Summary

Swerve Strickland believes Darby Allin's AEW World Championship win would have landed even stronger with more groundwork before the title change.

Allin won the championship from MJF on the April 15 episode of AEW Dynamite, and Strickland said the company may not have done enough to frame him at the same level as the marathon title matches MJF had already been featured in. Even so, Strickland said Allin's work since winning the belt has helped close that gap.

Strickland's comments add another layer to how Allin's reign is being viewed inside the company. They also follow other recent praise from Strickland, including when he saluted Darby Allin's Mount Everest climb.

Quote from Swerve Strickland

"I feel like there could've been more done for Darby for that moment, me personally. I feel like it anchored Darby a little too much because we're also watching MJF go 46 minutes in a Texas Deathmatch. We're also watching him go 38 minutes with Kenny Omega. I'm not saying Darby's not qualified to compete with that, but you've got to make Darby qualified to compete like that. I feel like they didn't do him a favor with that. But, Darby is so talented that now his run is making up for that."

Strickland later went on to say:

"I don't think people care about his hair like that, but whatever. Once again, I think Darby's just so undeniably talented, he can make everything feel more important. He just killed it with Kevin Knight, now he's about to go against PAC. Then Wednesday, possibly against Okada. So like, who is setting up their schedules to go like that on TV? He's just so undeniably talented that you can't — it's undeniable."

What Strickland's Take Means For Darby Allin's Reign

Strickland's point is less about whether Darby Allin belongs in the AEW world title picture and more about how AEW presented the jump. By comparing Allin's setup to MJF's longer showcase matches, he is arguing that the title win needed more on-screen investment before the moment arrived.

At the same time, Strickland made it clear that Allin's reign is starting to answer that criticism on its own. If Allin keeps stacking defenses against names like Kevin Knight and PAC, the conversation around his title run may shift from whether he was ready to whether AEW underestimated how quickly he could make the championship feel like his.

Sources

Swerve Strickland on The Bootleg Kev Podcast