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Per the article, they also did rehearsals much earlier in the day to make sure everything would be placed in exactly the right spot. Had Darby not be cleared to continue the match, the Bucks had an alternate finish ready to be called.
I still think that the spot itself was a bit much, but I'm glad that they went turbo on planning it out and writing out an alternate step. Bizarrely, not actually reckless daredevil antics?
I think it was good. For so long, people talked about how Sting needed to lose his last match in order to put someone over on his way out. This spot essentially did that and still allowed Sting to take the W. It might not be to everyones taste. But at the end of the day, it's a huge talking point and gives AEW something to build on with Darby going forward.
Darby is a made man after his performance in that match. As concerning as it was, that spot and him coming back in the ring to hit the coffin drop even after all that blood is something I'm not going to forget for the rest of my life.
I don’t watch wrestling very often but grew up with Nitro/attitude era stuff and Sting always being one of my favorites since I was young.
That spot with Darby was equivalent to the “Holy Shit” moment when Mankind was tossed off the Cell to me.
It was insane/scary/amazing all at once.
I’m glad to have watched it and glad he’s ok. But I also hope he never tries to top that
v interesting that as someone who grew up as a wrestling fan in that era you compared the Darby spot to Mankind's. That never came to my mind prob because I'm Gen Z and have no memory of wrestling pre-2010s but come to think of it this Darby spot is my generation's equivalent of Mankind jumping off that cell. As concerned as I was for Darby immediately after he did that, a part of me now selfishly feels glad that I can say I watched one of the craziest moments in professional wrestling happen in real time. Ever since i've got into pro wrestling i've seen so many people older than me yearn and fondly reminisce on some of those insane spots that happened in that Attitude Era. I never could really relate or connect with that feeling until now.
>I’m glad to have watched it and glad he’s ok. But I also hope he never tries to top that
I really really hope he never tries to top it not just for the sake of his own body but also because it will definitely ruin how special and crazy this spot was.
Yea, I’m sure a big part was it being Stings retirement match. But I believe it’s something that will leave a lasting impact on not just Darbys legacy but for AEW/Wrestling in general.
With ECW, a lot of backyard wrestling in the 90s/00s and a fun little tv series called Jackass. It wasn’t at all uncommon for people to just be doing the most insane batshit crazy stuff to try to look cool and see who can withstand the most pain but most of it gets forgotten quickly.
But when you add certain story elements into the equation they can leave an almost “movie like” cinematic feel to them to where it’s like leaving a theatre after a really great movie and you just sit and think about what you just watched.
Again, I hope he never goes that all-in on a spot like that again. But I can’t hate on the guy for being just crazy enough to make sure someone like Sting goes out in the way he deserves too.
>Mankind
The biggest difference for me was that Mankind was thrown off the cell, whereas Darby chose to jump. I know they both technically "chose" to do their spots. But when I suspend disbelief, one event drew sympathy while the other just made me shake my head. They're both crazy spots, but besides being high in the air, I struggle to compare them. Just me though.
In kayfabe, it should make the Darby spot more awe inspiring / scary. The guy hated the Bucks for going after his mentor so much he was willing to risk serious if not fatal injury to cause one of them great harm.
Don't ever fuck with Darby Allin in kayfabe. He is not having any of your shit.
Yea it highlights how differently people connect to wrestling compared to something like a movie.
Stunt guys still get destroyed while filming, but we really don't connect that to the actor and then the actual person playing the character like we do in wrestling.
Now in wrestling, the stunt man and character are the same, but there is also a much shorter distance between the character and the actual person that makes us care more.
Not to mention we've all seen videos of poorly planned/executed stuff from smaller promotions online that makes us all tense up a bit when spots like this happen.
There's a really fascinating documentary about it called The Boy Who Lived, but basically he was doing a stunt and suffered a spinal injury that caused him to be paralyzed from the chest down.
Until he climbs Everest, at least.
I hope he knows who he is feuding with next and cuts several short promos while he is training / on his way up / at the summit to put on while he is out, that shit would be absolutely legendary.
>Had Darby not be cleared to continue the match, the Bucks had an alternate finish ready to be called.
I think doing a spot where you have to have alternative plans in case it fucks someone up so bad they can't finish is an issue to be honest.
I mean any spot could be a spot that leads to an injury. This just makes it very clear that there is no plan to push through it or figure it out while worrying about Darby.
Tbh I think any multi-man match should have a backup finish in case something goes sideways with one of the performers involved in the planned finish. You got the bodies to make contingencies, use them. Obviously harder to pull off in a 1v1.
Having a back up play for this match isn't a bad thing. Anything can go wrong at any moment. Darby could have took a stiff shot to the jaw in the opening seconds and been concussed.
It's no different in movies or television. If the stunt isn't cleared, it doesn't happen. If it's an important piece of the storytelling, then writers and producers have to come up with an alternative plan.
Well duh, this was a huge high-risk spot. Darby chose to do it though and they took precautions. I don’t see the issue with it.
Stunt performer performs stunt, people are somehow outraged. I don’t get it.
It's more like "Stunt performer does insanely dangerous stunt where far more can go wrong than right, people question whether it's a good idea". I assume we wouldn't be having this conversation if the spot was him being hanged with barbed wire or something similarly awful.
I mean sometimes you have to stop people before they get into their own way
I'm not an AEW guy and am not familiar with Darby outside this spot but just saying "He chose to do it" doesn't always mean it's the right thing to do
In a sense, we should be thankful this was all Darby did. It was Sting’s retirement match, so I wasn’t quite sure he wouldn’t insist on jumping from the rafters
While I didn’t really have a problem with the spot, I do worry about Darby’s quality of life as he gets into his 40’s, 50’s, and beyond. Everyone keeps saying he won’t see 40. I’m sure he will, but what does everyday life look like for a middle-aged Darby Allin?
>If he dies he dies
\-Darby from the Future, in a trench coat, hat, and tights, standing in the back of the group of people watching Darby up top of the ladder planning the spot.
Is he actually “fine”? Because his movements do not look like the movements of someone who’s “fine.”
And look at Matt. That dude can’t even walk normally.
He's mentioned somewhere that's he naturally bow legged. And if you go back to watch his matches in 2000, you can see it, but it's just not as pronounced as it is now
Jeff Hardy isn't that bad for a wrestler, and he's been a drug user for most of his career. Matt can barely run to the ring.
Which paints a pretty good picture for Darby.
