During a recent edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross critiqued AEW for the lack of consistency regarding Malakai Black’s booking.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy at AEW Full Gear for the World Title: “I think it’ll be fabulous. I think Orange Cassidy will have a jaw-dropping moment, and Moxley is in a unique situation where he’s just become the champ. They used to have a term called character babyfaces. Like, Dusty was a character babyface. He wasn’t a traditional baby face, Rick Martel-looking guy and all that. He was a different breed of cat. So he’s just getting started again. And Orange seems like he’s been around forever. And I happen to be a big fan of his work. A smart kid, he’d be a really good office guy some day. He’s really bright. So I think that adding all those external factors into this equation, they’ll surprise us. It’s the right match to close the show.”
On the lack of consistency with Malakai Black in AEW: “If you think you didn’t have enough consistency [in Black’s booking], the answer is Conrad, very simple: you didn’t get enough consistency. He could have been more deeply woven into the storylines over time. He’s one of my favorite characters. He’s a smart guy; he’s a hell of a worker. He can be a babyface or a heel. Wherever he’s going to go, he’s going to make money, and he’s going to be an asset to any company that he works for. I talked to him a couple of PPPVs ago — and he didn’t tell me this, but you could tell he was a little disenchanted. And if a better offer came along that he was comfortable with — because he was comfortable at AEW. I mean God almighty, think about this Connie. They work a day a week. They wrestle a day a week for AEW. Maybe two, if they get really booked on on both the Saturday show and the Wednesday show. But that didn’t happen that much. And if it did, so you’d be working two days a week. So I don’t know. I think his future is always going to be bright. He’s a creative guy. His tattoos are interesting as hell. So he’s a very creative guy, he likes to express himself. And I — he reminded me when I first met him of circa Jake Roberts and that kind of mystical, you know, Voodoo s**t.”
