Malakai Black never felt he would get over the wall in WWE.
Despite Vince McMahon praising his creativity, Black was released by WWE in June. Black struggled to find his footing on the main roster with stop-and-start pushes and was released following his return on SmackDown.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho, Black commented on his place in WWE before his release.
"Towards the end of my stint in WWE, I felt it was time to go. I felt they made the decision for me. I told my wife months in advance, 'this isn't working out the way they promised me it was going to work out. I'm going to move on to different things.' I felt like I hit a wall and they don't want to push me over the wall and I wasn't going to keep bumping my head into the wall because eventually, I feel I owe myself more in life. I want to be a player," he said.
Black has become an immediate player in AEW, quickly dispatching of Cody Rhodes in his in-ring debut.
Black said about AEW, "The good thing about being (in AEW), it's such an amazing locker room with new and young talents. Some walk up to me and want information, and I'm glad I can do that because I feel, I'm 36 and I hope I'm blessed enough to go another 15 years, but we don't have that guarantee. It might be five or six years and my knees or back give out. I want to make sure that what I leave behind is not only a body of work that people can look at, but also be around for this generation of kids who will eventually inherit the business and say, 'I picked up XZYZ from Malakai' and I helped make them better. I want to help make the next generation of wrestling be better."
Elsewhere during the podcast, Black discussed learning of his 30-day non-compete and getting in contact with AEW. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
If you missed anything from Wednesday's AEW Dynamite, check out Fightful's full coverage by clicking here.
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