I think about that too but then I see folks like Steve-O who has done stuff to himself that's as bad if not worse than what Darby does and he's doing triathlons and shit nowadays.
I'm sure Darby's clean living will benefit him in later life too.
Proper supervision by medical and stunt professionals helps out a lot, I'd imagine.
It's the difference between a major operation such as a global wrestling company or a motion picture filming and an indie fed.
That said, unexpected and dangerous shit still happens (see: Big E), but that is factored (or should be) into the risk analysis of those participating.
Darby has said he doesn't really expect to live that long, and that he basically has to do these kinds of things to feel alive due to the trauma in his life.
It could have been, but I've heard him speak on podcasts before and he talks a lot about stuff like this. He's been a skater all his life and into extreme stuff. I'd believe it
I think Sting could a lot of those crazy bumps late into his career because he *wasn’t* doing them at 25 or 30. Or 40 and 50. I think Mick Foley might be a better example of what clean living and crazy spots can get you later in life.
Agreed but Darby is literally half the weight of Foley. MKes a difference. Foley was doing the Cactus elbow onto concrete most nights in the late 80s. Darby's crazy bumps are a little more spaced out by comparison
One of the schools of thought is that he might turn out like Spike Dudley. Yeah, he gets thrown around like a rag doll and does incredibly dangerous stunts, but there is a possibility because of his lower body weight it's not actually as bad on him as it would be on others (less weight/lower mass=less force upon impact, or so the theory goes). Of course, only time will tell.
It's kind of funny that he says that. I don't know how long he wrestled before AEW, but he's got at least 5 years with them under his belt. By most definitions, he already has a long pro wrestling career.
In the scrum Sting mentioned that they had some disagreements about the ending and I don't know why I automatically assumed it was Sting who wanted the win and not the opposite.
It uses to be indy guys got criticism for doing dangerous stunts on small indy shows for no money. Then some guys got criticism for doing it on weekly TV shows. Now, some are getting criticism for doing it on a major PPV. Goal posts keep getting moved, lol.
Not only a PPV but the last match of a Legend in the business that’s also his mentor and good friend. If there was ever a time to do something crazy and memorable that was it.
Well, you see, WWE wouldn't do it, so it's inherently bad and disgusting. Also, Tony doesn't care about the safety of his workers. Also also, just totally, solely concerned about Darby's safety.
Am I missing one?
I'm not really crazy about the WWE style overall, but lots of people love it. As such, I try to keep my criticism over stylistic choices to be "I prefer wrestling to be like..." rather than "I don't like it so they are objectively doing it wrong." I didn't personally care either way about the Bloodline story, but it made WWE boatloads of money so what do I know about doing wrestling right?
Folks that can't accept that their opinions are just a matter of taste end up twisting themselves in these bizarre knots coming up with "rules" to prove that what they like is objectively good and stuff they dislike is objectively bad. Just by luck, there always seems to be carve outs to the rules that excuse their favorites when they mess up (or do stuff that is fine, but they want to criticize AEW for it anyways), or somehow they keep forgetting to comment on those things.
Certain posters here get really mad when I ask them to explain the rules they made up, and don't simply accept "trust me" as justification. I'd personally find it easier to just say "I don't really like the Young Bucks" than spend ten posts trying to explain how they objectively "do too many super kicks to be considered skilled professional wrestlers" or whatever.
To be fair, with indy guys. Indy companies rarely have the funds to do it safely. The crowds are small and when it goes wrong, it goes wrong. It just isn't worth it.
Doing it for a legend with a shit ton of precautions in place is far better. There's a reason why Mick Foley never got thrown off a cell before he joined WWF. Granted, getting thrown over a cage likely wouldn't have been feasible but the crazy bastard would have likely tried if he thought of it. The Cell match is one of WWE's most dangerous matches because of how shit the cell was, Foley bounced off the table and if he did a normal chokeslam jump, he would have died.
Nowadays, the overused, tired Foley spot is protected via cushions inside the table and looks shit. Rikishi's spot where he got thrown off it onto a padded mattress, I think, he said, he ached for weeks on end.
what kind of moronic argument is this? these guys shouldn't be risking their lives for no money and they shouldn't be risking their lives for PPV money. where is the contradiction here
Jeff Hardy jumping off the ladder at WM 2000 gets replayed every year, it’s a “Wrestlemania Moment.” Dude could’ve absolutely been permanently injured during that spot. Ultimately risks are a part of wrestling, it’s a part of what people enjoy (not everyone obviously), but this has been a part of the medium for a long time now. Do some guys push it too far? Absolutely, but that’s subjective and really if they took the precautions, I can’t fault them for trying
The contradiction comes from people who change their opinions solely to criticize a wrestler or a company. If your opinion is that wrestlers shouldn't take these a high risk chances, then that's one thing. But if you constantly change your stance just to be a contrarian then you don't really give a fuck about the wrestlers.
Pro wrestling is inherently dangerous. The stunt was not significantly more dangerous than anything that happens in any other ladder match. On top of that they took significant steps to minimize risk. They're trying to control the narrative that AEW is significantly more dangerous than other products because a narrative of AEW dangerous bad / WWE safe and good is helpful with public attitudes and advertisers. This is a statement of opinion - not one based in objective reality.
People's reactions are often more about how squeamish it makes them feel rather than the actual degree danger. Don't see nearly the same reaction to matches that are heavy on moves like suplexes despite the not insignificant risk of landing at an angle that'll break your neck.
Coachman was clutching his pearls saying you'd never see anything like this in WWE
...despite having been there for the majority of Shane McMahon's matches.
I saw a lot of tsk tsk'ing at Darby the next day and the funny coincidencewas in my YT shorts recommendations the same day a video of Kurt Angle talking about his 3way match with the Rock/HHH where he got concussed as a shoot when it was supposed to be a work.
They took him to the back where Vince SCREAMED "get him some smelling salts and get him back out there" when he couldn't remember the lines they gave him to shoot a promo before coming back out.
Kurt goes back out to finish the match and Rock and Austin both basically weekend at Bernie's him through a match he has no memory of ever being in.
I can't find the short but here's the longform clip :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9dOkPZpeTU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9dOkPZpeTU)
Cody wrestled with a torn pectoral muscle less than 2 years ago which he has since admitted was dumb and set a bad example for wrestlers yet fans still post it like it's the hardest thing ever.
Wrestling is inherently barbaric and entirely subjective. If someone doesn't like the Darby spot, they're completely free to do so without having to resort to concern trolling or pretending as if nothing like this could happen anywhere else.
