Malakai Black Reveals How Much Creative Control Paul Heyman Really Had In WWE

Malakai Black went on the Talk is Jericho podcast that former Executive Director of Monday Night RAW Paul Heyman did not have control of RAW for long.

Black was moved from NXT, where he was a former NXT Champion, to RAW in 2019, the same year that Paul Heyman took over for RAW.

During Talk Is Jericho, Malakai Black, said he loved working with Heyman and that he felt that his career had guidance when working with Heyman. Black went on to say that after one night of control, Heyman and Black had to fight to get Black progress on RAW and have his ideas heard.

“Since day one, me and Paul meshed. I love that man. He’s always been really good to me. He’s been blunt with me and I appreciate people being blunt with me, don’t dance around the subject, just tell me how it is, especially in this business. Paul had big ideas, not just with me, but with a lot of younger people like Buddy Murphy. He once told me that he had one night of control, that was the first night. After that, everything became a fight. Maybe ‘fight’ is not the right word, but a debate. I can understand, but it makes you wonder. I let it go because we were fighting tooth and nail to get me out of the room and to progress,”

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Malakai Black was released from WWE on June 2nd, just days after his new character debuted live on SmackDown. Black debuted for AEW on an episode of Dynamite on July 7th due to an error in his contract only making his no compete clause 30 days instead of the typical 90 days.

Malakai Black is set to make his in ring debut for AEW on Dynamite on August 4th in a much-anticipated match against Cody Rhodes.