‘My Body Was So Depleted’

Darby Allin has detailed what it meant to win the AEW World Championship for the first time, revealing that he was initially too tired to fully grasp what he had accomplished.

While speaking to “Forbes,” Allin said that 2026 has been the best year of his career so far, stating how he didn’t think he could’ve topped 2025. The biggest highlight of his 2026 is winning the AEW World Championship, which Allin acknowledged as a memorable moment, but said that he was too drained to fully appreciate it.

“It’s funny because I felt nothing, and that’s because my body was so depleted. I was so beat into the ground leading up to that week, dude. It took everything to get to that point. So afterwards, it felt numb. It was crazy,” said Allin.

The AEW star eventually realized the magnitude of his achievement after he rested and caught his breath. He emphasized that winning the title, particularly the way he did it and by doing it from the heart, is what wrestling is all about.

“But moments after, when I finally got to the back and started to decompress, I realized that I climbed to the top of AEW without having to compromise myself, and that meant everything to me. Because to me, what’s the point of becoming a world champion if you’re just an industry plant and what you’re doing is not from the soul and isn’t pure?” he asked. 

Allin was confident within a year of starting his AEW career that he would become a world champion in the promotion, which eventually came true earlier this year. Allin’s world title reign, though, wasn’t a significantly long one, as he held it for just under 40 days before losing it to the man he won it from — MJF. But,