Malakai Black On How AEW Has Less Pressure Backstage Than WWE

Malakai Black, the former Aleister Black, has only been in AEW for a couple of weeks, but he has arguably already been treated better on Dynamite than WWE did for the tenure he was with the main roster. He certainly sees a difference.

While speaking to The Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Malakai Black brought up the people AEW has backstage that he can draw inspiration and information from. That was followed by a comparison to how things are so much different in AEW than they are in WWE, because that pressure isn’t there.

“From what I see, it’s the open line of communications with Tony that keeps everyone sane. Tony is open for everything, wants to talk to everyone, has ideas for everyone. And gives everyone a platform to express and create, and if you struggle Tony is there to help you. And other people are there to help you too. We’ve got people like Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels. We’ve got Billy Gunn. Jerry Lynn, freakin Jerry Lynn. We’ve got Dean Malenko. So there is this wealth of knowledge that is there, that is there to help you. It’s not like, where a lot of times with the WWE, I felt ‘we’ve got to come up with something. Come on guys, we’ve got to come up with something. It’s gotta happen right now! This is what they want, let’s go!’”

“I get it, there’s pressure, and there needs to be a level of pressure. You need to be able to withstand that. But I feel here, here it’s ‘hey we’re going to figure it out. We are going to figure it out.’ And they mean it, they are going to figure it out. That in my opinion is valuable. There’s nothing more difficult than trying to figure out when you’re involved with a platform the size of AEW. You want to have it figured out while you’re there. You want to be able to present this straight away to this audience. And not everybody has that. So people are given enough time and enough momentum and opportunity to go ‘hey, you know what? we’re going to figure it out.’ And that is just very important because there’s a lot of very valuable and exciting new talents to watch.”

Advertising

Advertising

Malakai Black will wrestle Cody Rhodes on August 4th at AEW Dynamite’s Jacksonville Homecoming event. That will be a big match that could pack Daily’s Place full of interested fans who want to see how Malakai Black will fair against an AEW EVP in his first match with the company. He certainly has the pro wrestling world’s attention.

What’s your take on Malakai Black’s booking in AEW so far? Sound off in the comments!

Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the quote