Pillars: The Mystique of Darby Allin

Prologue

It’s May 2021, about two years removed from the inaugural AEW Double or Nothing event. An AEW fan account tweets out a picture of Darby Allin, “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and Sammy Guevara, asking Twitter which of the four men has the highest ceiling. Amidst all the replies from fellow wrestling fans comes a now-deleted quote tweet from MJF that will directly change dialogue about AEW for years to come:

“Regardless of the fact that I despise these 3 men and the answer is obviously me…I’m known for calling a spade a spade…We were here from the start. We are the Pillars of AEW.”

AEW was certainly a place with a lot of young guys, and the four mentioned above were four notably great wrestlers from the very start, but they weren’t THE guys. They weren’t Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, or Cody Rhodes. They weren’t the young guy earmarked for being AEW’s top star, that being “Hangman” Adam Page. Heck, a few months after this tweet, the whole quartet (and arguably the roster at large) would be automatically pushed down the rungs just a bit further due to the debuts of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson.

But despite all of that, these four wrestlers were now “the pillars of AEW.” Long after MJF’s tweet got deleted, long after the tide-shifting ending of All Out 2021, and leading into the main event of this year’s Double or Nothing, Allin, Perry, Friedman, and Guevara have been canonized as the Four Pillars of AEW both in fan conversations and on AEW TV.

How did we get here? How did four young wrestlers go from losing (and in one case drawing then losing) in their debuts to being the headlining quartet atop AEW’s arguable biggest recurring pay-per-view event?

To tell (and eventually finish) the story, we have to start with a man we’ll be seeing a lot in this series: Cody Rhodes.

Fyter Fest 2019: An introduction to Darby Allin

In the first few months of their existence, AEW’s roster began to mold itself with indie veterans, joshi wrestlers, a couple of established stars like Jericho and Moxley, a wave of hungry up-and-comers, and The Elite.

These last two groups collided at the inaugural Fyter Fest event in 2019 when The Elite’s Cody Rhodes — hot off the match of the show at Double or Nothing in May and preparing for a main event tag match at July’s Fight for the Fallen — faced off in an exhibition match with the debuting Darby Allin.

Now, Darby Allin was presented as a lot of things before this match. Visually, he was a sort of emo skater boy with an affinity for skull-related face paint. On the Road To shows, this aesthetic was expounded upon, as he explained that the skull paint that took up half of his face was there to represent the fact that Darby feels “half dead” after surviving a car crash with his late uncle as a small child. Without that background knowledge, though, he was just a small, black-clad wrestler with some nice abs, a skateboard, and a sick theme song.

In the story, though, Darby was deemed a sort of unnecessary obstacle for Cody, as commentary hammered home that this was a match that Cody simply didn’t need to wrestle. “Wins and losses matter” was the key talking point of AEW at the time, and between Cody coming off a huge singles win, Cody aiming for a huge tag team win, and Darby aggressive about giving Cody a 1-1 win/loss record, Jim Ross and Co. were baffled as to why Cody would agree to this fight.

The reasoning was simple: Cody felt untouchable, and he underestimated Darby.

Cody at the time could’ve spun the story any way he wanted. “I want to give young stars a platform.” “I need to test myself against smaller guys before I fight the Young Bucks.” “I just like Darby Allin.”

Whatever Cody’s mouth was saying, anyone who saw the match could tell that Cody was taking Darby lightly. Cody wasn’t going for too many pins. He was reversing Darby’s own reversals and moving on to his next move without worry. He was slinging Darby out of the ring and doing push-ups. At least for the first half of this match, Cody had no doubt he was winning in the end, even after Darby smashed Cody’s hand into the turnbuckle. Cody shook it off, and he kept moving.

Then, when Darby saw his opening, he squeezed Cody’s injured hand. He punched Cody’s fingers. Bit them. Headbutted them. Wrenched them back, hoping Cody would tap.

Cody withstood the pain, but the ferocity of Darby was enough to add minutes to a match that Cody probably thought he could win before the 10-minute warning. By the time Cody started trying harder — hitting a Cross Rhodes off the top turnbuckle or a Disaster Kick onto Darby while Darby stood up in a body bag — it was all too late.

Darby was nearly the maker of his own undoing, as he attempted a Coffin Drop onto Cody while Cody lied on the apron. Cody dodged out of the way and watched as Darby fell to the mat ringside, seemingly lifeless. Then, Cody still tried to be fancy with Darby and the body bag, trying to put together his own highlight reel instead of taking Darby seriously as the threat that Darby was.

When Cody hit the Cross Rhodes, Darby wasn’t going to kick out. But right before the ref could count to three, time expired. Darby never gave up, and though it was only a draw, and while he would’ve lost were there just one more second in that match, Darby still proved to Cody, the commentary table, and everyone watching at home that the thing that made him special was the very word he got tattooed on his neck upon joining AEW.

