During his recent interview with the Wrestling Perspective podcast, AEW star Malakai Black(aka former WWE Superstar Aleister Black) discussed the importance of creative freedom. Malakai also explained the biggest creative differences between AEW and WWE, as well as much more. Take a look at the highlights below.
On his All Elite Wrestling character:
“I wanted to create something that was already there. It had to fit the wheelhouse. If I would’ve come out in a pink suit with a clown wig or anything, people would’ve been like ‘what?’ It would’ve been vague. And I wanted to rectify a few things first, and I’m going to do that still, with stuff that I’ve always wanted to do with the previous installments of the character. I have so many ideas for this. And once that’s established, I want to kind of deviate from the norm a little bit. Not turn away from it, but give it a different direction. But in order for me to do that, I have to put the bricks in first before we can. People have to have a level of accustomed viewing to this character before I can go, ‘Hey, let’s flip the switch on it.’”
On the differences between AEW and WWE creative:
“From what I see, it’s the open line of communications with Tony [Khan] that keeps everyone sane. Tony is open for everything, wants to talk to everyone, has ideas for everyone. And gives everyone a platform to express and create, and if you struggle, Tony is there to help you. And other people are there to help you too. We’ve got people like Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels. We’ve got Billy Gunn. Jerry Lynn, freakin’ Jerry Lynn. We’ve got Dean Malenko. So there is this wealth of knowledge that is there, that is there to help you. It’s not like, where a lot of times with the WWE, I felt, ‘We’ve got to come up with something. Come on guys, we’ve got to come up with something. It’s gotta happen right now. This is what they want, let’s go.’ I get it, there’s pressure, and there needs to be a level of pressure. You need to be able to withstand that. But I feel here, here it’s, ‘Hey we’re going to figure it out. We are going to figure it out.’ And they mean it, they are going to figure it out. That in my opinion is valuable. There’s nothing more difficult than trying to figure out when you’re involved with a platform the size of AEW. You want to have it figured out while you’re there. You want to be able to present this straight away to this audience. And not everybody has that. So people are given enough time and enough momentum and opportunity to go, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re going to figure it out.’ And that is just very important because there’s a lot of very valuable and exciting new talents to watch.”
On the thing that drives him as a wrestler:
“Creative freedom. I don’t care about money, never have. I’ve always been good with money too. I’ve been able to put both of my parents into retirement, I’ve been able to help my brother with his house, make savings for my parents with my payments, put enough money to the side that I can live comfortably. I don’t spend a lot of money, never have. If it was about the money, I would’ve said yes to anything that was thrown to me, and I didn’t. And I think, in a way, it led to a big part of the departure. There’s only so much you’re willing to do, and if you already have the mentality of ‘OK, it’s not going to work out’ and I said this in a different interview. If your mentality is ‘Alright, this is the last try I’m going to give it. And if it’s not going to work, then screw it, I’m going to do something else.’ So money has never really been a motivation for me. Is it comfortable? Of course. At the end of the day, we all have bills to pay. I want to put my kids through college, I want to make sure I don’t have to worry about parts of the rest of my life. I want to be able to make sure my house is paid off and all that stuff. But more importantly so, I want to retire from this business with peace of mind, knowing that I have done everything I could’ve done creatively. Even if everything comes crashing down, thundering down, and it doesn’t go anywhere, I want to die on my sword, not on someone else’s sword. So to answer your question, creative freedom for me is much more important than any monetary insert.”
