ESPN has restored the AEW section to its website, with a feature on AEW World Champion Darby Allin. The article, written by Andreas Hale and titled “AEW’s Darby Allin keeps tempting fate and coming back for more,” was published ahead of Double or Nothing on Sunday. AEW shared the feature on its social media accounts on May 20.
The feature details a lifetime of extreme behavior that predates Allin’s wrestling career. From a skateboard kickflip completed at 20,998 feet during a Mount Everest summit, to a front flip off a piano onto concrete at age five, to a 100-foot jump on a Can-Am holding bicycle handlebars at Travis Pastrana’s house days after winning the AEW World Championship, Allin has broken only three bones across his entire wrestling career despite the nature of his work.
He summited Everest on May 18, 2025 at 8:40 a.m. local time, becoming one of fewer than 7,000 people to complete the ascent since the first successful summit in 1953. At the top, he planted an AEW flag and recorded a video proposing to his girlfriend Sarah.
On his philosophy, Allin told ESPN: “If the worst that is going to happen to me is dying, so be it. It’s fine, but it’s not worth sitting by and watching this life go by and doing nothing interesting with it.”
Allin won the AEW World Championship on April 15, 2026, defeating MJF in under three minutes at Dynamite: Spring BreakThru at the Angel of the Winds Arena in Kennewick, Washington, ten miles from the Buddy Wayne Academy where he trained. He has made seven championship defenses since.
AEW President Tony Khan spoke about Allin’s role in the company for the article, saying Allin has been with AEW from the first episode of Dynamite and has become someone the fans truly believe in, and that it was the right time to make him both champion and the face of the company.
Allin’s championship defense at Double or Nothing is a title versus hair match against MJF. If MJF loses, he must shave his head.
AEW Double or Nothing takes place this Sunday, May 24 at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York. The show airs on HBO Max PPV at 8 p.m. ET. The Buy In begins at 7 p.m. ET on HBO Max, with Mick Foley joining Renee Paquette as co-host. The confirmed card is as follows:
AEW World Championship — Title vs. Hair: Darby Allin (c) vs. MJF (if MJF loses, he must shave his head)
AEW Women’s World Championship — Four-Way: Thekla (c) vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Kris Statlander vs. Jamie Hayter
AEW International Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita
AEW World Tag Team Championship — I Quit New York Street Fight: FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage (if Copeland and Cage lose, they cannot team together again)
AEW Continental Championship — No Time Limit: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Stadium Stampede — 14-Man: Chris Jericho, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Kenny Omega, Jack Perry, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson vs. Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, Toa Liona, Mark Davis, Andrade El Idolo, Clark Connors and David Finlay
Men’s Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal: Will Ospreay vs. Samoa Joe
Men’s Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal: Swerve Strickland vs. Bandido
Women’s Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal: Willow Nightingale vs. Alex Windsor
5-Minute Tag Team Eliminator: Divine Dominion (Megan Bayne and Lena Kross) vs. Zayda Steel and Viva Van (if Steel and Van survive, they earn a future AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship shot)
10-Man Tag Team: Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe, Roderick Strong, AJ Befumo and QT Marshall vs. Shane Taylor Promotions
