As someone who will always have a place in his heart for the chaotic world of ECW, the August 27 episode of “AEW Dynamite” was right up my street. A show that was so ECW-coded that, if you listened closely, you could hear Tony Khan backstage doing his best Paul Heyman impression by writing down the card for this Saturday’s “AEW Collision” on a napkin. However, a show in the 2300 Arena wouldn’t be complete without a bit of hardcore action, and there is no one better at producing high-quality, “Oh My God, he’s dead” matches than Darby Allin.
Darby has virtually mastered his own genre of match, “Darby Death.” The way it works is Darby throws himself around the arena like a human pinball, takes an ungodly amount of punishment, bumps that even the legends of ECW would look at and go “Yeah, I’m already not getting paid, so I’m definitely not doing that,” before fighting from underneath to get the underdog victory. It’s perhaps one of the best formulas in all of wrestling right now, as it is incredibly entertaining, and for the people who don’t like the guy due to all of the things he’s been accused of in the past, the sight of him getting murdered in real time is something that they can cheer for as well.
This Falls Count Anywhere match with Claudio Castagnoli already had high expectations, given their pair of matches from late 2024 being excellent, and the fact that when he’s paired with someone much bigger than him, Darby will go above and beyond to make his opponent look like an absolute killer. That’s exactly what happened with this one, as right from the jump, Darby leaps off the top of what looked to be a shipping container to kick things off, and 20 seconds later, he is launched “Jackass” style into a sea of chairs from a shopping cart, before being slammed through a flatscreen TV.
When they finally get into the 2300 Arena, Darby and Claudio make great use of the surroundings by having Darby climb one of the building’s support beams for a Coffin Drop, and by having Claudio do his best Bam Bam Bigelow impression by launching Darby out of the ring and through the announce table. Back in ECW, Spike Dudley would have been caught by a sea of fans, but in AEW, Darby Allin gets caught by an announce desk that Excalibur keeps trying to convince me is solid oak, but I’m just not buying it, dude, I’m sorry, it’s too flimsy.
There were weapons galore, the ringside area looked like a tornado ran through it, and after making Claudio look as strong as he’s ever been, Darby gets the win to wrap up the show-long story of him wanting to face Jon Moxley at All Out. One of the most entertaining TV matches of the year so far, Darby Allin is back in AEW, and he’s only going to get crazier from here.
Written by Sam Palmer
