Miro Beats Darby Allin for the AEW TNT Championship

Miro won his first championship in his AEW career on this week’s AEW Dynamite, defeating Darby Allin for the TNT Championship in the show’s main event. “The Best Man” brutalized Allin long before the bell even rang, and it looked like he was going to score the pin in mere seconds by nailing a Matchka Kick once Allin was finally back to his feet. But the scrappy young champion kept finding ways to fight back, hitting two consecutive Stunners before attempting his Coffin Drop finisher (only for Miro to block it with a suplex).

Miro eventually locked Allin in his Game Over submission, cranking his back until the referee had no choice but to call for the bell. The newly-crowned champ gloated over his opponent, then was approached by Lance Archer as the show went off the air.

The dominant victory comes in sharp contrast to what Miro had previously been doing on AEW programming. Since arriving last September, Miro had been directing most of his focus to video games and Kip Sabian & Penelope Ford’s wedding. The booking was heavily criticized by fans, but AEW president Tony Khan explained last year that he believed Miro (formerly known as Rusev) needed his character to be rehabilitated after his final few years in WWE.

“Whether people know it or not, we’re re-contextualizing Miro,” Khan said in a media conference call. “I don’t know what Miro was supposed to be before he came to AEW. I don’t understand what he represented. And I think most of the great characters in wrestling have some element of their personality, where they bring themselves into it. And the Miro you’re seeing is the person I know.”

I’m just kind of rebuilding him, to be honest with you. I thought he got beat up so badly [in WWE],” he continued. “I saw some jackass on Twitter was like, ‘This guy drove a tank at WrestleMania and now he’s doing this,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, and then he got kicked in the nuts and they treated him like s— for years. He drove a tank out five years ago. That’s not the guy I signed. The guy I signed had been abused for years. And he’s being rebuilt.”