Malakai Black says he never really wanted to be in WWE

In a recent interview, Malakai Black stated that he never wanted to be a part of WWE.

Malakai Black was in the Stamford-based promotion for around five years (2016-2021) where he performed under the ring name Aleister Black. WWE released him in June 2021 and a month later he become All Elite, joining Tony Khan's promotion in July.

While speaking to Bryan Asbury of Developmentally Speaking, the AEW star said that his goal was never to join WWE. The star revealed that he wanted to be in Japan, but was enticed by the growth and opportunities in NXT, which was, at the time, run by Triple H.

"Here's the funny part, I never really wanted to be part of the WWE. My goal was never the WWE. My goal was Japan for the longest time. And I did Japan, and it was around the time you know where NXT had developed itself as this like really cool entity where a lot of the people that I used to like wrestle myself on the independent scences were like making waves there. They were becoming stars, you know, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor all these." [19:59 - 20:23]

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Malakai Black heaps praise on Gunther

During the same interview, Malakai Black also talked about WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther. He had only good words to say about The Ring General. The House of Black leader stated that Gunther knew how to draw emotion out of an audience.

"Wrestling needs less Michael Bay, and more thought-provoking methodology. You take guys like Gunther, who are insanely good. I don't think I've ever watched that man have a match that made me... He's so incredibly good and that's in a modern setting. He knows how to draw emotion out, and that's why I've been into character stuff and building stuff throughout these lenses of characters because it allows an audience member to connect from an emotional level, whether you agree, or not with what he says or not says, and leaving it up for you to decide."

Gunther has been the reigning Intercontinental Champ for more that 600 days. He is scheduled to fight Sami Zayn at WrestleMania XL next month, with his title on the line.

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