During the latest DDP Snake Pit podcast, Darby Allin stopped by and recalled how he got signed to All Elite Wrestling.

“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. I took a loan out and then I remember I used to hit Cody up every day, just blow his phone up.

“I just heard there was this new company starting up and then this is before TV was even talked about. 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 continued.

“At the time, I was kind of being groomed to go to NXT and I saw the writing on the wall. 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.”