Malakai Black Explains Reasoning Behind His AEW Entrance

Aleister Black was absent from WWE television for quite a few months as creative had no plans for him. Despite making a return on Friday Night Smackdown back in May and starting a new feud with Big E, Black was released by WWE. Then he showed up in AEW prior to any 90-day non-compete clause ending, because he only had a 30-day non-compete clause thanks to a clerical error on WWE’s part.

Aleister Black previously detailed how the last two years of his time in WWE were like a slow death and he had a lot of trouble dealing with WWE Creative on numerous aspects. After his AEW debut, he now goes by the name Malakai Black.

Malakai Black has so far remained undefeated, picking up wins over the likes of Cody Rhodes and others. His character is certainly an intimidating one, to say the least and that is also due to his entrance.

While speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Malakai Black talked about his entrance in AEW and revealed how he wanted it to be minimalistic, unlike his entrance in WWE.

“When I was in the other company, I had a very elaborate bells and whistles kind of entrance, very produced. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I consider myself a bit of a minimalist and I wanted to see if I can create something similar by just using the bare minimum.

When we talk about television wrestling, it’s obviously very different than live events. It’s very different than regular professional wrestling, basically. It needs to translate. So I started thinking, how do I translate something on TV that gives a different impression and that translates well into theatrical aspects on television? So I came up with the three light cuts and the three different positions. I asked myself, how could I create an entrance based off of light cuts and just using three simple lights, and the result is what you see on TV. And what I have literally is one of the easiest entrances that we have, but taking your word for it, it is one of the more unique ones that has been displayed in professional wrestling, especially current day.

I wanted to switch away from the bells and whistles and just make something that is minimalistic in nature but still has a very memorable impression to people at home, to the people in the audience. I think it’s an incredible thing now that in the span of seven, eight weeks, the second that the lights cut, they know what time that is, and the people just come up and then as soon as the first note of the song plays, everybody quiets down because everybody wants to be involved and everybody wants to feel the entrance.

And to me as a professional wrestler, as a performer, as someone that works in television and in wrestling, that’s what I want. I want the audience to be an inevitable part of my entrance, and I want them to connect and feel to what it is that I’m doing. I want it to be an experience. So from the get go, I wanted their attention, and this is how, in my head, I visualize that and I’m glad that it paid off. I also have to thank Tony [Khan] for allowing me to build this and give me the trust because the conversation literally went, well if I can’t get it done in three months, then maybe we should see if I’m a good fit. And we did it in less than four weeks. It was very rewarding, but that’s basically the thought process and the manifestation behind my entrance.”

Malakai Black is set to square off against Dante Martin in the future and it is likely he will terrorize the young star. We will have to wait and see who will prevail in the match.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!