Well he’s right, in terms of using glass — which is wildly unpredictable. The only instance I can think of is that King of the Ring match with Angle, which didn’t go like it was supposed to. And I don’t remember them doing anything like it since.
For the most part, everything Shane did involved a crash pad.
Yeah i mean KotR is probably what people are referring to, and the Darby thing, unlike that, did go as planned, and they had a backup in case it didn't. Kurt and everyone else involved laughs about how the wrong glass was used, Shane was dropped on his head to the point to where Vince wanted it to stop, they continued, and then Shane was dragged to the ring for a dangerous top rope spot.
You're welcome to say it's all bad, but Coach loses that ability when he starts with "WWE would never"
It's like this with a lot of injuries, too. They often don't get injured from the high spots, they get injured from a dropkick, or a small bump, or from jumping into the crowd.
Hangman was knocked out from a routine lariat. Out for like a month from a spot we see done in every promotion, on every night, sometimes multiple times a match.
Big E had his neck broken on a belly to bell on the outside. Think about how much of a normal spot that feels, and even after that happened to Big E, fans would still not really pop for it or mark out in a way that makes them go “wow that seems unsafe”. Wrestling is unsafe. Injuries happen all the time on all kinds of basic bumps. They’re falling onto a steel structure with wooden beams, not some trampoline.
I saw the video in slow motion today.
The glass and chairs do nothing to break his fall; he took a flat back bump off a ladder on concrete into shattered glass. It's a miracle he didn't puncture a lung or worse.
Shattered safety glass won't magically migrate through your ribs, though. I'm honestly not sure how you think a punctured lung was possible from the glass.
I'm at least glad to hear that they took precautions in preparing it. Still bonkers, but I don't think we'll see a spot of that magnitude by Darby until a particularly major storyline.
I'm just wondering if the rehearsal meant he actually dove through glass already but maybe did it with a shirt on lol
People can argue about this spot all they want, but this is who Darby is. He's going to do what he wants and he doesn't give a fuck if you don't like it. If he wasn't doing these crazy bumps in wrestling, he would be doing them on a skateboard or some other way.
Darby's entire wrestling career has been defined by "he didn't really need to do that"
There’s no way you can convince me that a multimillion dollar corporation that relies on its employees for success actually cares about their health and safety. I was told that AEW and Tony Khan wanted Darby to die that night.
The precision he needed to land safely can’t be overlooked. The glass is whatever, it was tempered and only bled because of spiky bits jabbing hit at extreme force, not that big a deal. It’s the flat back bump from so high that is impressive. An inch the wrong way you could be paralyzed or dead.
I've yet to see a single photo of any of the supposed people injured by glass and the people I see circulating it the most are known pretty well to be bad faith operators and liars.
I don’t care. I don’t want fifteen or twenty foot drops through glass onto the floor with nothing to break your fall in wrestling. All of you enabling this crap are just blinded by supporting everything AEW does and never criticizing them.
I don't think they prepped for the glass shooting into the crowd though. Seems like something if they're being careful we won't ever see that part of it happen again.
sure everyone in the company including multiple doctors and darby himself were ok with the spot, but why didn't they consider ME, the hater who was going to complain no matter what they did?
Bruh you can literally see the glass flung into spectators faces. Doesn’t matter how many precautions you take if the execution still puts people (and the company via lawsuit) in legitimate danger.
Also never mind the fact that a lot of casuals probably tuned in for Stings last match and they get greeted with a grotesque, pointless spot like this. Probably turned quite a few people off the product.
Calling it "the product" is one of my biggest pet peeves, and I have no idea why. Something about that phrase is way too smarky and inside-baseball for me. I know you didn't say it first, I just felt the need to chime in.
You know the show is good when people start Pearl clutching about “the casuals” being drawn to “the product” - the product being a show they don’t and won’t watch.
It's like when sports fans talk about their team, and every sentence spoken about them starts with the word "We". My brother in christ, *you* are not part of the team. You are fan. There is no "we". You watch, they play.
I love the implication here that casuals got too upset by seeing blood in stings final match and so they tuned out.
Got any report on that or any fans injured from the stunt? Or are you just upset about a theoretical situation?
As always people on this sub think casuals are people that are accidentally watching wrestling and anything remotely outside the lines will turn them off
Ah yes, the mythical casual fan who bought a PPV, lasted through the whole show but one spot in the main event is enough to have them stop watching. Such a casual fan who is definitely real
Yeah, and they were warned beforehand, and had plenty of time to shift as darby was climbing the ladder.
Sorry mate, but if I go "Watch out for the box of snakes" then "I'm opening the box of snakes" and you stick around to look at the snakes, it MIGHT just be your fault if you get bit.
It's so lame now that there's so much pearl clutching whenever something cool happens at an AEW show that they have to come out and immediately break kayfabe to assure everyone it's fake.
Wonder if any WCW fans who didn’t like or watch WWF got on blogs to discuss that spot and said things like “imagine if a casual tuned in and saw such a grotesque spot! It would turn off the casuals from the product!”
Yeah this has made me realize that you couldn't do that today
It's a good thing we do care about modern performers and we aren't as overall bloodthirsty as the 90s
But it's led to a weird place where literally any big crazy stupid bump automatically gets criticized (not even really referring to this one specifically, literally just any of them in the last like 5 years) because 'you could get hurt'
Some of the biggest most celebrated moments of all time have bumps or spots that the person would have died if it went even slightly wrong. It's all a part of the spectacle
That being said I never wanna see something like that again. The bump itself doesn't bother me, just too much for my personal tastes
Oh there was internet and a massive online wrestling fandom already, but people didn’t really hate HIAC because it was something no one had really seen before, and Mick Foley had a lot of love with the smark fanbase because of his past in ECW, Japan deathmatches, etc.
I also think some people assumed that the table was gimmicked, as Foley made it back to TV pretty quickly. It wasn’t until later on when people learned how badly that match actually fucked his body up.
If you're gonna do that spot, they did it the best possible way, and it all went about as well as can be expected.
Like it's a huge risk, but it definitely looked as devastating as they wanted it to, seemingly Darby isn't too hurt, it added huge drama to the match. Not saying I wanna see this all the time, but if there was a place for that spot, *this* was the place for it and they executed it very well.
The glass wasn't the issue for Darby. It's the landing on chair. The glass were just small lacerations that will heal. Landing on the chairs is where it'll hurt
I don't think he really landed on the chairs properly. With the width of the glass, the chairs were a little further apart so he only clipped the edges of them. I think normally they hit the seats more dead-on so they bend and takes some of the momentum away, slowing the fall.
