Malakai Black Credits Big Damo For Helping Him Out Early in WWE & After His Release

Malakai Black says that he owes a lot to Big Damo for helping him out both when he got to WWE and after his release. Black was among those who were released by WWE following WrestleMania 42. He has since returned to the independent scene.

Black appeared on the latest episode of Xelina and Charlie’s YouTube series and during the conversation, he spoke about his relationship with Damo. He detailed how he worked with Damo when they had their WWE tryout, and how Damo and Storm helped him out when he arrived in Florida to start in the company. Black also recalled how Damo reached out to him after his release and how he made his independent debut at PROGRESS, which Damo and Storm now own. You can see the highlights below:

On Working With Damo At His Tryout:

“I did the tryout, and during the tryout I had a match with Damo. They picked me and Damo, and I remember um they said like, ‘Hey guys, can you get in your gear? You got five minutes. And can you guys wrestle for like six minutes? Hunter’s coming down.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, f**k.’ So me and Damo, we’re talking, putting all the stuff on and calling this match. And Damo’s like. ‘You go over.’ I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no. You go [over].’ I was like, ‘Okay.’ And we did the match, and we did what we did. And Hunter really loved it and praised us both, and took us to the side, talked to us a little bit. And then Joey Mercury came down. Spoke to Joey for a while, and at the end of day three, shook everybody’s hand. I had a long conversation with Damo and we all went home, et cetera.”

On Damo and Storm Helping Him Early On In WWE:

“Coming there, I had secured like a little flat, apartment thingy. And it was at the — because Damo and Nikki were living there too… And Damo and Nikki were the first two people to really, really, really help me out. Like, they helped me out with everything. They helped me out with how to get my banking set up… But like Damo told me, ‘Go here, go this, do this, do that, do this.’ I mean, Nikki had already lived there for two years obviously and that was awesome.

“And Damo and Nikki, throughout this whole thing. My first day — Damo and Nikki. I was in the class with Damo. And Damo has been around my career — especially the up part of my career for a very long time.”

On Damo Reaching Out To Him After His Release:

“When I got released, the first person on the phone to send me a message that really hit me on a deep level was Damo. Damo sent some words to me — and I like I think I showed you the message, like the voicemail that he sent to me that really, really drove home. And it really pulled me out of a really bad spot that I was mentally, because of — you know, obvious things. I can pretend that it didn’t suck, but of course it sucks. It always sucks, you know what I mean? And in my case, it sucked harder because of the mountains of things that were promised, and all the other conversations. And then being presented with this f**king dud of a year. Despite main events, despite all these things, it was just — anything as to what they said that they wanted to do. Like to me, it was like, ‘Why did you guys even want this, because this makes no f**king sense. But you know, that’s besides the point. At some point, I’m sure I’ll talk about it.”

“Damo said, ‘Look, I own PROGRESS now. Why don’t you come and wrestle for me on your comeback? We’ll do this, we’ll do this, we’ll do this.’ And I’m like, ‘You know what? Yeah, he’s f**king right. He is so right.’ And I don’t know what drove him to like specifically put all that in me, or see that in me or see in me what he sees in me. But boy, am I thankful that he does. Because he was uh more than gracious, more than giving — more than, in times, I think I deserved. And just a good human being, man.

On His Reaction After His Return Indie Match:

“When I walked back through the curtain after that first match and just stood there, I just broke down. I started crying… it [was] just like a lot of emotions I didn’t realize were there just came out, and I don’t know why. I just started crying, and Damo gave me a big hug. And he’s like — world class, world class. He said, ‘I told you, I told you.’

And again, that guy has done so much for me. And he never had to, but he did. And I feel like a lot of times in this industry, we just skip past everything, and we assume that everything is like — you know, is what it is. And I feel like especially as men, we don’t praise each other enough. But no, Damo and Nikki both deserve all the praise that they can get.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ZelvX and Charlie Girl with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.