Mick Foley believes Darby Allin took some of the inspiration provided by his Cactus Jack character and combined it with a level of athleticism Foley himself could never have produced.
Speaking to TheSportster.com, Foley discussed Allin’s career in AEW and the influences he sees in his distinctive in-ring style. “I see Darby as someone who took the inspiration from Cactus Jack and added a whole lot of athleticism to it.”
Foley has long been associated with a physically punishing and high-risk approach to professional wrestling, but he believes Allin has taken elements of that philosophy in a different direction. “He did things that I could have never done, and he’s created a hybrid style that borrows from me a little bit and from others who are far more athletic than me, and he’s made it his own.”
Foley compared that process to the way he developed his own wrestling identity. Rather than simply copying the performers who influenced him, Foley said he combined different elements of Bruiser Brody and Dynamite Kid, whose real name was Tommy Billington. “In the same way that I basically took one part Bruiser Brody, one part Tommy Billington, and made it my own.”
Foley believes Allin has successfully done the same thing with the influences that shaped him. “He’s created a hybrid style that works for him and has made him one of the biggest stars of this new generation.”
Allin has been with AEW since the promotion’s inaugural year in 2019 and has established himself as one of the company’s most recognizable homegrown stars, with his willingness to take extraordinary physical risks becoming a defining part of his career.