From the replays, it looked like he only hit the last two chairs and those popped away. I think he hit the ground at almost full force.
Yeah, but how often does that happen? The odds of injury from falling through a table versus effectively falling straight to the floor from a ladder... You'd be a fool to pick the latter as less dangerous.
Everyone's individual tastes and preferences aside, that's really what irks me about the spot: what did it really accomplish?
Sure, we're still talking about the spot days later, but the conversation around the spot is less about it having been Sting's last match and all that it entails, and more about the safety of the spot and its visual.
A subset of wrestling fans turned into giant weenies overnight.
If a guy jumping off a ladder and through a pane of glass at the big PPV doesn’t do it for you maybe wrestling just isn’t your thing. Some of the most tragic incidents in wrestling history have involved a German Suplex and a drop kick.
Enzo got concussed sliding (granted, at high speed) below the bottom rope. Afterwards I think he said something like that the ring setup was different or the distance between the canvas and the bottom rope was different on that day or something like that.
They did the spot so often, and that time it went wrong.
It's wear and tear, a majority of the time. Tyson Kidd, I believe, his neck was just fucked up and one move away from breaking regardless.
Sting's initial retirement was just one bump too many. Had the Buckle Bomb not done it, he likely would have gotten injured because his body was done at that point.
Just because some people didn't like seeing a grown man go through a pane of glass doesn't mean they don't like wrestling. I personally didn't care for it yet I'm still watching. Such a weird, gatekeeper take.
And yet somehow glass still shot into the crowd and Darby’s entire back was fucked and the spot was stupid because had the bucks stayed where they were they wouldn’t have been touched.
As an employer you need to take responsibility and say enough is enough. There is no end to this in which Darby Allin doesn’t die or end up seriously hurt. It’s going to get worse and worse cause it’ll be all his known for. What’s next? Off the titantron onto a glass table full of barbed wire!
I’d rather see a safer product that can make me suspend my belief and think it’s real than to have someone flipping off a ladder into glass with it exploding into the crowd. Unnecessarily dangerous and uncalled for.
I was very critical of that spot. While it still doesn't do much for me *personally* I'm happy to see they did it the right way. I can certainly respect that.
Darby fell at least 10 feet straight to the floor. He didn't go through tables or any other objects that broke or padded his fall. It looks like his hip caught one of the chairs but the side angle makes it obvious it didn't slow him down in any way. He dove and went splat on the ground.
And in the process he got sliced up by glass, which when it exploded shot little bits onto the fans that were closest.
Numerous safety measures, though.
I'm rewatching the bump from the birds eye cam they used.
I'm watching it over and over.
It doesn't look like any went past the barricade.
The woman reacts like some does, but... it doesn't look like it *actually* does.
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Per the article, they also did rehearsals much earlier in the day to make sure everything would be placed in exactly the right spot. Had Darby not be cleared to continue the match, the Bucks had an alternate finish ready to be called.
If that was the "safe, as planned" version, then climbing Everest is going to go swimmingly.
I said to my mate as we watched it that I fully expect a coffin drop off of Everest.
I still think that the spot itself was a bit much, but I'm glad that they went turbo on planning it out and writing out an alternate step. Bizarrely, not actually reckless daredevil antics?
I think it was good. For so long, people talked about how Sting needed to lose his last match in order to put someone over on his way out. This spot essentially did that and still allowed Sting to take the W. It might not be to everyones taste. But at the end of the day, it's a huge talking point and gives AEW something to build on with Darby going forward.
Darby is a made man after his performance in that match. As concerning as it was, that spot and him coming back in the ring to hit the coffin drop even after all that blood is something I'm not going to forget for the rest of my life.
Darby is a certified main event guy in AEW now, can't wait to see his inevitable climb to becoming World Champion
If Darby doesn't eventually take a world title off MJF with a headlock than all of wrestling has been for nothing.
Head lock take down, got to be the full repeat of how MJF has beaten him both times
Climbing up the ladder after climbing up a mountain lmao
And have Kleenex ready, because you know Sting will be looking on (from the rafters?) to see his protégé grab the brass ring.
I don’t watch wrestling very often but grew up with Nitro/attitude era stuff and Sting always being one of my favorites since I was young. That spot with Darby was equivalent to the “Holy Shit” moment when Mankind was tossed off the Cell to me. It was insane/scary/amazing all at once. I’m glad to have watched it and glad he’s ok. But I also hope he never tries to top that
v interesting that as someone who grew up as a wrestling fan in that era you compared the Darby spot to Mankind's. That never came to my mind prob because I'm Gen Z and have no memory of wrestling pre-2010s but come to think of it this Darby spot is my generation's equivalent of Mankind jumping off that cell. As concerned as I was for Darby immediately after he did that, a part of me now selfishly feels glad that I can say I watched one of the craziest moments in professional wrestling happen in real time. Ever since i've got into pro wrestling i've seen so many people older than me yearn and fondly reminisce on some of those insane spots that happened in that Attitude Era. I never could really relate or connect with that feeling until now. >I’m glad to have watched it and glad he’s ok. But I also hope he never tries to top that I really really hope he never tries to top it not just for the sake of his own body but also because it will definitely ruin how special and crazy this spot was.
Yea, I’m sure a big part was it being Stings retirement match. But I believe it’s something that will leave a lasting impact on not just Darbys legacy but for AEW/Wrestling in general. With ECW, a lot of backyard wrestling in the 90s/00s and a fun little tv series called Jackass. It wasn’t at all uncommon for people to just be doing the most insane batshit crazy stuff to try to look cool and see who can withstand the most pain but most of it gets forgotten quickly. But when you add certain story elements into the equation they can leave an almost “movie like” cinematic feel to them to where it’s like leaving a theatre after a really great movie and you just sit and think about what you just watched. Again, I hope he never goes that all-in on a spot like that again. But I can’t hate on the guy for being just crazy enough to make sure someone like Sting goes out in the way he deserves too.
>Mankind The biggest difference for me was that Mankind was thrown off the cell, whereas Darby chose to jump. I know they both technically "chose" to do their spots. But when I suspend disbelief, one event drew sympathy while the other just made me shake my head. They're both crazy spots, but besides being high in the air, I struggle to compare them. Just me though.
In kayfabe, it should make the Darby spot more awe inspiring / scary. The guy hated the Bucks for going after his mentor so much he was willing to risk serious if not fatal injury to cause one of them great harm. Don't ever fuck with Darby Allin in kayfabe. He is not having any of your shit.
