AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: Darby’s AEW World Title was played out masterfully, Thekla’s character is evolving well, Nick Wayne was reintroduced poorly

RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

DARBY ALLIN

Who else could this be, for the second week in a row? If you know the rules for my top spot, this will not be the case for Darby while he holds the title. He is at the top and will be treated as such.

Darby’s AEW World Title win was pretty perfect. The story they told, the way it played out, and the way it ended was done so well. If you’ve been watching wrestling as long as I have, you’ve seen this type of win now work. Did they telegraph what was going to happen? Yes. Did that take away from the moment? Hell no!

If you read my column last week you saw that I predicted this title win. It was not some crazy prediction but more just what I saw from the end of the PPV, to MJF going “dark” on social media, to the fact it was in the state of Washington. Everything told you this was a possibility even before we got to the show itself.

Then the show started and the AEW World Title match is kicking off the show. Now everything really starts to feel like Darby is going to win. Darby’s kind of all-over-the-place emotional speech in the beginning of was very on-brand for Darby was followed up by Bryan Danielson getting word from Tony Khan that the match isn’t going to happen….yet. So now we have two hours to build up the match.

So AEW hyped the match with insets, video packages, and reminders from the broadcast team throughout (which is something AEW should do more of for their main events in general). Once we got to the backstage segment where Sting showed up, I think the majority of us had an idea of what was about to happen. That said, I had goosebumps listening to Sting hype up Darby.

Now we are at the match and there was one more tell on what was about to happen. Did you pick up on it? MJF’s gear – specifically his trunks, knee pads, and boots – have been worn one other time. The last, and only, time MJF wore that set up was four years ago when Wardlow beat MJF at Double or Nothing 2022 – a match where MJF got no offense and was powerbombed ten times.

So just more storyline queues as to what was about to happen and we all know now. Darby hit four Coffin Drops and a headlock takeover for the win. For myself, I was completely caught up in the drama they had built for two hours. I can tell you exactly how it went.

The second coffin drop got me out of my chair. The third one had me screaming at the television “PIN HIM DARBY!! PIN HIM NOW!” The fourth one had me yell toward my wife, “Oh my god, Darby is going to do this!” And finally the headlock takeover over and I terrified my cat as I started jumping around excited for Darby’s win.

So I am, of course, behind the decision to give Darby the title. As I laid out last week, this doesn’t have to be a long title reign to be memorable or important. I said Darby should go on a title defense spree that will, in the end, be his downfall. So we start this week with Darby’s first defense of the AEW World Title against Tommaso Ciampa. This will be a perfect start to the reign.

One last thought. For a fan of Darby, like me, this has been a ten year journey to get here. I can tell you the first time I saw him wrestle was in Evolve 59 in a two minute loss to Ethan Page back in April 2016. From there, it was a war in Evolve between Darby and Ethan that cemented my appreciation and love for both wrestlers.

So, from April 2016 through to Darby’s AEW debut against Cody Rhodes at AEW Fyter Fest in July of 2019, I watched anything I could find of him. Darby on and off screen just spoke to someone like myself, someone who also suffered a lot of childhood trauma, someone who has also done plenty of things to his body because of that trauma.

This is what some people don’t get about Darby and his fanbase. It’s about everything he has gone through and continues to go through now for us, his fans. Cheers to you Darby, you definitely have a lifelong fan here in Maryland.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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1st Runner Up – THEKLA

Let’s stay with the AEW World Title and just switch divisions for another divisive character. Thekla, as I’ve said before, has “it.” Whatever that is, it’s hard to put into words, but she has it.

She beat Jamie Hayter at Dynasty and then beat Hayter’s tag team partner Alex Windsor four nights later on Collision. Now these aren’t your top top stars of the AEW Women’s Division, but Thekla is beating anyone put in front of her. Plus Thekla’s in-ring style feels different from what has been presented on AEW television, so it makes her feel fresh.

Add to that, Thekla has finally stopped trying to get over the word “toxic” in recent weeks and her mic work has gotten so much better for it. I genuinely laughed out loud on Dynamite when Windsor brought up that Thekla got fired from Japan and Thekla’s response got me: “I did not get fired from Japan. Okay, okay, I was fired from Japan! But I only got fired from Japan because they couldn’t handle Thekla!” Just a great charismatic response from a despicable heel.

If Thekla keeps this up, she will be the perfect bridge to Mercedes Mone or Toni Storm coming back. On top of that, she will be an undeniable main event female wrestler at the pace she is going, meaning a division could be built around Storm, Mone, and Thekla, which is not something many people would have thought during Thekla’s first few months.

FADING STAR OF THE WEEK

NICK WAYNE

Did you know Nick Wayne has been back from injury since February? I sure didn’t until I saw him show up during a graphic for a Collision match against Jon Moxley. Why has Nick been exclusively on ROH television? I’ve also heard that he will be in the New Japan Super Juniors Tournament, so why did he show up to lose to Mox before for the tournament?

Instead, Nick should have been kept off television until after the tournament. If they want to have him on ROH TV, then I guess that’s fine, but he should not be on anything AEW proper before the tournament. Then hype his return from injury and Japan. Nick already has the arrogance needed to be a heel down, so even if he loses the tournament he can easily explain why. Get that ROH Television Title off him and start building him as a weekly fixture on Dynamite and Collision.

At only 20 there is a long career ahead of Nick Wayne and Tony Khan could start building one of his future top stars, like he did with Darby, over the next few years. Nick and Darby clashing down the line as Nick ascends to the main event just writes itself. Followed up by Nick and Swerve, come on now this is just easy stuff. Plus non of this mentions the war he still needs to have with Christian Cage.