When Cody Rhodes arrived back in WWE at WrestleMania 38 it marked the first time an AEW star had jumped across professional wrestling’s great divide. While there will undoubtedly be others who follow suit in the future, Jim Cornette believes that one particular former TNT Champion should not be one of them.
Over the course of his career in and around the weird and wonderful world of pro wrestling, Cornette has seen stars of all shapes and sizes come and go, some with more success than others. However, the legendary manager believes that size and wrestling style, would be a huge stumbling block for a current AEW star should they decide to head to WWE.
“I Don’t Think He Would Particularly Like It” – Jim Cornette
Speaking on a recent episode of his Jim Cornette Experience podcast, the wrestling personality discussed the idea of Darby Allin moving to WWE. This led to questions over whether Allin would be booked and presented in a similar way to Rey Mysterio in the past. Cornette noted that while Allin is slightly taller than Rey, he has a much smaller frame. He added that WWE wouldn’t like Allin’s current dare-devil in-ring style, and he wouldn’t want to change, making a potential move a bad fit.
“This is one case I wish we weren’t doing radio and actually had video. You look at a publicity picture of Rey Mysterio physically, body wise, from his days in, say the late 90’s in WCW and early 2000s In WWF. And then you look at Darby Allin’s physique today. Rey was shorter than Darby and jacked to the gills. Darby is a little taller than Rey and has to run around in a garden hose to get wet. He’s so thin, plus what I was gonna say was even more, is probably even more of a stumbling block in the WWE.
Obviously, I don’t know whether Darby Allin’s getting any direction, being given any direction, but if he is he won’t take any obviously and if he’s not, he might very well bow up under it because the first thing they would tell him is no more of these goddamn goofy stunts you do unless it’s something that we booked and that we’re shooting for video and to promote you with, and no more of these goddamn just goofy off the cuff things where you just fling yourself every which way in these matches because we’re going to make an investment in you.
We need you to hold up your end of the bargain and protect your body and take more calculated risks. And that’s not what Darby Allin is all about. I don’t think he’d make it 15 f*cking minutes in the WWE. I don’t think they would particularly like it, I don’t think he’d like it.”
From 2016 until 2019 Allin appeared for Evolve as well as Progress Wrestling. Interestingly, WWE were known to have a working relationship with Evolve while they also enjoy ties with Progress. During this period of his career Allin was being lined up for a move to WWE and 205 Live which served as the company’s cruiserweight brand, something he has since revealed he was very much against.
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