'Risk it all': Darby Allin, AEW's diminutive daredevil champ, is riding this train until the wheels fall off
Standing 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds soaking wet, Darby Allin is far from your ordinary world champion. But then again, nothing about Allin should be considered ordinary.
Darby Allin had to delay climbing Mount Everest because he was hit by a bus crossing the street. The AEW World Champion is an impossible person in pursuit of the unreal, whether it’s standing atop the world’s most famous summit or holding All Elite Wrestling’s top prize. He’s also now the proud owner of both accomplishments, and as he heads into the biggest match of his career this Sunday at AEW Double or Nothing 2026 , it’s that same belief that no passion is out of reach which has Allin at the top of his game.
Salary details in pro-wrestling are hard to obtain, but there’s a greater than 0% chance that Allin would stay with AEW for a treasure map and a flight to the map’s “X. ” Some people want fame, some want stability, but he’s always chased that next thrill, that next impossible moment. Even joining AEW in its infancy in 2019 was a worthwhile risk for Allin, who was then wrestling for WWE-affiliated Evolve.
“When AEW first started, a lot of the people that were asked ‘AEW or WWE,’ they played it safe. They went to WWE. I was the exact opposite,” Allin recalls to Uncrowned.
“I'm like, ‘I need to be in AEW. I don't even know what AEW is, but I need to be there. ’ So I was down for the cause from the start.
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