AEW star Darby Allin appeared on WTF with Marc Maron to discuss various topics, including his feelings after his expedition to Mount Everest.
Allin said, “I’m surprisingly feeling great. I thought coming back I was going to be all mangled and s***. Outside of wrestling and skateboarding, I do all these other crazy things. Pretty much, as soon as I got back, I was on a plane to the Bahamas to film Shark Week. It was a whole thing, but my body feels great. I feel mentally great. I learned so much inside of myself on that mountain. A lot of people say it’s not about summiting Mount Everest, it’s about conquering yourself and your inside and pulling stuff out.”
On how he felt when he made it to the summit:
“It’s a beautiful journey and pulling stuff out of you. When I got to the top of the mountain, I was crying. It was such an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. It’s pulling something out of yourself.”
On what it meant to him to reach the top of Everest:
“It’s proving to yourself that you’re capable of anything. I know that sounds generic, but honestly, in the pro wrestling world, the guy who runs the show controls how far you’re going to make it or how well you’re going to make it. Someone is in control of your destiny. It’s not like boxing or MMA where, ‘I’m going to prove I’m the f***ing best by knocking you out.’ It doesn’t work like that in wrestling. It is so much politicking and random s*** that goes into it. I wanted to prove to myself that I’m f***ing capable of it. You can’t politic your way up that mountain. There is no helicopter that goes up that high where you can jump out and take a photo on the summit, ‘I climbed Everest,’ and lie to people. You have to track and crawl your way up that s***.”
On how it reminds you of what you’re capable of:
“That’s where it was so humbling to remind myself what I’m capable of because you get into the world wrestling…there is nothing else like the world of wrestling to me. It’s the most amazing job in the world for someone like myself because it’s stunts, acting, and it checks all the boxes I’m very passionate about, but on the flip side, someone else controls your destiny. Someone else controls how far and how well you’re going to make it. You can have this passion, ‘I’m the f***ing man.’ ‘No, you’re not, you’re going to be losing every week.’ I see the world of wrestling and I love wrestling, but it’s crazy how people get into this small bubble and it allows them to be chewed up and spit out when all it is is a 15-minute ride. If you don’t focus on your real life, it’s going to chew you up and spit you out and you’re going to believe your own hype and the next thing you know, you’re being this character that you are on TV in real life. Dude, detach. Coming into the world of wrestling, I always wanted to leave the same person coming out. I didn’t want to all of a sudden get this ego and believe my own hype. ‘I’m Darby Allin!’ Shut the f*** up, dude. To be able to do this mountain in the middle of what I feel is my physical peak where I feel amazing and Tony Khan, the owner of AEW, being like, ‘Yo, do this s***.’ Cool. A lot of people in the world of wrestling, they chew you up, spit you out, and leave you with nothing. The fact that he allowed me to do this, I’m so grateful for it.”
On his desire to push himself outside of his comfort zone:
“It started from an early age of trying to push myself out of my comfort zone. The moment I started doing crazy s*** is when I started breaking down these mental barriers in my head that were holding me back. That was my ammo to keep moving forward. No one is willing to go to place that I’m willing to go in wrestling physically, and I mean that. The more I do crazy s***, the more I feel anything is possible. I told Tony before I went to Everest, ‘I already feel like I’m the champion of the world. I don’t need the championship belt to feel validated because I’m already winning in life. I feel so free and happy. I’m grateful for everything.’”
On potentially winning the AEW World Title:
“It depends. I don’t know. I really don’t give a s***. Some people are so concerned with winning this thing. I just want to have good storylines. I’m not trying to be like, ‘I need to be the top guy.’ I want to have good s***.”
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
