During a recent appearance on the “Pro Wrestling 4 Life” podcast, AEW Superstar Malakai Black credited his AEW debut to Cody Rhodes, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his in-ring debut for AEW: “I told Tony (Khan), ‘I have this idea, this is how I view it, what do you think?’ He said, ‘I love it, I love everything about it.’ He was confident enough to give me a shot at it. I clearly owe a lot to Cody. We think very much alike in a lot of things, which is very pleasant. I laid out what I wanted to do and they both thought it was cool and it worked. (The vision played out) exactly (how I imagined), with their perspective feedback. At the end of the day, I still work for someone else and I have to get their opinion and clearance. Luckily, I got clearance. Everything that me and him did played out exactly how I envisioned in my head and the payoff worked. It was crazy fun. It was a good moment for my career and good validation in understanding what you do and making it work.”
On Cody’s retirement tease: “Stick around and see. The beauty in wrestling is eventually stuff pays off.”
On working with Tony Khan: “Great. Absolutely great. He’s very enthusiastic and spontaneous individual. He has an incredible amount of love for what he does and his locker room. He’s always available. I briefly spoke to him (on August 5) and he thanked me for what we did. He thought it was really cool. I appreciated it. It’s very different. Vince McMahon and Tony are very 180 and two extremely different people. A lot of it has to do with where he comes from, how he is as a person, how young he is. Definitely a different perspective on society and a different mentality. That’s okay and great. It works very well for me. I have nothing but good things to say about him. He’s been fair and blunt with me, which I appreciate people being upfront and honest with me, even when it’s not in my favor. I prefer people to tell me, ‘I’m not feeling this.’ Cool, at least you let me know vs ‘Okay, maybe.’ He’s very good at that. I appreciate that very much. I think AEW is making very cool waves, it’s a great company to be part of and I came in at the right time.”
