Oh, the places Darby will go

Darby Allin has been with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) since day one of the company's existence. And since day one, he has stood out as one of the stars that made AEW different. In a world where performers grasp for characters and gimmicks that will make them stand out, Darby Allin is a truly unique professional wrestler. And he just does it by being himself, and by being a different kind of dude.

Darby's style is different. His moves are differentt, from the mechanics to the explosiveness with which he moves. Darby's character is different, and so are the seemingly homemade movies that serve as his promo packages. And finally, for better or for worse, Darby's willingness to take risks is unlike anything I have ever seen.

That impulse for taking risks has taken Darby to a number of surprising and dangerous locations in the course of his movements and matches in AEW. Let's take a look at some of the places Darby has been.

Darby has been in a body bag

So have a number of his foes in various feuds. I wasn't sure how I felt about Darby Allin when I saw his first AEW match against Cody Rhodes over five years ago. Certainly he was unique. I just didn't know if he was for me.

The entire build to the match involved body bag imagery. In order to rationalize my own enjoyment of this silly art form, I think I talked myself into thinking that the body bag was more symbolic than literal. Darby was threatening to end Cody's reign or career, maybe, but he wasn't actually talking about putting Cody in a body bag.

That's what I told myself then. It's pretty clear now that I was overthinking it. Darby probably just meant that he was going to put Cody in the body bag.

What happened instead was that Darby ended up fully zipped into the body bag that he himself brought to the ring. And he didn't just lie there or squirm around in a state of panic the way most people would. No, Darby wrestled part of the match. He took actual moves while in a body bag.

That wasn't the last time Darby did this. It's always a weird visual.

It's a dark world view that informs Darby's character, which makes it all the more fascinating that he has always been one of the good guys. Always a baby face, never a heel, even as he drags an actual body bag to the ring.

Darby has been to Mount Everest

This is mostly a personal thing for Darby, it would seem, although it has been mentioned on AEW broadcasts and folded into stories. For our purposes here, Darby's character did continue a feud by cutting an actual promo from Mount Everest. After the video of that promo aired in the arena, complete with Darby's face red from the cold and covered in snow, he descended from the rafters.

When it comes to professional wrestling, the accepted wisdom is to never say never. But I feel pretty safe saying we won't ever see another promo from actual Mount Everest.

Darby has been in a shopping cart

There is an incredible pace to so many of Darby's matches. Things happen fast because he moves fast. In the case of his recent "falls count anywhere" match against Claudio Castiglioni, those boys didn't waste any time getting to the dangerous stuff.

Darby's first appearance in the match involved him jumping off a trailer onto Claudio. And that might not even crack the top five of the craziest places he ended up just in that match.

For example, it was only a few minutes later that Darby found himself stuffed in a shopping cart and hurdling towards an inexplicable row of chairs that was set up in the backstage area.

This was followed by Darby taking a bump through a flat screen television.

Neither of these were the most dangerous moment of the match. More on that shortly.

Darby has been up high on a pole

AEW could put together an impressive collection of highlights of wrestlers jumping from high places. Almost all of those highlights would involve the wrestler standing on their two feet and then jumping.

That might seem obvious. You might be wondering what the alternative is to "standing on your two feet" before you jump from a high place.

In Darby's case, you're hanging on to a pole that you just scaled, looking something like a gothic bear scurrying up a tree.

I think Darby has done this more than once. I have a vague memory of him pulling off a similar move during the COVID empty arena shows. But I know he did it during the insane match he had with Claudio Castiglioni, the same one that had the shopping cart.

Darby has been thrown to the ringside area

Many wrestlers have experienced the flight from the ring to the area below the ring. Sometimes they jump down themselves, usually in the form of an aerial wrestling move. Sometimes they are thrown in that direction. In both of these common scenarios, there is a wrestler or a group of wrestlers in the area to break your fall.

As you know by now, or as you have surely figured by now, the events of Darby Allin's matches would rarely be described as common scenarios.

I can think of two cases where a larger wrestler hoisted Darby up over their head and threw him out of the ring. Neither throw was just to floor below, and neither had a group of wrestlers with waiting arms.

Here was Darby, thrown by Claudio from the ring to the announcers' table.

And here was Darby, thrown from the ring to the crowd by Ethan Page.

Oh, the places Darby will go. He has been airborne in places most wrestlers can only imagine. And he has crashed to landing spots that should at least be described as unforgiving. They should probably be described as horrifying, particularly in the case of this fall from a ladder in the ring all the way to some gimmick glass and the floor.

Where else will Darby go?

We could keep listing locations. Darby has propelled down from the rafters of arenas. He has been on his skateboard on the entrance ramp and in the ring. He has ended up in thumb tacks and nails and cars and coffins.

When it comes to the wild places Darby will go, I am only confident that I won't be able to guess where it will be.