Malakai Black discussed adjusting to the transition from WWE to AEW in a recent interview on the Wrestling Perspective podcast.
Here is what he had to say:
“I’m still absorbing, I’m still absorbing. I come from the dojo mentality, so I was used to like sweeping mats and cleaning dojos and all that stuff. That’s always how I entered wrestling as well. I always kept that principle. That’s why during training, most of the time, I wasn’t problematic. I sure got my ass chewed out a couple of times, we all do. But I’ve always kept a level of trying to be humble all the time. One of the things that I find very important is that especially the younger guys see that I’m approachable and that you can absolutely talk to me about things and that the older guard sees that I’m willing to learn, despite the things that I’ve done, that I’m still open about a lot of things. And I want the company to know that I’m there for them. I had a good conversation with some of the members of the company. And it’s important for me, and I did this in WWE too, it’s important for me for them to understand I feel we’re all colleagues. From the ring crew to the lighting crew to the sound crew to the boys in the back to the people behind the table, we’re all part of the same team. I don’t look at anyone higher or lower, we’re all the same. We’re all there for one goal.
“And for me, that’s always the important thing, that we’re all equal. I find the aspect of equality very important. I’m still slowly coming down on everything because it’s a lot to absorb. I go from one place where I spent half a decade dedicating myself, to now having a complete switch with another company that I’m absolutely going to give every single thing to. But it takes a while to get rid of that half a decade of ‘this is how we did it there, and now we’re going to do it this way.’ And I’m still figuring that out. I came in the first time and I was like, it was that eggshell, eggshell feeling but it was quickly like everyone was like, ‘No, you don’t have to do that here. That’s not how we do things.’ Every company does things their way, and that’s the process I find difficult because I’ve always been a quiet guy. I truly believe in earning my keep. I’ve always believed in starting from the bottom.”
H/T to 411 Mania