Darby Allin was relentless.

The Danger of Darby Allin

Darby’s scrappiness and his general lack of self-preservation skills were once again on display a few months later when Darby became the first person to ever challenge the AEW Champion, facing Chris Jericho on Dynamite a few months after Jericho became the inaugural champion at All Out 2019. By this point, Jericho’s Inner Circle was a fully formed stable, and with Darby Allin pointedly having no friends (having lost the two he’d only just gained between Fight for the Fallen in July and All Out that September), this no holds barred championship match was going to essentially be a 5-on-1 match.

Darby did not care, fighting just as hard during his championship match no matter how many Inner Circle guys interfered in the match. Jericho even taped Darby’s arms behind his back, and despite this handicap, Darby still took Jericho out with a chair and got Le Champion in Coffin Drop-position before the then-impossibly strong Jake Hager took him out. Darby tapped out in the Walls of Jericho, but only because there was literally nothing else he could do to get out: no rope break, no hands if there WERE rope breaks, and increasingly blurry vision thanks to Hager’s punch.

A lot of Darby’s early rivalries were ones where the established stars simply imposed their will on Darby despite Darby’s successes lower on the card. PAC beat him to get another title shot. Moxley beat him once for fun and once to retain his title in Darby’s second attempt at the AEW World Championship. But nothing was more frustrating for Darby than his continued rivalry with Cody.

Cody took Darby seriously in Round 2 and beat the younger star on the first Dynamite of 2020. When the two met again a few months later during the TNT Championship tournament, Darby actually had Cody beat when he hit him with the Coffin Drop, but his inexperience led to Cody simply shifting his own weight and pinning Darby while Darby thought he was pinning Cody. Darby had his relentlessness and even a lot of power, but matches like these proved that he didn’t have what it took to beat the top guys in AEW, or at least not yet.

There were signs of more to come from Darby early on. Darby not only beat pretty much everyone he came across on AEW Dark, but he also got his first big pay-per-view win at Revolution 2020 when he beat Sammy Guevara, someone Darby personally blamed a lot of his Inner Circle strife on. Darby was also able to repeat that success in a rematch with Guevara on Dynamite a few months later, plus some wins over guys like Will Hobbs, Ricky Starks, and even a tag win over new rival Brian Cage.

By November 2020, when Darby Allin was once again slated to face Cody Rhodes but this time for the TNT Championship, the balance shifted between the two men because Darby wasn’t JUST an underdog anymore. Sure, no one really thought Darby was going to beat Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship a few months earlier, but a match with Cody — someone he already knows well — and a match for the only recently established TNT Championship? Darby was due for a coronation, and he got just that at Full Gear 2020, as Darby didn’t out-fight but rather out-wrestled Cody Rhodes with a victory roll to become TNT Champion for the first time.

The Heart of Darby Allin

Though winning the TNT Championship didn’t magically make Darby competitive with the likes of Moxley, Jericho, or PAC, the win over Cody and the reign that followed gave Darby some much-needed shine within the upper-midcard lot he found himself in.

Darby’s nearly year-long feud with Team Taz finally ended with Darby beating Brian Cage in an amazing match at New Year’s Smash. Darby then defended his championship against other giants like the Butcher, legends like Matt Hardy, and even another promising upstart in Jungle Boy, with Darby coming out on top against all challengers.

But the aspect of Darby’s reign that puts his heart on display was the respect that Darby regularly paid the late Mr. Brodie Lee during this run. Before Darby, Brodie was the only person besides Cody to hold the TNT Championship, and with Brodie having left us right around the time Darby’s reign began, Darby made sure to honor Brodie by giving the Dark Order multiple shots at his belt. Though Darby did turn back both John Silver and Ten during their attempts, the fact that Darby would even think to give them shots explicitly because of their relationship with Brodie was a bit of character that not everyone expected out of the gothic, anti-establishment skater that Darby walked up as at Fyter Fest 2019.

The other aspect of Darby that was surprisingly wholesome was his relationship with Sting, the once-retired legend who debuted in AEW at the end of 2020 and immediately made it clear that he was interested in associating with this younger, similarly face-painted wrestler. Sting stated that something about this place looked real familiar, pointing at Darby’s face and the way that Darby always seemed to be stalking the ring from the rafters, but aside from some superficial stuff, Sting and Darby were two pretty different wrestlers. And at first, you also wouldn’t think that Darby would look at a legend and ask for any advice, especially after Darby blew Taz off back in May.

Yet, as Darby did accept Sting and started wrestling with him, the two very obviously grew close to one another on-screen. Darby went from having no friends or fleeting friends to having one strong ally who was always in his corner. Darby went from having pretty subtle displays of charisma to co-opting Sting’s “It’s showtime” catchphrase and beating his chest in the ring.

Sting, meanwhile, turned into a whole daredevil, becoming way more like Darby than Darby turned into Sting.

