Baron Black Details His AEW Dynamite Debut & The Family Atmosphere Of The Locker Room (Exclusive)
Photo: Baron Black
For ten years strong now, Baron Black has been all about “#DoTheWork” and his efforts sure bore fruit last Wednesday. “The EmpBruh” of wrestling faced off against Shawn Spears this past Wednesday night on AEW Dynamite & WrestleZone’s Dominic DeAngelo got to speak with Black in an exclusive interview. The two touched upon Black’s wild background getting into the squared circle and how it all began with him taking a risk and following his heart.
“I literally spent my last dime joining a wrestling school, I jumped head first in and paid for the whole thing,” Baron said. “Really cleared every dollar to my name to join and my loved ones wasn’t really happy that I did that.”
Baron has worked for an array promotions in the south and in the northeast for a good part of his 10-year grind, including stops at ROH and Beyond Wrestling as a few names fans may be familiar with.
“My start into was not the smartest decision but what my heart was telling me to do at that point in time,” Black said, but the experience last Wednesday shows that all his hard work on that grind is showing some tangible growth. A big reason for that Dynamite sparking for Black is because he simply stayed consistent with training and put the extra hours in because he loves doing it.
“About two three years ago, I started training with QT Marshall at the Power Factory which is now the Nightmare Factory,” he said. “So even though I have been trained already and been on the independent scene I still like training. I still like polishing myself up. That’s one thing about me, I’ll continue to train. So once that opened I was over there working with them about once a week.”
All the other performers ringside you were privvy to seeing on these past few weeks of Dynamite? Black knows all of them as the majority have made stops in QT’s Nightmare Factory. That includes Suge, or “Pineapple Pete” as many viewer got to know him as.
“Suge kinda has a similar story to me, like we was already trained and we’ve been on the independent circuit, me and Suge we know each other well cause we’re both from Georgia,” said Black. “Most of them that you all have seen so far, they’ve all been at The Power Factory. From Lee Johnson, to Musa, to Pineapple Pete, to Anna Jay who is amazing, to Preston Vance. All those guys are great and that should tell you the style and the great training that goes on at the Nightmare Factory.”
Something else that was great to Baron was the fantastic dynamic of the AEW locker room backstage. an environment which he believes made the experience truly stand out.
“I will say this, AEW as a company is absolutely amazing. That is one locker room and I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms over the past ten year tenure here and that is definitely one of the best locker rooms I’ve ever walked into. You walk in and it’s like a fresh breath of air. It’s not really tense, you don’t feel really nervous, everybody is welcoming from staff, to management to everybody. It makes you feel like home, it’s like a family atmosphere there. You really feel like everybody just likes everybody there and I can’t really say that about every locker room I’ve been in, you know, but that was definitely the number one thing I noticed when I was doing the Dynamite. It’s like, ‘Oh, I like this. This is a great feeling. I feel like I just walked into my mom’s house.'”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
Plenty more to come from this exclusive conversation, including Black’s in-the-moment feelings during his match with Spears, what it was like having Chris Jericho on commentary and plenty of video game talk. Listen to the entire interview below and be sure to follow Baron Black’s Twitter, his YouTube Channel (which is below) and his Instagram.