allin versus Jon Moxley is the top of the mountain. And that’s why this ascent by Darby needs to take time and needs to mean everything.
“You want the grave kept secret that I never tell
I’m up in heaven but I came from hell”
