Darby Allin has worked fifteen pay-per-view matches to date for All Elite Wrestling. These have included in-ring classics vs. Sammy Guevara, career-defining outings vs. Cody Rhodes, and forgotten gems vs. Kyle O’Reilly, but perhaps none were quite as frustrating, at least for Allin himself, than his Revolution 2021 match.
Teaming with long-time ally Sting against Brian Cage and Ricky Starks of Team Taz in a Street Fight, Darby Allin and ‘The Icon’ ultimately won the contest, which was Sting’s first since the 2015 WWE Night of Champions. Despite the critical reception of the bout, Darby Allin has admitted that he never wants to repeat the match, owing to its cinematic nature.
Stop-Start Nature Ruined Darby Allin’s Love Of Legendary Match
Speaking to Renee Paquette on her podcast The Sessions, Darby Allin explained how he wasn’t a fan of the cinematic aspect of the match. Numerous spots in the bout either had to be repeated numerous times to get the right shot or had outside interference, leading to a frustrated Darby souring on the concept of such matches:
“The Cinematic match was kinda hell on Earth. It’s like I get thrown through a door and it’s like, ‘Cut! Do that again.’ You get your adrenaline so high, and then you have to stop for so long, and then go so high. There was this part in the cinematic match where I was on the second story and I was throwing a bat down to Sting. Right before we were gonna do this scene, Tony [Khan] comes like, ‘Cut! Cut! Cut!’ He’s like, ‘Don’t you know how physics works? He’s gonna break Sting’s face!'”
The Revolution match marked a continuation of cinematic wrestling throughout the pandemic era. Successes of the artform came by way of AJ Styles and The Undertaker’s Boneyard match, and John Cena and Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Fun House match.
Darby Allin and Sting have teamed together a further eleven times, colliding with FTR, The Acclaimed, 2point0, and The Men of the Year, among others. They last wrestled together at AEW All Out on September 4, teaming with Miro to best The House of Black’s Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews.