Malakai Black Discusses His Run in WWE NXT, How the Black & Gold Era Shaped Wrestling

– During a recent interview with The Milwaukee Record, AEW star and House of Black leader Malakai Black

Black on what he takes away from his time in WWE NXT: “It’s safe to say that a lot of what I did in NXT is not everything prior to my independent career in Europe and Japan, it’s that NXT has given me that platform to being the reason that you and me are having a conversation right now. From a platform of just conversing with people and getting my name out there, it’s obviously given me a platform and skills to have a continuation of what I’ve always done in wrestling but just giving me that larger stage and allowing me to translate what I do on a bigger platform. A lot of the smaller shows, even with NXT, were a massive part of that. It’s undeniable.”

On the legacy of the black and gold era of NXT: “I’ve heard on many occasions that the reason why wrestling is in the state it is because of the years of 2017 to mid-2020, NXT and the gold-and-black brand. It’s shaped wrestling and it’s actually a conversation I had with William Regal not too long ago. Regal was also very much under the impression that what we did back then garnered a lot of eyes and made people think about how wrestling could be presented too.”

Malakai Black on if he’s looking at anyone in NJPW as a target for the Black Mist: “I think it’s a question you just answered in both aspects. Do I think of people? Yes. Will I give my cards away? No. Is it something that happens organically? Yes, it does too. It’s something that I calculate, but also sometimes I do believe very strongly that…I’m not a man of faith, but I’m a man of understanding that sometimes life will throw weird things at you but eventually it will unravel and give you the answers that you’re looking for. Even though you might not understand what happens in the beginning. I think all kind of will be revealed in due time, and I have always held up that philosophy under my own banner. Sometimes things happen and you don’t know immediately why they happen, but in due time the course will reveal itself. And that’s no different than what happened and will happen in the coming future. As well as moving forward into the New Japan pay-per-view.”

Malakai Black was released by WWE in June 2021. He later debuted in AEW as Malakai Black the following month.