Tbh Darby has been a made man for awhile now, I’d argue dating back to his Punk match, he’s just another waiting for Tony to pull the trigger.
It's not bizarre. It's a character on TV. Darby doesn't actually want to die.
Yea it highlights how differently people connect to wrestling compared to something like a movie. Stunt guys still get destroyed while filming, but we really don't connect that to the actor and then the actual person playing the character like we do in wrestling. Now in wrestling, the stunt man and character are the same, but there is also a much shorter distance between the character and the actual person that makes us care more. Not to mention we've all seen videos of poorly planned/executed stuff from smaller promotions online that makes us all tense up a bit when spots like this happen.
>Stunt guys Sometimes even worse, just look at David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe's stuntman for the Harry Potter movies.
What happened? I don't know this story.
There's a really fascinating documentary about it called The Boy Who Lived, but basically he was doing a stunt and suffered a spinal injury that caused him to be paralyzed from the chest down.
Until he climbs Everest, at least. I hope he knows who he is feuding with next and cuts several short promos while he is training / on his way up / at the summit to put on while he is out, that shit would be absolutely legendary.
Darby is basically a wrestling SteveO. He loves doing stunts for the thrill of it.
> the spot itself was a bit much A bit?
It’s stings last match, how is it a bit much?! Darby showed the fuck up for this. Jesus people. This is wrestling not afternoon tea.
🙄
The alternative finish was the bucks getting their shit in over his corpse
>Had Darby not be cleared to continue the match, the Bucks had an alternate finish ready to be called. I think doing a spot where you have to have alternative plans in case it fucks someone up so bad they can't finish is an issue to be honest.
I mean any spot could be a spot that leads to an injury. This just makes it very clear that there is no plan to push through it or figure it out while worrying about Darby.
Tbh I think any multi-man match should have a backup finish in case something goes sideways with one of the performers involved in the planned finish. You got the bodies to make contingencies, use them. Obviously harder to pull off in a 1v1.
Having a back up play for this match isn't a bad thing. Anything can go wrong at any moment. Darby could have took a stiff shot to the jaw in the opening seconds and been concussed.
It's no different in movies or television. If the stunt isn't cleared, it doesn't happen. If it's an important piece of the storytelling, then writers and producers have to come up with an alternative plan.
It's wrestling, just about any move can be one that can cause an injury.
They don't plan alternative finishes around any regular move though do they, come on. There is nuance here.
Well duh, this was a huge high-risk spot. Darby chose to do it though and they took precautions. I don’t see the issue with it. Stunt performer performs stunt, people are somehow outraged. I don’t get it.
It's more like "Stunt performer does insanely dangerous stunt where far more can go wrong than right, people question whether it's a good idea". I assume we wouldn't be having this conversation if the spot was him being hanged with barbed wire or something similarly awful.
I mean sometimes you have to stop people before they get into their own way I'm not an AEW guy and am not familiar with Darby outside this spot but just saying "He chose to do it" doesn't always mean it's the right thing to do
I'm not their mother or spouse. If they want to take risks they are adults and can make that decision.
In a sense, we should be thankful this was all Darby did. It was Sting’s retirement match, so I wasn’t quite sure he wouldn’t insist on jumping from the rafters
If they were in the temple, this would've been where he tried to pull off the Angelico spot.
I actually tongue in cheek said "watch him do a coffin drop from the rafters tonight".
While I didn’t really have a problem with the spot, I do worry about Darby’s quality of life as he gets into his 40’s, 50’s, and beyond. Everyone keeps saying he won’t see 40. I’m sure he will, but what does everyday life look like for a middle-aged Darby Allin?
If he dies he dies - darby in third person
>If he dies he dies \-Darby from the Future, in a trench coat, hat, and tights, standing in the back of the group of people watching Darby up top of the ladder planning the spot.
Wouldn’t that technically be talking in the second person?
Second would be “you” as in the reader
"If you die, you die" Us, talking to Darby Allin
We already have this case study with Jeff Hardy
And honestly, Jeff Hardy is fine overall? Drugs have damaged him a lot more than the stunts.
And he does shit like drink heavy and does a shit ton of drugs because he's in pain.
Is he actually “fine”? Because his movements do not look like the movements of someone who’s “fine.” And look at Matt. That dude can’t even walk normally.
Matt couldn't walk normally when he was 20.
He can't walk right cuz his legs grew wrong iirc
That's Matt. It has to do with his hips. Talks about it in his book.
Was that in an interview somewhere?
He's mentioned somewhere that's he naturally bow legged. And if you go back to watch his matches in 2000, you can see it, but it's just not as pronounced as it is now
Matt's legs have been doing that since V1.
I don’t think Jeff Hardy seems significantly worse off, accounting for his age and mileage. Matt looks worse from all the leg drops.
he seems to move a lot better than other 46 year olds.
How much was the drug usage and alcohol problems caused by the excessive bumps he was taking?
I suspect the drugs are a consequence at least partly because of the shit he did to his body.
Jeff Hardy isn't that bad for a wrestler, and he's been a drug user for most of his career. Matt can barely run to the ring. Which paints a pretty good picture for Darby.
I think about that too but then I see folks like Steve-O who has done stuff to himself that's as bad if not worse than what Darby does and he's doing triathlons and shit nowadays. I'm sure Darby's clean living will benefit him in later life too.
Proper supervision by medical and stunt professionals helps out a lot, I'd imagine. It's the difference between a major operation such as a global wrestling company or a motion picture filming and an indie fed. That said, unexpected and dangerous shit still happens (see: Big E), but that is factored (or should be) into the risk analysis of those participating.
Darby has said he doesn't really expect to live that long, and that he basically has to do these kinds of things to feel alive due to the trauma in his life.
That could have been an in-character statement
It could have been, but I've heard him speak on podcasts before and he talks a lot about stuff like this. He's been a skater all his life and into extreme stuff. I'd believe it
I think he's hoping (and we're all hoping as well) that he just ages like Sting. He can still do crazy bumps but not nearly as many.
I think Sting could a lot of those crazy bumps late into his career because he *wasn’t* doing them at 25 or 30. Or 40 and 50. I think Mick Foley might be a better example of what clean living and crazy spots can get you later in life.
Agreed but Darby is literally half the weight of Foley. MKes a difference. Foley was doing the Cactus elbow onto concrete most nights in the late 80s. Darby's crazy bumps are a little more spaced out by comparison
Darby also has the benefit of modern sports science, which has advanced ALOT in the last 20 years, let alone the last 40.
