Sean Maluta calls working for AEW a huge step in his career.
Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful (full interview above), Maluta spoke about the difficulty of finding work on the independent circuit during the pandemic, and how he, like everyone else, was looking to progress his career. Luckily for him, working for NXT so often throughout the past few years kept him in Florida, which prompted him to reach out to another promotion running shows in Jacksonville.
"Well, man, the pandemic hit and just like everybody I was just out of a job. The independents was already slowing down for me before the pandemic hit, which was a little weird. But, I was just looking for the next step to take, just like everybody was. It just so happens I’m down here in Florida and working for NXT so much over the years has kept me living in Florida. So, I was looking for something different to do when it just so happens AEW was filming in Jacksonville. I believe that they went to Georgia for a little bit because they weren’t quite sure what they were going to do yet and then Jacksonville ended up being the landing spot.
So, I kinda put two and two together and I was looking for a new opportunity in my career and the rest was history. I got in touch with QT [Marshall], just like a lot of other extras are doing right now, and he gave me the ball, but that led to something further which is me coming back weekly. Which is pretty cool for me."
Maluta made his AEW debut on August 27, 2020, losing in a match to Lance Archer. He would return on the October 14th Anniversary show, teaming with Lee Johnson against Miro and Kip Sabian. He believes this was a significant moment in his career.
Yeah, so I got my opportunity on Dynamite. It was the one-year anniversary on Dynamite. Got to get in there with Lance Archer. That was pretty cool. I don’t take things like that lightly. No matter if it’s a one minute match or three-minute match. To me, that was a huge step in my career, jumping outside of the WWE box and doing something different. Like I said, that led to a whole bunch of matches that I’m currently doing on Dark right now. So far so good."
Thus far, Maluta has made ten appearances on AEW programming, mostly on Dark, with his last match coming on January 20, 2021, losing to Danny Limelight.
Maluta first appeared on WWE TV in June 2016 when he was announced as one of 32 participants in the inaugural Cruiserweight Classic. He was eliminated in the first round by Kota Ibushi. In the years that followed, he made several appearances on NXT, 205 Live, and EVOLVE.
You can see our full interview with Sean Maluta above.
