Malakai Black on His New Character Being the One He Wanted in WWE, Creative Freedom in AEW

– As noted, AEW wrestler Malakai Black took part in a Twitch stream this week, and he discussed his new character and gimmick. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Malakai Black on his new heel character and gimmick: “It’s funny. The reason I did this is because this is actually how I wanted the WWE version to be. When I started, I wanted to come in as a heel and Hunter [Triple H] wanted me face. If anyone has ever seen any work of me on the independents, you would know that the gimmick I was portraying in the WWE was an amplified version of what I did on the indies. That’s why they wanted me. But I wanted to be a heel because I was coming off a heel run on the independents. But then Hunter had this idea of making me face, a stoic face character. So, I had to switch the character from being this obnoxious, sadistic, possessed by a demon guy, to the same possessed by a demon/devil guy, but then having remorse, and I have to find the middle ground with that. And I had to find the middle ground in that and how would someone who is [like] that [could] find remorse and show remorse by being stoic and having a problem expressing his emotions.”

On picking Malakai as is his new first name: “I was looking for an Old Testament name and I found one that had a double-meaning. I was a big fan of Children of the Corn when I grew up and I felt that, with the character, [the name] kind of fit.”

His thoughts on the creative freedom in AEW: “It feels really good. It feels really good that I’m in a place now where my creative mind can be utilized versus stopped, and controlled, and being presented in things that I know are not gonna work. Because, no offense, I knew a lot of the stuff wasn’t going to work, and I said that to them as well back in the day. Lo and behold it didn’t work.”