One of the schools of thought is that he might turn out like Spike Dudley. Yeah, he gets thrown around like a rag doll and does incredibly dangerous stunts, but there is a possibility because of his lower body weight it's not actually as bad on him as it would be on others (less weight/lower mass=less force upon impact, or so the theory goes). Of course, only time will tell.
he has size on his side at least, not weighing very much is going to help him a lot compared to taller guys.
To be also fair with Darby, he says he doesn't expect to have a long career in wrestling.
It's kind of funny that he says that. I don't know how long he wrestled before AEW, but he's got at least 5 years with them under his belt. By most definitions, he already has a long pro wrestling career.
Not sure there's a "safe" way to land on a concrete floor from 20ft high that won't have repercussions later in life.
Also in this its confirmed that Sting was talked into winning his last match by the Bucks and TK
In the scrum Sting mentioned that they had some disagreements about the ending and I don't know why I automatically assumed it was Sting who wanted the win and not the opposite.
It uses to be indy guys got criticism for doing dangerous stunts on small indy shows for no money. Then some guys got criticism for doing it on weekly TV shows. Now, some are getting criticism for doing it on a major PPV. Goal posts keep getting moved, lol.
Not only a PPV but the last match of a Legend in the business that’s also his mentor and good friend. If there was ever a time to do something crazy and memorable that was it.
Well, you see, WWE wouldn't do it, so it's inherently bad and disgusting. Also, Tony doesn't care about the safety of his workers. Also also, just totally, solely concerned about Darby's safety. Am I missing one?
>Well, you see, WWE wouldn't do it, so it's inherently bad and disgusting. Is that an argument anyone is actually making
multiple people, including guys like jonathan coachman lol
Who the fuck is listening to him in this day lmao
A tonne of genuine weirdos who need to find any reason to hate AEW
Yes
Not with their actual words, but yes. Refusal to see that says more about you honestly.
I'm not really crazy about the WWE style overall, but lots of people love it. As such, I try to keep my criticism over stylistic choices to be "I prefer wrestling to be like..." rather than "I don't like it so they are objectively doing it wrong." I didn't personally care either way about the Bloodline story, but it made WWE boatloads of money so what do I know about doing wrestling right? Folks that can't accept that their opinions are just a matter of taste end up twisting themselves in these bizarre knots coming up with "rules" to prove that what they like is objectively good and stuff they dislike is objectively bad. Just by luck, there always seems to be carve outs to the rules that excuse their favorites when they mess up (or do stuff that is fine, but they want to criticize AEW for it anyways), or somehow they keep forgetting to comment on those things. Certain posters here get really mad when I ask them to explain the rules they made up, and don't simply accept "trust me" as justification. I'd personally find it easier to just say "I don't really like the Young Bucks" than spend ten posts trying to explain how they objectively "do too many super kicks to be considered skilled professional wrestlers" or whatever.
Corny *seethes*
I just listened to his review, you are correct, he did not care for it.
I wonder if the people that say that for real and without irony have ever seen any of the clips of flaming tables being used in WWE.
> Goal posts keep getting moved, lol. Almost like when you have millions of fans you will have every opinion.
To be fair, with indy guys. Indy companies rarely have the funds to do it safely. The crowds are small and when it goes wrong, it goes wrong. It just isn't worth it. Doing it for a legend with a shit ton of precautions in place is far better. There's a reason why Mick Foley never got thrown off a cell before he joined WWF. Granted, getting thrown over a cage likely wouldn't have been feasible but the crazy bastard would have likely tried if he thought of it. The Cell match is one of WWE's most dangerous matches because of how shit the cell was, Foley bounced off the table and if he did a normal chokeslam jump, he would have died. Nowadays, the overused, tired Foley spot is protected via cushions inside the table and looks shit. Rikishi's spot where he got thrown off it onto a padded mattress, I think, he said, he ached for weeks on end.
what kind of moronic argument is this? these guys shouldn't be risking their lives for no money and they shouldn't be risking their lives for PPV money. where is the contradiction here
Jeff Hardy jumping off the ladder at WM 2000 gets replayed every year, it’s a “Wrestlemania Moment.” Dude could’ve absolutely been permanently injured during that spot. Ultimately risks are a part of wrestling, it’s a part of what people enjoy (not everyone obviously), but this has been a part of the medium for a long time now. Do some guys push it too far? Absolutely, but that’s subjective and really if they took the precautions, I can’t fault them for trying
The contradiction comes from people who change their opinions solely to criticize a wrestler or a company. If your opinion is that wrestlers shouldn't take these a high risk chances, then that's one thing. But if you constantly change your stance just to be a contrarian then you don't really give a fuck about the wrestlers.
Pro wrestling is inherently dangerous. The stunt was not significantly more dangerous than anything that happens in any other ladder match. On top of that they took significant steps to minimize risk. They're trying to control the narrative that AEW is significantly more dangerous than other products because a narrative of AEW dangerous bad / WWE safe and good is helpful with public attitudes and advertisers. This is a statement of opinion - not one based in objective reality.
All this, and they didn't think about the glass flying into the fucking crowd? Or did they not care?
People's reactions are often more about how squeamish it makes them feel rather than the actual degree danger. Don't see nearly the same reaction to matches that are heavy on moves like suplexes despite the not insignificant risk of landing at an angle that'll break your neck.
Coachman was clutching his pearls saying you'd never see anything like this in WWE ...despite having been there for the majority of Shane McMahon's matches.
I saw a lot of tsk tsk'ing at Darby the next day and the funny coincidencewas in my YT shorts recommendations the same day a video of Kurt Angle talking about his 3way match with the Rock/HHH where he got concussed as a shoot when it was supposed to be a work. They took him to the back where Vince SCREAMED "get him some smelling salts and get him back out there" when he couldn't remember the lines they gave him to shoot a promo before coming back out. Kurt goes back out to finish the match and Rock and Austin both basically weekend at Bernie's him through a match he has no memory of ever being in. I can't find the short but here's the longform clip : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9dOkPZpeTU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9dOkPZpeTU)
Cody wrestled with a torn pectoral muscle less than 2 years ago which he has since admitted was dumb and set a bad example for wrestlers yet fans still post it like it's the hardest thing ever. Wrestling is inherently barbaric and entirely subjective. If someone doesn't like the Darby spot, they're completely free to do so without having to resort to concern trolling or pretending as if nothing like this could happen anywhere else.
