Tony Khan details how Darby Allin returning for the Anarchy in the Arena match at AEW Double or Nothing came about.
Darby Allin had been sidelined since March with a broken foot. In April, he broke his nose when he got hit by a bus. Allin was revealed as Eddie Kingston’s replacement on Team AEW on the May 15 episode of AEW Dynamite.
During the AEW Double or Nothing media call, Liam Crowley of ComicBook.com asked Khan about Darby Allin returning for the match. He also asked whether any other talent had reached out about wanting to be on Team AEW.
“The Darby thing was a case of great minds think alike,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with him. We are at complete opposite ends of, sometimes I think of a very similar brain. [We] arrive at a lot of the same thoughts very differently. I think our interests outside of pro wrestling and the way we spend our time is very different. One thing we have in common is we’re both up late at night a lot, though. That’s when we probably do 90% of our talking.
“I reached out to him one night, and I think he read my mind. I texted him to ask, ‘Hey, how are you doing? How’s it going with the injury rehab?’ He responded immediately, ‘I’m doing good. I can fill in and substitute for Eddie Kingston as the partner on Team AEW at Anarchy in the Arena if you’d like.’ [Laughs] So he knew what I was thinking. Before I asked the question, he answered it.”
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Tony Khan then described how plenty of people wanted to step up and join AEW, and they would have been excellent, but Darby Allin was the perfect choice. He also stated that he would not have put Allin in the match if he was not cleared.
“There were a lot of people that wanted to step up and be a part of Team AEW, there were a lot of names I think that would have been great,” Tony Khan said. “There were a lot of people that could have stepped into this role and done excellent with it. I think that for AEW, looking at where we were last week and for this match, taking everything into account, I think Darby Allin was the perfect choice. But I also think there’s a lot of people that would have been excellent in the spot if Darby had not able to get cleared.
“If he had not gotten cleared, I would not have pushed him in there, even if he had wanted, which I think he would have wanted to. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But it was really cool how he wanted to step up before I even got the question out and he answered it. I thought that was neat.”
Team AEW will face The Elite in an Anarchy in the Arena match at AEW Double or Nothing.
WrestleZone will have live coverage of AEW Double or Nothing as it airs on Sunday, May 26.
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