During a recent Twitch stream, AEW Superstar Malakai Black commented on his new character in AEW, the creative freedom he has with it, and more. You can check out some highlights from the stream below:
On his new heel character and gimmick: “It’s funny. The reason I did this is because this is actually how I wanted the WWE version to be. When I started, I wanted to come in as a heel and Hunter [Triple H] wanted me face. If anyone has ever seen any work of me on the independents, you would know that the gimmick I was portraying in the WWE was an amplified version of what I did on the indies. That’s why they wanted me. But I wanted to be a heel because I was coming off a heel run on the independents. But then Hunter had this idea of making me face, a stoic face character. So, I had to switch the character from being this obnoxious, sadistic, possessed by a demon guy, to the same possessed by a demon/devil guy, but then having remorse, and I have to find the middle ground with that. And I had to find the middle ground in that and how would someone who is [like] that [could] find remorse and show remorse by being stoic and having a problem expressing his emotions.”
On picking Malakai as is his new first name: “I was looking for an Old Testament name and I found one that had a double-meaning. I was a big fan of Children of the Corn when I grew up and I felt that, with the character, [the name] kind of fit.”
On his thoughts on the creative freedom in AEW: “It feels really good. It feels really good that I’m in a place now where my creative mind can be utilized versus stopped, and controlled, and being presented in things that I know are not gonna work. Because, no offense, I knew a lot of the stuff wasn’t going to work, and I said that to them as well back in the day. Lo and behold it didn’t work.”
(h/t – Wrestling Inc)