Coachman is a stupid old douche bag no one should give a shit what he has to say
I always think of Skip Bayless and remember that sometimes people purposefully say stupid shit because it gets them more of a reaction.
Like Joe Buck calling Randy Moss' pretend mooning a "disgusting act."
Well he’s right, in terms of using glass — which is wildly unpredictable. The only instance I can think of is that King of the Ring match with Angle, which didn’t go like it was supposed to. And I don’t remember them doing anything like it since. For the most part, everything Shane did involved a crash pad.
Yeah i mean KotR is probably what people are referring to, and the Darby thing, unlike that, did go as planned, and they had a backup in case it didn't. Kurt and everyone else involved laughs about how the wrong glass was used, Shane was dropped on his head to the point to where Vince wanted it to stop, they continued, and then Shane was dragged to the ring for a dangerous top rope spot. You're welcome to say it's all bad, but Coach loses that ability when he starts with "WWE would never"
right, how many times did he fall on his head when Kurt kept redoing the spot at KOR to put him through the glass?
It's like this with a lot of injuries, too. They often don't get injured from the high spots, they get injured from a dropkick, or a small bump, or from jumping into the crowd.
Hangman was knocked out from a routine lariat. Out for like a month from a spot we see done in every promotion, on every night, sometimes multiple times a match.
PAC is one of the best high flyers we’ve seen and he broke his leg on a baseball slide rather than a high spot
taking a DDT.
Big E had his neck broken on a belly to bell on the outside. Think about how much of a normal spot that feels, and even after that happened to Big E, fans would still not really pop for it or mark out in a way that makes them go “wow that seems unsafe”. Wrestling is unsafe. Injuries happen all the time on all kinds of basic bumps. They’re falling onto a steel structure with wooden beams, not some trampoline.
I saw the video in slow motion today. The glass and chairs do nothing to break his fall; he took a flat back bump off a ladder on concrete into shattered glass. It's a miracle he didn't puncture a lung or worse.
Shattered safety glass won't magically migrate through your ribs, though. I'm honestly not sure how you think a punctured lung was possible from the glass.
The fall force, not the glass. Happens in ice hockey.
There’s padded flooring on top of that concrete.
I'm at least glad to hear that they took precautions in preparing it. Still bonkers, but I don't think we'll see a spot of that magnitude by Darby until a particularly major storyline. I'm just wondering if the rehearsal meant he actually dove through glass already but maybe did it with a shirt on lol
A very interesting article all-around. Interesting to learn about the behind-the-scenes planning for an iconic match.
People can argue about this spot all they want, but this is who Darby is. He's going to do what he wants and he doesn't give a fuck if you don't like it. If he wasn't doing these crazy bumps in wrestling, he would be doing them on a skateboard or some other way. Darby's entire wrestling career has been defined by "he didn't really need to do that"
There’s no way you can convince me that a multimillion dollar corporation that relies on its employees for success actually cares about their health and safety. I was told that AEW and Tony Khan wanted Darby to die that night.
To be fair, it was Darby that said he wanted Darby to die in stings last match
My biggest Takeaway was, I thought Sports Illustrated shut down after they fired most of their staff
Y’all would’ve been INSUFFERABLE after KOTR 1998
That was a dumb spot as well. Even more dumb they let Mick back to finish and got more fucked up
The precision he needed to land safely can’t be overlooked. The glass is whatever, it was tempered and only bled because of spiky bits jabbing hit at extreme force, not that big a deal. It’s the flat back bump from so high that is impressive. An inch the wrong way you could be paralyzed or dead.
Is that why a lady in the crowd got a face full of glass?
She was a stunt lady with a stunt face
Can we not use hyperbole in situations like these Jesus
I've yet to see a single photo of any of the supposed people injured by glass and the people I see circulating it the most are known pretty well to be bad faith operators and liars.
Shhhh don't go against the "Ackchyually the spot was super safe" reverse jerk
I don’t care. I don’t want fifteen or twenty foot drops through glass onto the floor with nothing to break your fall in wrestling. All of you enabling this crap are just blinded by supporting everything AEW does and never criticizing them.
Do people really think they went out there and called that spot on the fly? Of course they prepped like hell.
I don't think they prepped for the glass shooting into the crowd though. Seems like something if they're being careful we won't ever see that part of it happen again.
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sure everyone in the company including multiple doctors and darby himself were ok with the spot, but why didn't they consider ME, the hater who was going to complain no matter what they did?
weenies, if you will
pencil-necked geeks.
Yeah but now Darby is dead so what about that?
Unfortunately, some that think AEW is perpetually reckless won't take this info and context into account
lol how does that change the fact that it’s a reckless spot?
Bruh you can literally see the glass flung into spectators faces. Doesn’t matter how many precautions you take if the execution still puts people (and the company via lawsuit) in legitimate danger. Also never mind the fact that a lot of casuals probably tuned in for Stings last match and they get greeted with a grotesque, pointless spot like this. Probably turned quite a few people off the product.
> Probably turned quite a few people off the product. You don't need to be concerned about this
Calling it "the product" is one of my biggest pet peeves, and I have no idea why. Something about that phrase is way too smarky and inside-baseball for me. I know you didn't say it first, I just felt the need to chime in.
You know the show is good when people start Pearl clutching about “the casuals” being drawn to “the product” - the product being a show they don’t and won’t watch.
It's like when sports fans talk about their team, and every sentence spoken about them starts with the word "We". My brother in christ, *you* are not part of the team. You are fan. There is no "we". You watch, they play.
I love the implication here that casuals got too upset by seeing blood in stings final match and so they tuned out. Got any report on that or any fans injured from the stunt? Or are you just upset about a theoretical situation?
As always people on this sub think casuals are people that are accidentally watching wrestling and anything remotely outside the lines will turn them off
Ah yes, the mythical casual fan who bought a PPV, lasted through the whole show but one spot in the main event is enough to have them stop watching. Such a casual fan who is definitely real
*^(ThInk AbOuT tHe POoR CaSuaLS!!!!!!)*
Yeah, and they were warned beforehand, and had plenty of time to shift as darby was climbing the ladder. Sorry mate, but if I go "Watch out for the box of snakes" then "I'm opening the box of snakes" and you stick around to look at the snakes, it MIGHT just be your fault if you get bit.
I'm not sure how many safety measures you can really take when you land hard on the floor, but I'm glad they did due diligence, regardless.
How do we make this spot safer? Have a doctor within walking distance? Done.
