As many of you know by now, Malakai Black (Aleister Black in WWE) made his official AEW debut during Wednesday night’s episode of Dynamite. Following the show, Black did a livestream and commented on the reports of his WWE non-compete clause, keeping his debut a secret, and more. You can check out some highlights from the livestream below:
On keeping his debut a surprise: “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.”
On the lights going out throughout the show: “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 who outside of Zelina Vega and his father knew about his debut: “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 being excited about his debut: “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 his first impression of Tony Khan: “My first impression of Tony is great. What a f**king wonderful dude. Really nice guy. Loves his company. Love wrestling.”
On why he chose to sign with AEW: “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.”
(h/t – Fightful)
