Booker T On Malakai Black Signing With AEW, Whether AEW Is Better Fit For Him Than WWE

In a recent edition of The Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T discussed Malakai Black signing with AEW, whether AEW is a better fit for him than WWE, and much more. You can read Booker T’s comments below.

Booker T on the current opportunities available for released WWE stars: “There is so much life after a WWE career. It’s not even funny but people just get caught up on the clickbait. Who’s getting fired? If I get fired from one job, I’m going to another one. It’s why I left WCW. I would have been working and making money in this business if I would have never gone to WWE and that’s what people need to understand. It is plentiful out there in the world of professional wrestling right now. You can make a career on the independent scene alone if you are good enough. I’m not jiving, I say that because look at guys like Bryan Danielson – now known as Daniel Bryan – and I look at guys like Samoa Joe, look at guys like CM Punk. Those guys were working on the indie scenes and they were paying their bills once upon a time. I can’t speak as an expert on the independent scene because I didn’t really work the indies a whole lot. I did a few independent shows. But I just want to say it’s good to see those guys moving on.”

On Malakai Black signing with AEW: “For me, I never looked at Aleister in WWE as a regular human being. It seemed like he was this fighter and that’s the only thing that he did was fight. I never got to see any character outside of Aleister Black……everything was dark with Aleister Black, so I never really understood. It was say for instance when Glacier came out. He was a karate guy and that’s what he went to the ring to do. I couldn’t look at Glacier as a real human being. He was like a cartoon character. That’s kind of what I looked at Aleister Black as. Today’s wrestler that gets over is somebody like Jon Moxley that goes out and talks crap and looks like a guy that could be sitting next to you at a bar, but you don’t want to piss him off. It’s one of those type of deals. If Malakai Black can give me some real human being character, I can buy into it. That’s why I said [him] going to Japan, he would get over like that. Working in Japan and working in America – it’s two different styles, and they look at it in two different ways, or at least they used to. It’s a different way now than it was back in the day, but the wrestling still trumps everything in Japan as opposed to here.

On whether AEW is a better fit for Black than WWE: “I don’t know. We’ll see in the long run. I thought the same thing about Aleister Black in WWE. If you ask him to do anything in the ring, he’s gonna be able to do it. But the character building – like myself when I came into WWE, I had a lot of guys working with me on character building. They transformed me to not be just a wrestler but to be an entertainer and performer and still be able to go out in the ring and do that part as well. It’s always a balancing act to pull that off. Could he do it? I think he could if given the opportunity.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Hall of Fame podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.