The Darby Allin one month title reign plan – By Wrestle G

Hello to all here at NoDQ.com the website where Wrestling Column Royalty reside. Now I don’t normally churn out a column so close to my last but there is something in me that just feels like writing about wrestling at the moment, so rather than supress it I figured its better to share my work with the world instead.

I am very blessed to be able to write on this website, and I’ve had a blast doing it. Thank you to everyone who’s dropped a comment and interacted with my opinions here I very much appreciate and have plenty more to come.

Not much has happened in the wrestling world since my last column on Friday, but a few wrestling thoughts before we get into the main topic:

– We did get a Smackdown episode where I thought they gave Royce Keys a nice shine. He looked pretty good standing in the ring with two genuine main event talents in Cody Rhodes and Gunther. If Managers were more prevalent, I feel like Royce presentation would benefit from one. But he’s doing ok and it’s been a decent start to his life on TV in the WWE.

– ROH Supercard of honour was on Friday as well and these ROH PLE’s throw up a few curve balls here and there and people return and other people make surprise appearances. They remind me very much of the old ECW shows where people would breeze in and out. Matt Tavern and Mike Bennett made returns while Swerve showed up to keep his feud with Bandido going. Swerve and Bandido has potential to be match of the night for sure next week.

– AEW needs to tone down the Gimmick matches at the moment. Mark Briscoe and Tamasso Ciampa is now a no DQ match, but I think it would have benefitted from being a straight up traditional match. Briscoe can go without the bells and whistles and sometimes I’d like them to show that.

– I didn’t touch on any of the releases from a few weeks ago. But suffice to say that if the New Day go to AEW then I want a serious evaluation of the Tag Division and some priority given to it. I’m talking feuds between teams that are not just for the belts and some actual development of the division and shine a light on it. So many great potential match ups, I hope that AEW can capitalise.

Right let’s get stuck into our main event of the column:

The Darby Allin one month title reign plan

So, the plan is really simple, you have a title defence for Dynamite and a title defence on Collision once a week and then one more on the PPV. Here is the simple formula for the Darby Allin Title Reign Plan. To say that Darby’s time as champion has been unique would be a bit of an understatement. We have had champions of lower tier belts do the open challenge gimmick which can be fun, but we’ve never really had a world championship with this distinction. And while it isn’t a Darby Allin open challenge that we have here, there are certainly echoes of it. We have had guys from up and down the card make challenges and every show since Darby has won it’s felt like the world title is on everyone’s mind. Darby while not proposing an open challenge has been accepting each and every one.

My gut feeling here is that this points towards an MJF win at Double or Nothing. Originally, I was convinced Darby would win and that the hair stipulation was because MJF had a movie commitment where he had to have his hair cut and this was a good way of getting a good match out of that situation.

*(Quick aside, once upon a time John Larauntis had Danny Bashams hair cut to see what it looked like. Danny Basham then turned up to an OVW taping and gave Jim Cornette an aneurysm that one of his top stars looked completely different. Told Laurinaitis he could have just told him to book a hair match and they could have made some business out of it. I’ve always enjoyed that story)

I digress…. So originally, I was convinced MJF needed that haircut, but the more this title reign goes on the more I think that isn’t the case. I think this title run has almost been a speed run version of a world title reign. Instead of making Darby a fighting champion over multiple PPV’s we have seen lots of mini feuds with a reign booked upon the foundation of strong matches.

Now I like this for two reasons, firstly I like the fact that Darby has a focus on his in ring rather than having to build feuds with Mic work or angles. I don’t think Darby comes across terribly well when he has to push a match or feud through any kind of out of the ring way. The way they are doing it is that he gets to tell his stories through matches and he is a fantastic wrestling storyteller in this way. Secondly, I think it makes his time as champion infinitely more memorable. We’ve seen plenty of transitional title reigns over the years and there’s been very few that have had much of an impact. If Darby Does lose at Double or Nothing then I think it’s safe to say plenty of people will remember it, and on that level, they have nailed it.

I will address a common criticism I’ve seen of this way of booking and one which I think has merit. That this option devalues the belt. If any Tom Dick or Harry can call their shot, then what’s the point of the Owen tournament? Shouldn’t a guy just challenge Darby and run to the front of the line?

I think you do have use your suspension of disbelief a little here and it isn’t strictly a home run in terms of logic. However, I would counter that the Owen Tournament isn’t just about getting the title shot, it’s a tournament to honour one of the best professional wrestlers to lace up a pair of boots. So, there is a prestige to being in the tournament outside of the opportunity for the title.

I don’t think AEW or Darby can sustain this kind of schedule if he wins past Double or Nothing so it would make sense to me that MJF wins back his BBB and goes into a defence against Will Ospreay at All In on August Bank Holiday Weekend at Wembley. But I think the way in which they have handled Darby will mean that people will want to see a future title reign from him, they will trust he can carry the belt and be his entertaining best. I’m pleased for him and I’ve enjoyed his time as champion much more than I thought I would when he first won it, as I didn’t feel the time was right at all for him to be crowned. Sometimes you just have to wait and see things play out I guess….

But as always what say you? Have you enjoyed Darby as Champ? Do you like him taking on all comers. What might you have done differently? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Cheers,

G