Malakai Black On Whose Idea It Was To Feud With Cody Rhodes In AEW

AEW star Malakai Black recently spoke with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT where he discussed a variety of topics surrounding his time in All Elite Wrestling. Black made his AEW debut this past summer and upon his arrival, he made Cody Rhodes his target right away. Black and Rhodes have completed a trilogy of matches, but Black revealed who came up with the idea to start a feud with Rhodes.

"It was Tony [Khan's] idea, in line with Cody," Black revealed. "No big deal, compete against one of the best wrestlers in the world, one of the biggest names, biggest lineages in the world of pro wrestling, and someone who's in charge of a big part of that company. No pressure [laughs]. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cody.

"It wasn't about pinfalls for me, it was about how far I could push Cody," Malakai Black said. "The guy who would have usually reached the ropes was stomping me in the face. Or the guy who in the beginning wouldn't have thought about putting me through a table because he's too much of a guy that plays by the rules, he put me through the table."

Black drove home the point that his character intended to change Cody Rhodes as a man and a wrestler more so than try to defeat him definitively.

"There's a lot of stuff I made him do that he wouldn't have necessarily done initially. It's like I almost did a little too good of a job... I think he will intertwine for the duration of my journey in AEW, which I hope is a very long period for me. I'm just scratching the surface," Black explained. "I don't think I'll ever totally get rid of Cody, but I also don't want to get rid of Cody."