Darby has said on AEW TV that Sting isn’t his father or even a mentor, but rather they are friends. The idea and visual of Darby being friends with a WCW legend who was retired for five years and is now wrestling like a 20-year-old again because of Darby just feels nice, and while it may have once felt out of character, it kind of IS the character now.

CM Punk specifically called out Darby Allin for his return match after seven years away because Darby is the future and could really push Punk to the edge. Moxley and the notoriously paranoid Eddie Kingston formed their own part-time trio with Darby that wrestled on many a Dynamite together, all the while with Sting cheering them on ringside. When the Hardy Boys needed help fighting the Andrade Family Office, they went straight to Darby and Sting for backup; then, when Jeff Hardy and Darby Allin met in the Owen Hart Cup, the two forwent the rulebook and decided to go all out on one another not out of hatred, but because of mutual respect. Heck, Darby Allin was part of the Great Muta’s retirement match this year despite never having interacted with Muta outside of one AEW Grand Slam appearance last September.

Darby may not be the warmest of individuals, but if he were to find himself at a numbers disadvantage again like he was with Chris Jericho in 2019, it would only be because Darby would request to go it alone himself, not because he’s without friends. Darby has one of the most robust lists of loose friendships of anyone in AEW not literally called a Best Friend, and it’s a welcome yet far cry from what he was at the start of his AEW career.

Darby and the Other Pillars

Though the “pillars” motif was initially brought up by MJF in a Twitter thread earlier in the year, the concept became canonized on AEW TV in the lead-up to Full Gear 2021, as MJF went on a tirade about how he had beaten everyone he needed to beat by then, especially the pillars. He’d beaten Jungle Boy. He’d beaten Sammy Guevara. And, simply, Max was just better than Darby Allin, so there’s no point in addressing that.

Then, Darby came out to challenge that hypothesis.

With this new dynamic of Jungle Boy, Sammy Guevara, MJF, and Darby Allin being the four pillars on TV, it immediately heightened the stakes between Darby and MJF. The air was more tense; the camerawork got upped. Darby and MJF had barely interacted, if at all, in AEW, and this first crossing of their paths had a new way to hook the crowd because of it the framing: these are two of the four most crucial members on the AEW roster.

As we approach Double or Nothing 2023 and watch AEW’s pillars interact on a weekly basis, their relationships with each other will likely change dramatically, but the barbs they’ve thrown at one another, particularly on the April 19, 2023, edition of Dynamite, are all rooted in their stories up to this point.

Darby and Sammy have fought each other the longest, their first interaction coming as early as the third episode of Dynamite, plus their pay-per-view match in March 2020, less than a year into AEW’s run as a company. Darby says he likes Sammy the most of the pillars, and though they’ve fought the most, that statement holds up. A little over a year ago, Darby and Sammy were teaming up with each other at Revolution 2022, two years after their first match, and right after Sammy finally beat Darby (though not without unrequested interference from Andrade El Idolo). Though their most recent interaction was a fourth singles match in the lead up to Grand Slam 2023 where Sammy purposefully cheated to win, Darby still generally had a better relationship and respect for Sammy prior to the Four Pillars Tournament this year.

Darby’s issue with Jungle Boy is his belief that Jack worked the least to get here. Jungle Boy was hired by AEW out of the California indie loop while Darby Allin was still living in his car, and when Bret Hart was in the ring at Double or Nothing, Jungle Boy was right there with MJF, being highlighted as one to watch from the very start. Darby’s fought and beaten Jungle Boy since then, and he doesn’t believe that Jungle Boy’s worth the hype. And why should he? Jungle Boy’s wins were mostly tag matches, and all of his previous title matches were open challenges for the TNT Championship, a belt Darby had to grind for.

Finally, there’s MJF, who Darby grilled during MJF’s “re-bar mitzvah” back in March. Darby’s biggest problem with MJF is a problem he has with all of AEW, as Darby is so incredibly grateful to even be in AEW — which, again, is the root of his issues with Jungle Boy. Darby Allin had to scratch and claw to get near MJF’s level and he’s proud of the results, but MJF has everything Darby wants and still gloats about how he wants out of his AEW contract. MJF’s ungrateful, and he’s sank below everyone in AEW to rise to the top, and for MJF, all of that worked. These are depths that Darby refuses to sink to, though, and now that he’s as close to the AEW Championship as ever, Darby knows this is as good a time as ever to display his philosophy.

At Double or Nothing, Darby Allin needs to prove to himself and to the other pillars that Darby could achieve everything MJF has achieved without having to be MJF. Darby has a strong work ethic. He has a surprisingly large heart. He is someone you can’t allow yourself to underestimate.

At Double or Nothing, Darby Allin could become AEW World Champion.

At Double or Nothing, Darby Allin may prove to be the best of the Four Pillars.