Malakai Black on Request to be Exclusive to AEW Collision, Buddy Matthews, Wrestling School Plans, NXT

A recent episode of The Undisputed Podcast with Bobby Fish podcast featured Malakai Black as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Black revealing that he recently requested to be exclusive to AEW’s Collision brand.

“I requested to be strictly on (AEW) Collision. Because I don’t want people to get the pick. It’s like, no, Saturday night, I get to see the House of Black. That’s what I want, because if I give you the option for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, you’re gonna go, yeah, it doesn’t really matter… I don’t wanna lose the polish.”

Black also gave his praise of Buddy Murphy’s work and his match against Andrade El Idolo at AEW’s debut Collision show this past June.

“I don’t think people appreciate how good Buddy (Matthews) is. Buddy has always been seen as a guy who makes others look good. But you (Bobby Fish) and I both know that it takes two to tango. But Buddy is just a very… he has this ability just because he has so much body control for a guy the size of him. He makes everything look fantastic and I think Buddy Matthews is… when it comes to the sheer ability and athleticism, I think Buddy Matthews is one of best in this current era and not because we’re in a group, not because he’s one of my best friends but just from a pure wrestling standpoint, from being in the ring with him. Him and me have a lot of similar philosophies in wrestling. Him and me talk a lot, obviously wrestling and you know, we’ll butt heads but all for the most part, we have the very same idea on selling, we have the very same idea on psychology, we have the same idea on how to implement what. Very detailed and I genuinely think people need to realize how damn good he is. He’s really, really something unique. AEW’s known for having very hyper focused, crazy matches, a lot of content in matches and realistically, they did four things and they told a story about an arm and a leg and they sold and that’s all they did (Black referring to Matthews vs. Andrade El Idolo on Collision)… A lot of things I feel personally, again, not a knock on anyone but I think a lot of things in wrestling get lost in translation because there’s no acknowledgment. There is no I got punched in the face and three minutes later you go, oh, this still hurts. It happens and a second later, we’ve forgotten about it and I think that’s something that I personally think, fundamentally in wrestling is very wrong.”

Black also gave his thoughts about his current plans to open a new wrestling school by the end of this month.

“I have always loved teaching and instructing people. Before being fully submerged as a full-time pro, I was a trainer. I worked in rehabilitation from horrendous accidents and helping people cope with development and rebuilding strength. I’ve always found a lot of joy in having people that came in that could barely bare the light of the gym because of the accident they had to walking out and being able to pull 315 off the ground. I love progression. The concept of the gym started when we started building our new house. I told my wife [Zelina Vega], ‘I want a place where I can train and teach people.’ I want to create a concept where I can implement all the different things that I feel have made me who I am and have brought me to the levels that I’ve been to and still am. I want to show that to other people, but I want to do it in a way that is not like, ‘Pay me $50 and I’ll teach you how to do springboards.’ There is a system and I want people to go through the system. We will do classes and courses.

My personal Muay Thai coach Simon (Harrison) will be teaching Muay Thai several days a week. He’ll be looking to start his own group up again because he used to coach championship fighters. He wants to start that back up. Erick Stevens, he’s a well-rounded BJJ [Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu] guy. He’ll teach pro wrestling and BJJ with me. My wife will teach pro wrestling. Muay Thai will be taught be me and my wife too. The more advanced stuff will be done by Simon. Partially influenced by the (WWE) Performance Center because I feel that’s a system that works really well with the correct discipline. I don’t want people to come hang out. I want athletes. If you’re not an athlete, I want you to become an athlete. That’s why I don’t train pro wrestlers, I train athletes because that’s what we are. I hope to work with rehabilitation in the future. I’m working with one of my personal physio therapists to set up a schedule for rehab. I’m trying to implement as much as I can in a way I feel is professional and is what this business needs …

I’m hoping to start running trial classes by the end of this month. By trial, I mean, there’s an open workout on Monday night between six and nine, drop $25, you can come train. I’ll have separate years of six months to five years, you’re a beginner. Six years to ten years, you’re experienced, and then there is television talent. Beginners come on down, $25, train and we’ll do a block of pro wrestling and Muay Thai. Next week, strength and conditioning and BJJ. Then I’ll just point and see how this is going to work. There are bound to be 10,000 changes, and that’s why I’m starting with trial classes and I’ll get feedback on what will work and what won’t.”

Black also gave his thoughts about how some people in WWE’s NXT brand did not like him due to him being viewed as the “chosen one” for the brand during his time there.

“I remember when I was the quote-unquote, like, chosen one in NXT and I did not have a lot of friends because everybody wanted to be the chosen one, you know what I mean? I had a lot of people that did not like me because of that and I was just going like, ‘I’m sorry guys.’ I didn’t do anything on purpose. But it was just the way that the industry was at the time and what the quote-unquote machine picked at that time.”

Black also gave his thoughts about his NXT Championship match against Lars Sullivan at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II in 2018 that was marred by a botched finish.

“There’s a few ones (spinning heel kick) that I’ve very horribly missed. It happens with everything… There’s one in particular that’s always like, you know, it’s the one that I always refer to and it’s kind of funny because it relies on a lot of the body control and technique that one becomes being an in-ring competitor, how both people have to be in tune with the right footwork and stuff and even then, like the example I’m about to give you is a moment where there was a disconnect and thousands of proper attempts, thousands of successful attempts and then only one thing tweaks and it just crumbles, right? That’s how delicate it is. So it’s myself as NXT Champion against Lars Sullivan and I think you guys already know what I’m talking about… And I hit that stomp on his back, we get up and he’s supposed to feed into me and take the heel kick and back when we were in NXT, we used to have the live events a lot of times, we would run the match on the live events but we would not run the actual finishes, right? So every night, me and Lars are having a fantastic match. It’s a lot of fun and obviously, the only thing we tweak is the finish so instead of hitting the spinning heel kick, I’d use a regular knee, follow up with something else. So, when the time of the pay-per-view comes, that same, exact same thing, I hit him and I remember Terry, Terry Taylor, right before we go out, Terry said to Lars, ‘Make you sure that you come in correctly. Time it right’ because it was delicate. It was very delicate but you know, we wanted to pull it out and I hit him, I roll through. He gets up, I get up but there was something and… every single time I’ve ever seen him afterwards, he’s always apologized for this. But it’s just about the delicacy of it, right? Because I’m expecting him because I’m gone because we ran this same type of body language and timing every single night and we were successful. We just exchanged the technique and now because it’s distinct and for some reason, as he turns, he takes an extra step for a sell and then he feeds in so you see my kick go because I’m anticipating his body language because we’re clocked in, right? He took an extra step and he didn’t know why and it completely, obviously, it misses and there’s a timing issue and again, these things happen, these things happen.

And especially that thing with Lars is like, that shows you how delicate that turning my back for a second is because it was one timing issue, one split second of him taking that extra step and it threw everything off and it’s a house of cards man.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com 1 & 2, Fightful.com