Sean Maluta shares his experience working with Brodie Lee and Dark Order.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp (full interview above), Maluta detailed how he got connected with AEW and how it has been a big step forward in his career. One of the names on the roster that Maluta spoke highly of was Eddie Kingston. He noted how the two worked together while at EVOLVE in 2019 and said that "he became a mentor out of it and even to this day."
Maluta worked with Dark Order twice in late October/early November and was asked about his experience with and thoughts on the faction. He says that all the members are great and that Stu Grayson and Evil Uno immediately caught his eye. Furthermore, he believes that Colt Cabana is the glue holding the group together at the moment and that they're all learning a lot from him.
"They’re great. I think everybody in that group is either great or has the potential to be great. John Silver—I got to mix it up with him in EVOLVE, probably at some point last year. He’s got so much fire in him, you knew he was going to be something. Same thing with Alex Reynolds, I worked with him back in the day for, I believe, WXW when Samu took over that. Us independent guys, we’re familiar with each other and a lot of us have been around for ten / fifteen years now and we’re all just meeting again in this one place and putting out our best work.
So, I got in there with Stu and Uno, that was really cool. I can remember when they debuted on AEW initially. I don’t think too many people knew them, especially mainstream. But, there was something about them, the way they moved that just caught my eye. These guys were going to be something. I just appreciate how smooth they are with their art and their movements in the ring. They definitely look different than anybody else. Colt Cabana being in there I think is a wildcard in a way. I know they’re learning a lot from him, too. I think he’s kind of the glue that’s keeping everything together, especially now with the passing of Brodie."
Sean was then asked if he had any interactions with Brodie Lee. Around that time, many of Brodie's colleagues were finding out that he was hospitalized. Sadly, he passed away on December 26, 2020, at the age of 41.
"Just very briefly. I don’t know if he was competing, but he was on that one-year anniversary show, the same one that I was debuting on. I also had a match with [Miro] not too long after that. I believe he was there. Then after that, I never got a chance to see him again. All the health reasons were definitely kept from me and I really didn’t even know how bad the situation was, like most of you guys, until we actually heard the news of what happened. All I could say about that is, I wasn’t super close with him, but he was a cool guy. Every time I seen him on the road over the years, WWE and then later in AEW.
It’s just really sad to see somebody that took a chance on himself, bet on himself and got out of a certain situation. You could just tell he was about to put out some of the best years of his career. So, that’s pretty sad to see. It’s really awesome what AEW’s doing for the family with Brodie, Jr. You really can’t ask for more than that. It’s not going to bring Brodie back, but I think they’re doing a hell of a job of keeping everybody at peace."
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.
In the time since, Maluta has made eight additional appearances on AEW programming, mostly on Dark, with his last match coming on January 20, 2021, losing to Danny Limelight.
In World Xtreme Wrestling, Sean Maluta is a decorated performer, having held the Heavyweight (3-times), Cruiserweight (3-times), Tag Team (2-times), and Television (1-time) Champion. You can see our full interview with him above.
