AEW’s Malakai Black: I Hope The CM Punk & Bryan Danielson Rumours Are True

With a little over a week until CM Punk’s supposed AEW debut at Rampage The First Dance, anticipation is growing exponentially ahead of his, and Bryan Danielson’s rumoured jump to AEW.

The anticipation isn’t only reserved for AEW fans, as contracted talent such as Malakai Black have given their takes on the rumoured signings.

Talking on the Pro Wrestling 4 Life Podcast, Malakai was asked for his thoughts on the potential game changers arriving in AEW:

“Number one, I genuinely do not know if it’s true. I genuinely don’t,” Black prefaced. “I haven’t heard anyone mention it. Obviously, there’s a buzz in the locker room. I think it’d be great. I think it really proves that the times have changed. I think it’d be a validation of how different everything is and how different the business is now. I don’t play the ‘us vs. them’ cards. I just don’t. I want everybody to be successful.

“I want all my friends in WWE to be able to provide for their families. I want all my friends and colleagues in AEW to be able to provide for their families. That’s what I care about, and if someone like CM Punk goes over to AEW, that’s great for business. That’s good for all of us because it gives the fans something to work with.

“It gives people perspective. It gives people that mentality of  ‘okay, here we go.’ It puts fresh wind in everyone’s sails, and I think for me, as a competitor, as a wrestler, someone who genuinely cares about wrestling and the state of the business, I think that is what’s important. Deep down, I hope it’s true. I think that’d be very very cool to see and very cool to see how the world of professional wrestling would react to it, how the fan base would react to it. Exciting times, very, very exciting times.”

Black continued: “I can see someone like Daniel pulling the trigger on that because he’s someone who has a great love for wrestling, and always wants to try different things and always has a different perspective on stuff. Sometimes, it’s just fun to think about the possibilities, and for me, obviously with my release, the possibilities became different. I can only imagine how his brain might work. I can only guess at it. I hope so. I can see him definitely showing up, but again, I don’t know.”