MJF suggests AEW locker room is not a fan of Malakai Black.
The former AEW Champion recently gave a candid interview to Ariel Helwani. He revealed his unfiltered thoughts on matters such as Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, CM Punk being a piece of shit, and more.
During the talk, the Salt of the Earth also discussed how AEW is on a roll right now with everyone in the locker room trying to put on the best show possible. When asked how they got to this point, MJF noted that they had to weed some people out. Upon being pressed for a name, the 30-year-old said that Malakai Black is the biggest offender who tried to use the company as a stepping to get back to WWE:
“I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s Malakai Black [Aleister Black]. But I don’t know the guy, like, on a personal level. Do I think he’s a bad guy? No.
Do I think he was a mark for, like, wanting to have his, ‘Oh, I need my Mania moment!’ Like, yeah. And there were a couple guys like that. And they got weeded out. And then they went over there and some of them found out the grass isn’t greener. And perhaps some of them did. Some of them, for them, the grass was greener.”
Majority of The Locker Room: MJF
Malakai Black wrestled only 15 singles matches during his 4-year tenure with AEW between 2021 and 2025, with more than half of them coming during his first year with the company. His second WWE run turned out to be a failure as Black was not part of any significant feuds, and he was released from the promotion a day before the one-year anniversary of his return on April 24 this year.
MJF claimed that he is not trying to shit on the former AEW and WWE star. The former champion said that he is just echoing the sentiment of the majority of the locker room:
“But I’d say a majority of the guys that were like, ‘I’m just gonna use All Elite Wrestling to go to WWE’ or to go back to WWE, I think you’re going to see a lot of those guys ask for a 50% pay cut from the office. You’re going to see a lot of those guys just get released.
And it’s unfortunate because if you show up to our company and you work hard, there’s really no need to burn bridges. I’m not sh*tting on him. I’m just simply telling you what I was told by a majority of the locker room about this specific individual.”
The Devil will be challenging Darby Allin for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship in a hair vs. title match at the Double or Nothing PPV this Sunday on May 24.