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When news broke that Ricky Starks had made his WWE debut after months of non-use in AEW, fans wondered about Miro and Malakai Black, who were also recently granted their releases from the promo.
On his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T reflected on the trio's release before Starks joined him in Orlando, noting that the way AEW does business simply isn't going to work for every ex-WWE guy.
“We need to talk about Ricky Starks, we need to talk about Malakai Black, who made his journey over to AEW as well as Miro, making his journey over to AEW from WWE. Again, sometimes the grass is not so greener on the other side. Sometimes, guys just aren't made for that system,” Booker T noted via Fightful.
“In WWE, everything was done for him, right? Everything was set up for him, all he had to do was just go out there and boom, get it done. He didn't have to write stories, he didn't have to create factions or anything like that. But then, you go to AEW, and it's like going to some of these independent shows, and the guy that's running the show, you show up, and you say, ‘What do you want from me?' They go, ‘What do you want?' That's what it is when you get to the AEW.”
But Booker wasn't done, pointing out how AEW actually hurt the legacies of Black and Miro, whom he believes struggled with the looser format.
“Boom, let's create this House Of Black. Great, that's a great idea, then you create the idea and nobody has written anything for it. You got to start figuring out what you're gonna do yourself. Go to guys and say, ‘Hey guys, y'all want to do an angle?' It's the stupidest thing in the world for me personally. Again, going over there and not having that structure, that hurt a guy like Malakai Black,” Booker noted.”
“Going over there and not having that structure again, letting a guy like Miro do his own promos. Who do you think wrote those promos? Exactly my point. That's not a conducive way to go out and create a promotion. Can you imagine Hollywood actors just showing up with their own script? It would not go over very well at all. My thing is, I felt like getting out of the system, that WWE system, hurt these guys more than it helped them. As far as star power, as far as legacy? I think it hurt. I could be wrong.”
Will Black and Miro do better in WWE moving forward, assuming they, too, return to the promotion? Potentially so, at least right away, but regardless of who generates an idea, it has to be good enough to catch on with fans. If Black and Miro don't get long-term stories in WWE, they will be in the same boat as AEW.