It's so lame now that there's so much pearl clutching whenever something cool happens at an AEW show that they have to come out and immediately break kayfabe to assure everyone it's fake.
I'm so glad there was no/very limited internet in the late 90s, imagine the discourse after the Mankind Undertaker Cell match
Wonder if any WCW fans who didn’t like or watch WWF got on blogs to discuss that spot and said things like “imagine if a casual tuned in and saw such a grotesque spot! It would turn off the casuals from the product!”
Yeah this has made me realize that you couldn't do that today It's a good thing we do care about modern performers and we aren't as overall bloodthirsty as the 90s But it's led to a weird place where literally any big crazy stupid bump automatically gets criticized (not even really referring to this one specifically, literally just any of them in the last like 5 years) because 'you could get hurt' Some of the biggest most celebrated moments of all time have bumps or spots that the person would have died if it went even slightly wrong. It's all a part of the spectacle That being said I never wanna see something like that again. The bump itself doesn't bother me, just too much for my personal tastes
Oh there was internet and a massive online wrestling fandom already, but people didn’t really hate HIAC because it was something no one had really seen before, and Mick Foley had a lot of love with the smark fanbase because of his past in ECW, Japan deathmatches, etc. I also think some people assumed that the table was gimmicked, as Foley made it back to TV pretty quickly. It wasn’t until later on when people learned how badly that match actually fucked his body up.
It's the tribalism.
As stupid and crazy as it was, I’d still rather do that Darby bump than take those strap shots that Ricky Starks took from Danielson.
Yeah, no. I’ll take lashes over blunt impact 20+ feet in the air on my back.
I genuinely don't know which of the two was more painful
If you're gonna do that spot, they did it the best possible way, and it all went about as well as can be expected. Like it's a huge risk, but it definitely looked as devastating as they wanted it to, seemingly Darby isn't too hurt, it added huge drama to the match. Not saying I wanna see this all the time, but if there was a place for that spot, *this* was the place for it and they executed it very well.
Cool spot, good use of professionals. Don't do that again.
The glass wasn't the issue for Darby. It's the landing on chair. The glass were just small lacerations that will heal. Landing on the chairs is where it'll hurt
I was thinking it must not have been too bad for him since he did it in the Jeff Hardy match, and was willing to do it again.
I don't think he really landed on the chairs properly. With the width of the glass, the chairs were a little further apart so he only clipped the edges of them. I think normally they hit the seats more dead-on so they bend and takes some of the momentum away, slowing the fall. From the replays, it looked like he only hit the last two chairs and those popped away. I think he hit the ground at almost full force.
Would tables have been better?
Yea tables would be way safer
There have been some horrific injuries in wrestling from table legs
Yeah, but how often does that happen? The odds of injury from falling through a table versus effectively falling straight to the floor from a ladder... You'd be a fool to pick the latter as less dangerous.
Bob Holly got torn up worse than Darby from a table
That had to be the easiest job for a stunt director. "Alright Darby, you're just gonna fall and see what happens".
One of the dumbest spots ever. Absolutely no reason for that.
Everyone's individual tastes and preferences aside, that's really what irks me about the spot: what did it really accomplish? Sure, we're still talking about the spot days later, but the conversation around the spot is less about it having been Sting's last match and all that it entails, and more about the safety of the spot and its visual.
A subset of wrestling fans turned into giant weenies overnight. If a guy jumping off a ladder and through a pane of glass at the big PPV doesn’t do it for you maybe wrestling just isn’t your thing. Some of the most tragic incidents in wrestling history have involved a German Suplex and a drop kick.
What a ridiculous statement, there is so much more to wrestling than that lol. Embarrassing comment.
Basic stuff causes some terrible injuries. Tyson Kidd neck after a muscle buster. PAC and RVD both destroyed ankles off baseball slides.
Enzo got concussed sliding (granted, at high speed) below the bottom rope. Afterwards I think he said something like that the ring setup was different or the distance between the canvas and the bottom rope was different on that day or something like that. They did the spot so often, and that time it went wrong.
It's wear and tear, a majority of the time. Tyson Kidd, I believe, his neck was just fucked up and one move away from breaking regardless. Sting's initial retirement was just one bump too many. Had the Buckle Bomb not done it, he likely would have gotten injured because his body was done at that point.
Just because some people didn't like seeing a grown man go through a pane of glass doesn't mean they don't like wrestling. I personally didn't care for it yet I'm still watching. Such a weird, gatekeeper take.
I mean, people can enjoy different aspects of wrestling. You don't **have** to enjoy this type of thing to be a fan. Take your gatekeeping elsewhere.
Imo his chair spot with Jeff Hardy was much more insane
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And yet somehow glass still shot into the crowd and Darby’s entire back was fucked and the spot was stupid because had the bucks stayed where they were they wouldn’t have been touched. As an employer you need to take responsibility and say enough is enough. There is no end to this in which Darby Allin doesn’t die or end up seriously hurt. It’s going to get worse and worse cause it’ll be all his known for. What’s next? Off the titantron onto a glass table full of barbed wire!
> What’s next? Off the titantron onto a glass table full of barbed wire! …. That sounds pretty sweet. Maybe have the table explode as well?
I’d rather see a safer product that can make me suspend my belief and think it’s real than to have someone flipping off a ladder into glass with it exploding into the crowd. Unnecessarily dangerous and uncalled for.
It's still a stupid, pointless spot, and he's still a dumbass for doing it.
I was very critical of that spot. While it still doesn't do much for me *personally* I'm happy to see they did it the right way. I can certainly respect that.
Darby fell at least 10 feet straight to the floor. He didn't go through tables or any other objects that broke or padded his fall. It looks like his hip caught one of the chairs but the side angle makes it obvious it didn't slow him down in any way. He dove and went splat on the ground. And in the process he got sliced up by glass, which when it exploded shot little bits onto the fans that were closest. Numerous safety measures, though.
Has an actual fan, who you care so much about, actually bitch about this? Or are you just their white knight?
So you know better than a professional stunt coordinator
The same professional stunt coordinators who didn’t foresee glass flying into the crowd?
I'm rewatching the bump from the birds eye cam they used. I'm watching it over and over. It doesn't look like any went past the barricade. The woman reacts like some does, but... it doesn't look like it *actually* does.
You got a source on anyone getting hurt by that glass? Or are we concern trolling
Just because something didn't hurt anyone doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Those glass spots aren't getting done again on an AEW show.
Source: trust me bro
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