AEW superstar Malakai Black was the latest guest on the Talk Is Jericho podcast to discuss a number of different topics, including the Dark Father’s time in WWE and what his relationship was like with Paul Heyman and company Chairman, Vince McMahon. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Talks his relationship with Paul Heyman:
“Since day one, me and Paul meshed. I love that man. I have so much love for that man. He’s always been really good to me. He’s been blunt with me, which I appreciate. I appreciate people being blunt with me. I don’t like to dance around subjects, just tell me how it is … especially in this business. Paul had big ideas. Not just with me, but with a lot of younger people, like Buddy Murphy being one of them as well. He once told me that he had one night of control. That was the first night he was on. And after that, everything became a fight. Then everything became — well, maybe a fight is not the right word but a debate. Which I can understand, but sometimes it makes you wonder.”
How he had a good relationship with Vince but there was too much time lost:
“Since day one, Vince was always very fond of me. I’ve had good conversations with him, always. But I definitely think that there was a moment where Vince was like, ‘I don’t know what to do with this guy.’ And every time I tried to say, ‘Well, why don’t we do this?’ [He would say] ‘Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe. I think Vince was very keen on figuring it out himself. But I think he never did, and I think that is kind of what put the nail in the coffin. And then when we did the the Dark Father vignettes, which he approved, which he loved — I was only supposed to be off for six to eight weeks. I was supposed to come back to the Royal Rumble. This Dark Father thing was supposed to speed up, and then it turned into seven months.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)