Malakai Black Requested To Work With Dante Martin

Malakai Black had a match with Dante Martin last month and in an interview with The Five Count (via Fightful), Black revealed that he requested to work with the younger AEW star. Here are highlights:

On future opponents he wants to face: “I would say [Chris] Jericho, Christian Cage, because I think both of them, in my book, are some of the best that this business has ever seen. When I mention the Arns, Tullys, and Jakes (and how they help backstage), Christian and Jericho are part of that fabric. Every once in a while, I’ll talk to Jericho and ask him some things and get his thoughts on it. For a casual wrestling fan, seeing myself against Jericho or Christian would be very interesting.”

On working with younger talent: “The younger generation, guys like Kenny [Omega], Hangman [Page], even guys like Brian Cage and the even younger generation; guys like[Powerhouse] Hobbs, I would love to be against Hobbs because I think he’s a guy that has a lot of potential, very much a diamond in the rough individual. He has all the skills, he just needs to come into his own. It’s the with what I did with Dante Martin. I requested to work with Dante because I felt I could bring something out of him, could show the world something about Dante, and Dante could learn something about himself and about the structure of matches that he didn’t know prior before that. Doing that for a guy that, I wouldn’t say in the twilight, but I’m 36. If I have another good 10 years left, that’s great, but while I’m still being built, it’s important for me to build others. By me building others and building stars in the company, the company grows stronger. There is going to be a business after me and I need to help the business after me. Guys like Dante, his brother [Darius Martin], Fuego del Sol, all these guys have something special and something unique. It might not manifest itself in the first year or two or three, but when you look at them, you know there is something about them. I’m trying to get that something and move to the foreground because that is eventually is what the business will be built on, these kids that 10-15 years ago, I was in the same spot they were and there were a lot of guys that either wanted to help me or did not want to help because they saw that in me. ‘If I reinforce this, it might cost me my spot.’ I’m not one of those guys. I found the perfect balance in building others while building myself.”