Malakai Black On AEW Debut & Why He Decided to Sign with AEW

Malakai Black, former Aleister Black in WWE, held a recent stream session on his wife Zelina Vega’s Twitch channel.

Among the topics discussed included his official debut for AEW at this past Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite. Black stated:

“It was a hassle to keep under wraps. Once I found out that my contract was a tad different than the usual, I just came up with this idea. I had already made the character movie and I came up with this idea and the company liked it so we ran with it. It was all very last second. I feel like, in modern day wrestling, there are few moments to make a genuine surprise and get people to look your way. For me to sneak in, not be seen, dip and dive so they wouldn’t see me, that took some skill. Kudos to AEW and the entire crew. What a great operation they have there. It feels good where I’m in a place where my creative mind can be utilized instead of stopped and controlled and knowing that things weren’t going to work.

I pitched that idea and said, ‘what if we do multiple blackouts throughout the show and insinuated the technical difficulties?’ Commentary did a great job getting that over and it came off great.”

On the topic of how many people knew beforehand of the plans for his debut in AEW, Black stated:

“We made it a thing to make it available to as limited people as possible because that’s how you keep it under wraps. Security, Cody Rhodes, and a few others. It may have been five or six total people. It was a good feeling. It’s been a rough seven or eight months but I feel like I got a win last night. I feel wrestling got a win.”

On the topic of the debut itself, Black stated that it was one of his top three favorite moments of his entire wrestling career so far.

“Last night was top three one of my favorite moments of my career. I slept for three hours because my adrenaline was so high. It was the cumulation of months and months and months and having this big payoff was worth the pain, chaos, and perseverance.”

On the topic of why he decided to sign with AEW, Black stated:

“It was the right move for me to make for me, my family, my career, the state of mind I’m in. It’s just a really good company. I can’t say enough good things about it. They have a bright future. There are a lot of dedicated people and I’m really glad to be part of it.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com