AEW TNT champion Darby Allin has revealed that he does not watch WWE or follow any wrestling promotion outside of AEW.
In a recent interview with Alfred Konuwa of Forbes, Allin explained that in order to preserve his unique character, which is largely favored by influences outside of professional wrestling, he avoids seeing other wrestling shows.
“I just watched skating videos. That’s all,” Allin said. “I don’t want to be inspired by anything. I want my work to be my own.”
Allin said that while he respects the skills of his peers, he prefers not to be inspired by his work.
“I know it’s like that with a lot of skaters, a lot of skaters don’t watch certain videos because they don’t want their skating to be inspired like me with wrestling,” he said. “I respect everyone’s work and things, but there comes a point where I just want to be in my own brain about things, I don’t want anyone to inspire me.”
During the interview, Allin also referred to his comparisons with professional wrestling legend Sting, who recently joined AEW on a multi-year contract. Allin and Sting are currently involved at an angle Dynamite AEW.
“The whole time I was sitting on the beams, I didn’t know I was alluding to anything,” Allin said of his comparison to Sting. “There’s nothing as great as having ‘The Ball’ for me to bring in someone of Sting’s caliber and you’re in charge of helping write his debut story. It’s no bigger than that. I take that very, very seriously, so he was telling me that “it’s time to work”.
Allin also revealed that Sting is “a big fan” of his vignettes and skateboard promotions and that he is currently tutoring the young star.
“I have received some advice [Sting]”Allin said.” He has seen some of the videos I have made and is a big fan of them. You can be in the game no matter how much you are in the game and constantly keep people intrigued.
“So if you could pick his brain, that would be number 1. Because he’s in a league of his own with this mystery and everything he controls. He controls the audience. When he came out and I’m just putting myself in that ring and the music starts, I didn’t have any feeling like that in wrestling while I was doing it … there’s nothing that beats it. It was like an out-of-body experience “
Allin captured the AEW TNT championship by defeating Cody Rhodes in AEW Full Gear.