Darby Allin has been drowned on television. The time he nearly drowned for real did not involve a wrestling ring at all.
Allin was in Las Vegas ahead of tonight’s AEW Dynamite and Collision taping at The Pearl at the Palms and sat down with 8 News Now to talk about his career. Asked about the drowning spot, he assumed the question was about something else.
When you said the drowned one, I was filming Shark Week last year, and I was trying to kickflip at the bottom of the ocean with 15 sharks around my head, and then I ran out of oxygen, and I remember almost drowning there. I thought that’s what you were referring to.
The stunt was an attempt to set a record for the lowest-elevation kickflip, a bookend to the record he set on Mount Everest in May 2025. He has talked about the sharks before, on Steve-O’s Wild Ride, where he described how hard the trick was and admitted he had not practiced it and had strapped on a piece of a life jacket in the hope his board would float up. He did not mention running out of air that time.
The wrestling version was the I Quit match against Jon Moxley at WrestleDream in October, where Moxley repeatedly dunked Allin’s head into a water-filled tank at ringside trying to force a submission. Allin refused, Sting returned, and Allin won.
That spot drew a large and mostly negative reaction. Former AEW coach Sarah Stock called it attempted murder and warned parents off it. Matt Hardy and Mr. Anderson both defended it, Anderson calling simulated drowning good television.
Allin has been chasing Kevin Knight for the TNT Championship and has asked for a falls count anywhere match at All In on August 30. Knight has not agreed to it.
