Priscilla Kelly didn’t want to be known as Darby Allin’s wife.
Before Kelly became Gigi Dolin in NXT, the former WWE star fought in AEW in 2019 and 2020. Kelly only had two matches in AEW overall, but since she had a lot of friends and her then husband, Darby Allin, was there, she seemed like a shoe-in to join the promotion sooner than later.
She was actually given an opportunity to make her debut alongside her ex, but Kelly turned that down because she didn’t want to be only known as Darby Allin’s wife. Speaking on Saraya’s Rulebreakers podcast, Kelly spoke about wanting to go AEW first.
“It was really weird. I did All Out, the Casino Battle Royal. I wasn’t in for very long, but I think I had a good little showing. Then, I did the Jericho Cruise, an episode of Dynamite, and a house show. I had a lot of fun and I was really trying to get in there. I was told, ‘Just keep showing up. We’ll find something for you.’ I kept showing up. At the time, I was married to Darby Allin. It was easy because I could just jump in the car and go with him.
It was COVID, so they were doing all the shows in Jacksonville. I would go and it was weird, nothing really ever came of it. I don’t know if it was a timing thing, probably. Originally, I wanted to go to AEW just because a lot of my friends were there and it was the first big TV company I was around. COVID happened, and later that year, I had the WWE tryout. It worked out in some way. It was a weird thing. I went and I never actually got signed,” she said.
She then further explained her decision to turn down an opportunity to be showcased alongside Allin and emphasized that she wanted to carve out her own identity.
“Maybe it screwed me over for turning down the opportunity, but I had never been on a big televised company before,” said Kelly. “I did the Mae Young Classic for WWE, but most people don’t remember that. This was the first time I was going to be on TV. If I get my first real introduction as ‘Darby Allin’s wife ringside,’ I was scared, especially at that time, that I would just be his wife. At that time, I was so strong and bullheaded about it.
‘I am more than just a wife.’ You know how it is, Brie Bella would come to the ring and get ‘Yes’ chants. That was my biggest fear. Not that I was like, ‘Screw my then-husband,’ but I want to be my own entity and I don’t want to be this person where I come to the ring and they are changing ‘Darby.’ Maybe that screwed me over, maybe it didn’t.”
Check out the full interview where Kelly and Saraya go back and forth about the wrestling business, along with the former NXT star being released from WWE.