AEW Star Believes Darby Allin Needs Weapons To Be A 'Formidable Opponent'

Samoa Joe claimed to be the "King of Television" while reigning as the AEW TNT and ROH World Television Champion simultaneously. His TNT title reign suddenly ended on January 4 when Darby Allin defeated him in the main event of "AEW Dynamite." As a result, the two are now set to clash in a rematch on the February 1 "Dynamite" in a No Holds Barred match. Ahead of the bout, Joe spoke to WrestleZone about how Allin needs weapons in order to be a "formidable opponent."

"He comes out before the bell even rings, he's attacking with skateboards and he's got this little distraction sitting at ringside. It was a ridiculous farce of a match," Joe said. He believes "nobody" saw their first match as a fair contest because of Allin's pre-match attack using his skateboard. Joe added, "Even going into this match, any day of the week ending in Y, you put Darby Allin in a ring with me in a straight-up, he catches a fade. It's bad. He's in the hospital for a while. But you give him his toys and his weapons, he becomes a little bit more of a formidable opponent."

Joe said it's no surprise that their rematch was given a stipulation because AEW wants to put Allin on a "level playing field" as him. Throughout the course of Allin's second reign with the TNT title, he's defended it four times across "Dynamite" and "Rampage" with open challenges answered by the likes of KUSHIDA and Buddy Matthews. If Joe is able to beat Allin in their rematch, he will become a two-time TNT Champion.

If you use any quotes from this article, pleases credit WrestleZone with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.