AEW: Why Darby Allin should be the inaugural TNT Champion

AEW has a new title, the TNT Championship. A tournament will take place to crown the inaugural winner. The tournament culminates at Double or Nothing.

The TNT Championship tournament starts this week on AEW Dynamite. Eight men will face off over the coming weeks to become the inaugural TNT Champion.

In the first round of matchups, fans will see Shawn Spears vs. Cody, Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin, Kip Sabian vs. Dustin Rhodes and Colt Cabana vs. Lance Archer. The tournament includes wrestlers who have made up the core mid-card roster.

Cabana and Archer are newcomers to AEW, so it was a bit of a surprise to see them involved over guys like Joey Janela, Jimmy Havoc, or Scorpio Sky. Perhaps it’s due to who’s available among the novel coronavirus pandemic, although Havoc has been at the tapings.

Darby Allin should be the inaugural TNT Champion. He has consistently been one of the most talked about wrestlers on the roster. He is relentless, reckless and innovative. Allin could be AEW World Champion in the next couple of years. Hanging this title on him would be a huge vote of confidence.

Allin also makes sense as champion to lead the mid-tier group of wrestlers. He is one of the best and can have excellent matches with any of those men. Besides the ones mentioned earlier, there’s also Jungle Boy and Sonny Kiss.

There is so much talent and battling for a title will make the matches that much better. Being the inaugural champion carries a lot of weight, but Allin can do it.

He’s had great matches against Cody, Sabian and Guevara. Allin has beaten both Sabian and Guevara. Although he’s yet to beat Cody, he has more motivation if they both make it to the semi-finals. Beating Cody gets him one step closer to the title and accomplishes one thing he hasn’t done yet.

One could make the argument that the TNT Champion should be someone well known like Cody or Dustin Rhodes, but they did that with the AEW World Championship. Putting the title on someone like Chris Jericho made sense for the very first title. AEW has been putting only monthly shows since October. They have a steady audience and that audience is familiar with Allin.

AEW has set out to promote new talent and those who aren’t quite household names yet. This title should go to an up-and-comer. This will cement their commitment to fresh talent. Some fans have made the argument that AEW keeps pushing former WWE talent. That argument can be disputed by having the first champion be Allin.

Allin’s relentlessness has gotten him this far. It’s time to reward him by making him the inaugural TNT Champion.