During a recent appearance on ESPN’s Sportsnation podcast, AEW Superstar and current TNT Champion Darby Allin commented on his relationship with Tony Hawk, how skateboarding prepared him for pro wrestling, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his relationship with Tony Hawk: “So, Tony, I used to film stunts for him back in 2011, way before I stepped in a wrestling ring. So, fast forward all these years later, this kid that used to film stunts for him, he ended up seeing me as a professional wrestler. So, it ended up coming full circle. I started skating with him, going to warehouses. Crazy time.”
On his thoughts on the similarities between skate culture and wrestling culture: “It’s crazy. Nothing has gotten me more ready to get into professional wrestling than skateboarding. All the years of falling on concrete, it totally shaped me to be who I am today. I just like to be the guy who takes the skateboarding world and mix it into the wrestling world.”
On his cinematic inspirations for his filming style: “I would say guys like [Joker director] Todd Phillips, or anybody in the sense that would do like crazy documentaries. Like Todd Phillips did stuff like that. Like that raw, gritty type filming. I love that. I live for that, you know. Just that really, really crazy style of directing where you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
On getting pulled over by police while filming his last PPV entrance: “My entrance I was filming for the pay-per-view last month [at AEW Revolution] with Sting, we were filming that entrance, and we got pulled over three times by the cops. Yeah. … They just saw me skating down the street. It was like three in the morning, and I was in my face paint, speeding in a truck, and they were like, ‘What’s going on here?!’ ‘It’s for professional wrestling, AEW.’
