AEW superstar Malakai Black recently appeared on the Wrestling Perspective podcast to discuss a number of different topics, most notably how the former NXT champion hopes to have a future matchup with top NJPW talent, KENTA. The two previously met under the NXT banner when KENTA worked as Hideo Itami, but Black believes that a rematch without being under the WWE umbrella could be something entirely different. Highlights are below.
How he wants a match with KENTA:
One of the things I would really like is to compete against KENTA in Japan in his own setting. Not in a WWE-oriented setting. Not that there was anything bad about it. But I would like to see what him and me could do without that environment, without people giving us cues and direction and basically just go ‘what do we really want to do?’ And that’s something I really want to have answered at some point.
Says KENTA’s recent work as been phenomenal:
I think what he’s doing now, I think his work is phenomenal. I think he’s one of those dudes, he’s one of those once-in-a-generation type of guys. He’s inspired a bunch of us, and like I said, he definitely inspired me. I think the role of him, as an athlete and as a human being, he’s always been a great guy.
(H/T and transcribed by Inside the Ropes)