During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, AEW Superstar Malakai Black commented on the backstory of his character, where he got the inspiration for the mask he uses, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the backstory for his character: “A lot of people started really digging through my old stuff and really found a bunch of really cool creative things. They haven’t completely discovered everything that I’ve did already with Malakai or am doing as Malakai. But, one of the things that I can tell you is that when I released ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ little movie, video trailer, teaser, whatever you want to call it. There’s a funny thing where a lot of people thought that it was a dig towards my former employer, but it was actually not at all. It was a creative way for me to ease out of Aleister and move into a different realm. The idea behind it is that this greater entity known as Moloch or Malakai in this case, this messenger, orchestrated this whole idea that Tom was in a, what’s the best word to describe this, had this episode that lasted almost five years wherein he believed that he was Aleister and that he believed that he was a fallen angel with memory loss or Lucifer or Satan, however you want to call it.”
On the deeper layers of his character: “He had this episode, this manic episode, where actually it was Malakai who orchestrated all of this and through the injury in his eye was able to kind of like fracture apart in being able to manifest himself through the eye. That’s also why this thing on my face keeps growing and growing because he becomes stronger and stronger, and it reacts to certain events and certain happenings. So in a way, it’s a continuation, but at the same time, there’s a layer above the layers. I’ve said this and I’ve referenced this many, many times for me, wrestling is a lot more than just us versus them or you versus me. It’s a creative outlet for me. Some like it, some don’t. I don’t care. It’s about what I want to do and clearly what I do works. A lot of people are intrigued by it. Sure, people are not going to be intrigued by it. That’s fine. It’s a part of like this, I dove into a sea of what can I do with this? I’m still swimming down to whatever I can find, like the bottom of things. I keep discovering new things and keep discovering new layers and ideas that I find interesting that I feel that I can stick on to this character and create this character. It becomes its own universe in a way. It’s just a very creative outlet.”
On his mask: “I wanted to tie something in that was a little closer to me as a Dutch person. I think a lot of people don’t even realize that, as well as I speak English, I wasn’t born in this country. This isn’t my original tongue. I had to learn this language. The mask is based on Cernunnos who was a lower Celtic god. That was, sorry, he was a Celtic God, that was worshiped in the lower Celts and also in Britain…”
