Darby Allin says he paid $12,000 to get out of a wrestling contract so that he could sign with AEW.
Allin recently appeared on the DDP Snakepit podcast with WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page, and talked about how he found out Cody Rhodes wanted to bring him to AEW in 2019. Allin said he was signed to “another little promotion” at the time, but took out a loan so he could pay $12,000 to get out of the deal.
“At the time, I was signed with another little promotion, and then the moment I heard that Cody was interested, long story short I paid $12,000 to get out of my contract,” Allin revealed. “I took a loan out and then I remember I used to hit Cody up every day, just blow his phone up.”
Allin had been working with WWN and EVOLVE from 2016-2019.
Allin said he knew AEW was where he needed to be.
“I just heard there was this new company starting up and then this is before TV was even talked about,” he recalled. “I was like this is crazy. All I heard when they were promoting it was the word ‘creative freedom’ and I was like, ‘That’s where I need to be.'”
Allin noted that he had interest from WWE NXT at the same time, but he knew he wanted to join AEW.
“At the time, I was kind of being groomed to go to NXT and I saw the writing on the wall,” he said. “This was back when 205 Live was a thing if you remember 205 Live, and I was like, ‘Hell fucking no, I’m not going there to do that.’ It was a feeling I had that I had to go [to AEW], I was just so drawn to it.”
Allin last wrestled on the August 10 Quake By The Lake edition of AEW Dynamite, defeating Brody King in a Casket Match. He and Sting are expected to team with Miro to face The House of Black at AEW All Out this Sunday.
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