Darby Allin Reflects on His Cody Rhodes Reference on AEW Dynamite

On AEW Dynamite Darby Allin and Sting confronted the Young Bucks who sneak attacked the newly crowned AEW World Tag Team Champions last week. During his promo, he would give a nod to none other than Cody Rhodes who was a founding member of AEW before he went back to WWE and a big part of Allin's AEW career. "You know when I was homeless and AEW first started, I begged you guys for a job. You saw nothing in me," Allin said to the Young Bucks. "Yet, I had to sit by and watch all your s--t friends get hired. Your little California crew. Thank God at the time there was an EVP here with a sense of brains, and I am not talking about Kenny Omega." 

Allin touched on his relationship with Rhodes a bit further in an interview with Digital Spy, noting that you have to give respect to where it is due. 

"That's easy because he's the reason I'm in AEW. You think back to my debut, I wrestled him at Fyter Fest and we went a 20-minute Broadway draw," Allin said. "For him to take a chance on me that early... I was relatively super unknown still, I was never really the guy on the independent scene. He did that. You've got to give respect where respect is due. I feel very strongly on paying homage to how I got here because I never thought I was going to get here. I begged people for jobs, I wasn't part of the little 'California crew.' I had to sit by and watch all these press conferences and have all these people that had no business being on national television get on national television. Meanwhile I knew exactly what I was capable of doing if I was given the opportunity. Fast forward all these years later and now look at me."

This isn't the first time that Allin has been outspoken about his relationship with Rhodes. In 2019, it was Rhodes who would bring Allin into AEW in the very early days. He became what many would refer to as a "pillar" of AEW (though he would reject that term). Allin's first match in AEW was at Fyter Fest 2019 against Rhodes where it ended in a time limit draw. Though there was no clear cut winner, that match would set Allin on an incredible trajectory in AEW as a two-time TNT Champion and a huge part of Sting's AEW career.

In just a few short weeks Allin and Sting will team up for the final time at AEW Revolution as they take on two-thirds of AEW's EVPs, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, otherwise known as the Young Bucks. The Jacksons have been looming over the tag team since their first stare down a few weeks ago when Sting was getting ready to declare his opponent for Revolution. It's been reported that Sting had a hand in choosing who he'd step into the squared circle with for the final time, mentioning the Young Bucks because he enjoyed their multi-man match from the inaugural Forbidden Door pay-per-view in 2022.