Darby Allin has opened up about Cody Rhodes’ move to WWE, after the American Nightmare was so integral to his early AEW career.
During the early days of AEW in 2019, one of the central feuds in the fledgling promotion was the rivalry between Darby Allin and Cody Rhodes.
Allin made his debut at Fyter Fest where he wrestled the American Nightmare to a time limit draw. After the introduction of the TNT Championship the following March, the pair met once again in a tournament to crown the inaugural champion, where Rhodes eliminated Allin in the semi-finals.
The on-and-off feud between the pair continued into November where Allin defeated Rhodes at Full Gear to win the TNT Title. After the match, Rhodes presented the championship belt to Allin on bended knee.
With all of that shared history in mind, Darby Allin recently commented on Rhodes’ move back to WWE and his quest to become World Champion. Speaking to the New York Post, Allin explained that he’s happy that Rhodes is happy.
“I’m just happy if he’s happy,”
“That’s all it comes down to. [There are] different roads everyone can take on this journey in professional wrestling. I know I wouldn’t be happy doing anything outside of AEW because of all the free time, all the skating that I get to do, and all my side projects, and the craziness. I can’t be tied down to following a schedule that much. But if he finds that happiness, that’s all that’s important. That’s all that really matters to me. It’s nobody’s business but his own.”
Continuing on, the former TNT Champion reflected on his early matches with the second generation star.
“He saw the passion that I had to be in AEW in the beginning, and that’s why he chose me to wrestle him at Fyter Fest (in 2019),” Allin recalled. “That was my debut. We went to a 20-minute broadway. To kind of take a relative unknown and work a wrestler like myself at the time and do that, is very special.”
Darby Allin was most recently in action on AEW Dynamite where he as defeated by Jeff Hardy in the first round of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. The bout saw both men cheat death on more than one occasion, with Allin risking life and limb by jumping from a huge ladder in the ring onto Hardy, and a pile of chairs near the ramp.