Somebody in AEW is leaking to the wrestling wags that Darby Allin is being considered for a world title run.
I guess I’ll be the guy to tell them that this is an awful idea.
AEW already has enough trouble looking legit with the extended push given to the 5’10”, 160-pound Orange Cassidy as a top-level guy.
Putting the world title on the 5’8”, 175-pound Allin is the best way for Tony Khan to finally book AEW into oblivion.
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It simply strains believability to have these tiny guys, who aren’t being presented as shooters – i.e. guys with an extensive amateur wrestling background, who can be presented as being able to fight bigger than their size – engaging successfully with much bigger, and more talented, competitors.
Allin is entirely an aerial guy. I don’t know what Cassidy is; he’s a 160-pound guy whose finisher is a Superman punch, which makes no sense.
They’re attractions, like super-big guys (Satnam Singh: 7’2”, 400; Big Bill: 6’10”, 276; Lance Archer: 6’8”, 265) are attractions.
You don’t put belts on attractions, and you don’t put them at the top of the card.
The top of the card in AEW is, right now, Swerve Strickland, the current AEW world champ, who is listed at 6’1”, 233.
The company’s top guy, former world champ Maxwell Jacob Friedman, is 5’11”, 226.
Kazuchika Okada, who you can imagine will get a run with the world title at some point, is 6’3”, 236.
Will Ospreay, at 6’1”, 231, is another obvious future world champ.
A recent former world champ still hanging out near the top of the card, “Hangman” Adam Page, is 6’0”, 215.
None of those guys are Brock Lesnar (6’3”, 287) or Roman Reigns (6’3”, 265) size-wise, but each of those guys has at least 40 pounds on Allin, who, if he gets a run as the champ, would ostensibly also have to defend, in addition to the guys listed above, against the likes of a Samoa Joe (6’2”, 282) or a Will Hobbs (6’1”, 269).
WWE has had one world champ under 200 pounds – Rey Mysterio Jr., who is listed at 5’6”, 175.
Mysterio had two brief runs at the top – 28 days, and then less than one day – and they came deep in his career (he debuted in 1988, and was champ in 2010 and 2011).
Allin, who, no offense here, is no Rey Mysterio Jr., is 10 years into his career, without the long list of midcard championship runs that Mysterio had before getting his shots at carrying the company.
Putting the world belt on Allin would be gimmicky at best, and the real problem would come later, not only with who would come after him as the world champ, but down the line.
With guys like Strickland, MJF, Okada, Ospreay, Page and Hobbs all much better options for world title reigns going forward, the belt that they’d be fighting for would be one of much lesser value because of the gimmick run given to a tiny, flippy guy.
The TNT belt, currently held by Jack Perry (5’10”, 168), is a better prize for the Darby Allins, Orange Cassidys and Jack Perrys of AEW.
None of those guys should even get more than a one-off world title match, much less a reign.
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Chris Graham
