Malakai Black On Learning From Jake Roberts & Other Legends In AEW, Adjusting To Transition From WWE

In a recent interview on the Wrestling Perspective podcast, Malakai Black discussed learning from Jake Roberts in AEW, making the transition from WWE, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Malakai Black on learning from Jake Roberts and other wrestling legends in AEW: “Right now one of the things I’ve been doing is I’ve been talking to Jake, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, about like his promo work and stuff. I just want to get inside his head. I want him to talk, right? Twenty one years in or not, that’s Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts. You’d have to be an idiot not to talk to him about that stuff. That’s what it’s all about. And I think that a lot of the old-timers, they have so much valuable information. They have such a great perspective on wrestling, and they have so many things to tell you. Again, I feel very fortunate to have landed in another company where people like that are around to help me. Because I am never above help, I am never above asking, I am never above getting feedback. I love getting feedback because it’s the one thing that has always made me better. Not once have I gotten feedback and went ‘well that was pointless.’ Not once. And even if that comes across, you can go ‘OK, I can generally say that doesn’t help me. But now I know.’ There’s something to learn in every angle you twisted. It’s just about learning to see that knowledge, learning how to see that improvement, learning how to take that feedback, and even if that feedback is not something you expect, then what can you take away from it? There’s always something for it.”

On adjusting to the transition from WWE to AEW: “I’m still absorbing, I’m still absorbing. I come from the dojo mentality, so I was used to like sweeping mats and cleaning dojos and all that stuff. That’s always how I entered wrestling as well. I always kept that principle. That’s why during training, most of the time, I wasn’t problematic. I sure got my ass chewed out a couple of times, we all do. But I’ve always kept a level of trying to be humble all the time. One of the things that I find very important is that especially the younger guys see that I’m approachable and that you can absolutely talk to me about things and that the older guard sees that I’m willing to learn, despite the things that I’ve done, that I’m still open about a lot of things. And I want the company to know that I’m there for them. I had a good conversation with some of the members of the company. And it’s important for me, and I did this in WWE too, it’s important for me for them to understand I feel we’re all colleagues. From the ring crew to the lighting crew to the sound crew to the boys in the back to the people behind the table, we’re all part of the same team. I don’t look at anyone higher or lower, we’re all the same. We’re all there for one goal.

“And for me, that’s always the important thing, that we’re all equal. I find the aspect of equality very important. I’m still slowly coming down on everything because it’s a lot to absorb. I go from one place where I spent half a decade dedicating myself, to now having a complete switch with another company that I’m absolutely going to give every single thing to. But it takes a while to get rid of that half a decade of ‘this is how we did it there, and now we’re going to do it this way.’ And I’m still figuring that out. I came in the first time and I was like, it was that eggshell, eggshell feeling but it was quickly like everyone was like, ‘No, you don’t have to do that here. That’s not how we do things.’ Every company does things their way, and that’s the process I find difficult because I’ve always been a quiet guy. I truly believe in earning my keep. I’ve always believed in starting from the bottom.”

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