As noted, Darby Allin appeared as a guest on the latest episode of INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet.
In addition to the highlights from the interview that we previously published here on the website, the AEW pillar also spoke about a match he was supposed to have with GUNTHER in the past,
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On a match he was supposed to have with GUNTHER during his days as WALTER: “Dude, it was my favorite on the independents. It was so fun. It was incredible. I remember that. I just remember I was supposed to originally wrestle him a month prior, but, I had this crazy, crazy injury where I was bleeding from the brain, and it was like a double shot where I wrestled in the morning and I was supposed to wrestle GUNTHER at night — WALTER at the time — wrestle him at night. Two shows in one day and then the morning show, I hit the concrete on my head so hard… Everything started to get quiet and felt like something was swelling and I could barely hear people. I was like, ‘Oh, this ain’t normal.’ Went to the hospital and like, ‘You’re bleeding from the brain. We had to put you under,’ and stuff like that. So, it’s pretty crazy. But imagine if I didn’t go to the hospital. I probably would have died that night against WALTER. But yeah, fast forward, I end up having the singles match with him and it was incredible. It was so fun. It was so fun because when I’m in there, I love being in the ring with guys where you can actually be lost in the moment. Guys like GUNTHER, Brody King. All these people where it feels like I’m in a real fight. It’s gnarly. That was incredible.”
On how only 7,000 people have climbed Mount Everest: “Yeah, I don’t know. It just puts things into perspective, kind of how small your problems are, what you think is so big really doesn’t mean a thing. It’s very humbling when you’re up there, because it’s hard to have an ego when you’re fighting for your life on a daily basis. Because you don’t care about how you look, you don’t care about how you smell. You just want to survive. So it’s pretty cool to be in that type of energy.”
On how there is a real possibility you could die up there and if he said his goodbyes before you went up there: “Yeah, absolutely. I climbed with my mom and my brother to base camp, and the base camp hike, to a lot of people it’s no joke, it takes like 10-12 days. The elevation is like 17,000 [feet]. But the reality hit me when my mom and my brother were leaving base camp, and now I had to stay behind to actually go for the summit, and I was going to be there for another month after they left, but when I saw them walking away, the reality hit, oh sh*t, this might be the last time you see them. Then it just thought about, this might be the last time you’ve seen anybody. I was like, Oh crazy. So I went in my tent and I cried, and I filmed a little vlog about it and stuff, being like, there’s no way I’m gonna die on this mountain. I’m gonna summit, then I’m going to come back down and see a lot of people. So it was a commitment I made to myself when I was up there.”
On the reason he wanted to do it: “What I said earlier, I wanted to tell myself I was capable of anything, because you find yourself on this hamster wheel in wrestling. There’s no off-season. It’s all year long. And sometimes you feel like you’re living your life for somebody else. I wanted to really find out who I was going to be on the other side of Everest, and I didn’t want to live my life for somebody else. I wanted to really prove to myself what I was capable of. Because it goes back to the politicking and everything like that and the egos. I can’t stand it.”
Also during the interview, Darby Allin admitted he doesn’t know if winning the AEW World Title matters to him.
