Darby Allin took Nick Waye under his wing at a young age, offering him an AEW contract before he was 18 and aligning himself with Wayne on AEW television.
Allin trained under Nick's father Buddy Wayne, but the two had a falling out, which was referenced on AEW television, before Buddy passed. After his passing, Allin made amends with the family and began looking out for Nick.
Speaking to Steve Migs, Darby was asked if it's tough to reference his real life history with Buddy while working with Nick.
"It's not. The thing is, people in wrestling search for the next story and the whole time it's in front of you. Real life writes itself. I did go to the Buddy Wayne Academy, I started training there, I had no wrestling knowledge before that. I had a big falling out with Buddy where we both said some things. I said, 'peace out, I'm doing it my way. Screw off.' I didn't talk to him for a year and a half, two years, and then I got the call that he died. I was like, 'Ah, man, that sucks.' It sucked because I burnt that bridge. It also put in perspective of how petty you can be with holding onto things. Now, through meditation and everything I do through Rick Rubin's programs. It teaches you to not get mad. I never get angry. It's cool to know that I don't hold grudges with anybody. If I didn't have a grudge against Buddy, at least I would have known before he passed that we were cool. I messaged Shayna after Buddy passed, 'I know you probably don't want to see me, but I'm coming over. I need to do this for you, and I need to do this for Nick.' I went there and I said, 'I know you don't want me here, but a man passed away, we need to get over this shit now and we need to remember what brought us here.' I would go on family trips with them and do so much with them. It's a matter of, 'I'm part of your family.' I never lost sight of that. There is a bump in the road. Now, it's this crazy full circle moment that we're using that on TV, but also knowing Buddy watching this shit, I think he would be super stoked. Nick has done this on his own. We can all agree that Nick is very talented. It's not me putting a word in for my buddy. Nick got into it by being Nick. I just pushed him into a spot right when he got here, 'sink or swim, you're in the deep end now. We aren't starting you off with random matches.' He's been able to ride with that and adapt to all of that, which speaks to his talent," said Darby.
Darby is set to team with Sting to take on Christian Cage & Luchasaurus at AEW Rampage Grand Slam.
Elsewhere during the interview, Darby gave an update on his plans to climb Mount Everest, including his training schedule. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
