When it comes to professional wrestling, few performers do it the way AEW's Malakai Black does it.
A road-tested performer who has worked for dozens of promotions around the world over the past two-plus decades, Black has forged a unique relationship with fans around the world with his unique brand of storytelling, going so far as to literally bring an eye injury from WWE to AEW despite playing a different character with a different name and a different gimmick.
Discussing the modern professional wrestling landscape on Developmentally Speaking, Malakai Black noted that he isn't a fan of the flashy special gimmicks promotions are pushing at the moment, noting that he feels longer-form storytelling is far more impactful than clip-able moments designed for social media.
“No, that's one of those things where I feel it's become very convoluted. I've heard things come out of people's mouths that have been wrestling for seven-eight years where I'm like, ‘Man, shut up.' [Laughs]. Maybe it's the perspective of someone who has been wrestling for 23 years and been on TV for almost a decade, I don't want to turn into the old man yelling at the clouds, but I do believe there is a reason why the system has to be tougher. It's not at the detriment of anyone, but I do know in broad strokes sometimes where the problem lies in regards to why things aren't working or why things don't have an attention span,” Malakai Black explained via Fightful.
“I feel like wrestling has always been a reflection of how society is. It addresses issues on both a political and social-economical problem, in sometimes a very stupid and goofy way. It's always been quite relevant and always tackled, and used, to its advantage and disadvantage topics such as abuse, racism, bullying, but also the good things like the underdog struggling and overcoming the big, bad, evil in the world. Wrestling needs emotion. Wrestling needs genuine interest, genuine love, and genuine anger. I feel like a lot of wrestling nowadays is based upon making… I don't mean this in an attacking way because this is a notion where I'm attacking athletic ability because there are kids out there who can do things I'll never be able to do. Wrestling needs less Michael Bay and more thought-provoking methodology.”
You know, while some may say that much of Black's current presentation is based on smoke and mirrors not too dissimilar to the movie-making of the Teen Choice Award-winning director of Pearl Harbor, in Black's opinion, the two styles of storytelling couldn't be any more different, as he's built his entire methodology on mythology, with every move being deliberately designed to tell a grander tale.
Malakai Black believes performers like Gunther are booked correctly.
Continuing his conversation with Developmentally Speaking, Malakai Black noted that, in his opinion, some performers like Gunther simply don't need to be propped up with smoke and mirrors, as they have all of the in-ring ability and passion behind their work to get fans to buy-in whenever they step into the ring.
“You take guys like Gunther, who are insanely good. I don't think I've ever watched that man have a match that made me, ‘Eh.' He's so incredibly good, and that is in a modern setting. He knows how to draw emotion out, and that's why I've always been into character stuff and building stuff throughout these lenses of characters because it allows an audience member to connect from an emotional level, whether you agree or not with what he says or not says, and leaving it up for you to decide. The emotional connection to the storyline or match is what will eventually, or hopefully, if the match is good, will be the payoff instead of having a lot of quick matches,” Malakai Black noted.
“Don't get me wrong, we need quick matches too. We need a little bit of everything. It's a big circus of everything. I feel like we're sometimes driving away from working the position on the card that we wrestle and trying to steal the show every single time. I don't think the attitude of ‘I want to do my best' is a bad attitude, not by any shape, but I do feel sometimes you have to know when it's you're time to shine, and sometimes you have to understand who have been building a certain storyline for months, years, and this is the big night so make sure they get all the attention so the company looks better. I feel sometimes that's the thing that I miss. I feel like after 23 years, and I've never been critical of wrestling in general, and I keep a lot to myself, even to this day, I keep it to myself, I feel I've earned at least my right to voice certain parts of my opinion.”
Is Black on the money? Are some promotions, from his own to WWE and beyond, focusing too much on short-term gratification on their weekly product when they should instead be instead focusing on forging long-term storylines that almost force fans to tune in weekly? Maybe yes, maybe no, but considering some of the top storylines in wrestling right now, from The Bloodline to Chad Gable versus Gunther, and everything going on with The Elite, it's safe to say Black may be onto something.
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