Jim Ross has praised the direction of Darby Allin as AEW World Champion and is keen to see how his story unfolds as we head towards Double or Nothing.

Allin has been champion for over a month and has defended the title every week on “AEW Dynamite,” featuring front and center on AEW’s Wednesday night show. Ross, on his “Grilling JR” podcast, detailed what he likes about Allin’s character.

“I like what AEW is doing with Darby. They’re getting in some momentum. He provides hope with his little undersized body. He’s very resourceful. He sells great. So, I’m very pleased with where AEW and Tony Khan are heading with Darby Allin. He’s a player, and people cheer for the underdog, and whether he’s a champion or he isn’t, he’s the underdog — just look at the scales,” said the legendary commentator.

JR is pleased to see how Allin has been booked on AEW television since winning the world championship, with the single-minded goal being for fans to support him. The AEW commentator was full of praise for the champ and is eager to see how his story unfolds in the weeks to come.

“What they’re doing with Darby, they’re not doing anything more important on their television than featuring Darby Allin and letting us support him and get behind him and all that stuff. So, he’s very resilient. And I like his approach a lot. So, we’ll see how that materializes over the next few weeks,” he added.

Allin will defend his title against former champion MJF at Double or Nothing, but before his match in New York City — which JR said he will be present for — he will face Mike Bailey on this week’s “Dynamite” in another world championship match.

WWE legend JBL has discussed why a union for wrestlers could become a reality in the future.

JBL discussed on the “Something to Wrestle” podcast about Kevin Nash’s recent suggestion to wrestlers to unionize, following the recent WWE releases. He thinks that there’s a chance wrestlers could form a union, but explained why he is against it.

“I think there’s a possibility [of a union in WWE]. What Kevin is arguing is change the rules. You know, he’s a smart guy. If you change the rules, he plays within the rules of that system,” he said. “I think there’s a chance it could be. Everything’s becoming so corporate. Unions are ideological. I’m more of a free-market type person that’s not in favor of unions. I think there are times that unions are very beneficial to people when people have been mistreated. I don’t think we have as much in society now, but a person that wants a union would argue against me on that point.”

JBL revealed that he was part of the SAG union, which he was initially happy to join, but decided to leave after they attempted to take money he had earned from appearing in video games. He reiterated that he has no issues with unions, but he was not in favor of it, as he was paid well by the then Vince McMahon-led WWE.

“They tried to unionize several times. I was there back in Montreal Screwjob, several people were talking about it. I was dead set against it. The reason was I’m making more money than I’ve ever made in my life at the time. I’m sitting there, and I’m thinking, I know that the higher-ups don’t want this. I’m not going to cross them because I’m making so much freaking money compared to what I had made elsewhere. Vince [McMahon] was always a great payoff guy, a terrific payoff guy. So, I never had a desire to say I was mistreated.”

He pointed out how WWE covered the cost of his surgeries and even paid him above his downside guarantee when he suffered an injury and was out of action.

The recent May 16 “AEW Collision,” which featured a few title matches, saw viewership and ratings grow after a fall for last week’s show, after a few weeks of growth.

The Saturday night show, held at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland, averaged 384,000 viewers, according to “Programming Insider.” This is over a 10% gain from the previous week’s viewership of 342,000, while it’s also marginally higher than the four-week average for the show. The previous two editions of “Collision,” the May 9 and May 2 shows, drew 342,000 and 347,000, respectively, which was a notable drop in viewership compared to the earlier two editions, which drew 397,000 and 473,000 viewers. 

The 18-49 key demographic rating also increased for the May 16 “Collision,” albeit marginally, rising from 0.05 to 0.06, which matches the four-week average for the rating. 

“Collision” was main evented by Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara, where the former successfully defended his AEW World Championship in a no count-out match. Willow Nightingale also retained her AEW TBS Championship against Red Velvet, while the rest of the show featured a host of tag team matches.

Last week’s “Collision” aired live, and this week’s show will also air live, albeit on Wednesday — the same day as “AEW Dynamite” — as AEW gears up for the upcoming Double or Nothing pay-per-view this weekend.