Aleister Black Says Road Warrior Animal Was The First to Tell Him to Go to WWE, Talks Learning From Him

Aleister Black had the good fortune to get to tag with Road Warrior Animal early in his career, and he recalled learning from the late WWE Hall of Famer in a new interview. Black appeared on the podcast the day that Animal passed away late last month and shared his memory of the legendary tag team wrestler. You can see highlights and the full video below:

On his experiences with Road Warrior Animal: “He was actually the first person to tell me to go to WWE. I tagged with him for a company in Germany called Westside Xtreme Wrestling which was my home company at the time. And they did these shows called Superstars of Wrestling, where they would bring in former, current, legends — basically, anyone who’s anyone in wrestling and still is, they bring and they run these shows with them. And at the time I was partnered with Michael Dante, being known as the Sumerian Death Squad. We tagged with him in a six-man tag, and it was an extremely humbling learning curve. He was very soft-spoken, very kind. Really took the time that he didn’t have to do to teach me things, tell me things. And I kind of bonded with him on that particular day. And even afterwards, every once in a while when I would run into him, he was always kind, always giving me advice. He was a firm believer in myself, which is — that meant the world to me.”

On his reaction to Animal’s passing: “The first thing I did when I woke up, I grabbed my phone as I was walking down the stairs and I see this news message that he, unfortunately, passed away. So yeah, that took me for a second and I sat down for a little bit and kind of like took a few minutes to kind of process that. Because you know, despite my personal interactions with him, the entire world has lost one of the greats. I think no debate on anyone’s mind, that he was one of the greats. So yeah, it was a thing, absolutely.”

On working with Animal in the ring: “I tagged with him. I have not tagged — didn’t tag against him. But just being in the ring with him and going through the paces, and the little mannerisms and the little cues he’d give me during our match was something. The advice that he gave me is something that I legit still use to today. And I have passed on to the generation that is now coming in with me and even some of the newer kids. It’s something that I still teach today. The guy was a wealth of knowledge and like I said, very soft-spoken.”

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