Darby Allin has looked back on the extreme range of emotions he felt heading into a major AEW match.
August 20th 2024 marked 3 years since CM Punk made his debut for AEW. Not only was this Punk’s first appearance for the company, but it was also his first appearance in a professional wrestling capacity since his infamous walkout from WWE in early 2014.
Receiving a thunderous ovation from the Chicago crowd, Punk soaked in the applause before getting down to why he had come back to professional wrestling. Thanking the fans for everything that they had done for him over the years and never forgetting him, Punk addressed what was next. Turning his attention to Allin, who was sitting in the rafters, Punk challenged the former TNT Champion to a match at All Out 2021.
Aware that the match would be the one that wrestling fans around the world would watch regardless of their opinion of Punk, Allin admitted that the nerves got the better of him. Speaking with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, Allin stated that he was so nervous about the match that he started puking:
“That was very insane. In an interview recently he said that was his favourite moment in AEW. I just remember how insane that day was and just everything that was going on. I was the most nervous I’ve ever been for a match, because I was like, oh man, I never thought this guy is going to return to wrestling and then you’re having his first match back.
I was super nervous and I was puking because I was so nervous. Sting is a religious man, and I’m not, I’m not religious at all. Sting saw how nervous I was and he’s like, Darby, do you mind if I say a prayer for you right now? I was like, Yeah, go for it, anything. I just had my head down, I’m so nervous.
Then he said the prayer, we went out there, and we had such a fun time. It was so fun working with Punk, it was really cool. I saw him a few weeks ago, it was fun to just catch up and be like, thank you for kind of giving me that opportunity to be the first guy to bring you out of, I’m not gonna say retirement, but you know what I mean, whatever hiatus he was on from the world of pro wrestling. So it was really cool.”
Continuing, Allin detailed the sense of relief after the match was over and that Punk was very happy with how the match played out:
“Right when we got done, he gave me a big hug and he said thank you. Then it was just like woah, we did it. When I broke my foot and I was gone for two months, when I came back for my first match back I was like oh man, I’m kind of nervous. He took a break for seven years. I couldn’t even imagine how that must have felt for him from the nerve level.
So it’s really cool that he had the trust in me to kind be the first one to do that. I think there was definitely for both of us that relief of it’s over. We got that over with, and we killed it. It was super fun and it was awesome.”
Darby Allin Hoping For Championship Victory At AEW All In
Competing at the All In pay-per-view on August 25th, Allin will challenge TNT Champion Jack Perry for the title in a coffin match. The previous year, Allin and Sting were victorious in a Coffin match against Swerve Strickland and Christian Cage.
Featured image: AEW
