AEW star personally approached Malakai Black to join House of Black; Tony Khan wasn't aware
The AEW roster features several dominant factions, but the House of Black is widely regarded as one of the best stables in modern-day wrestling. New details were just revealed about who approached Malakai Black and Brody King about joining forces, how Tony Khan was not aware of the successful plan, and a father-daughter relationship going on behind the scenes.
The Kings of the Black Throne reunited inside the AEW ring when Brody King debuted in January 2022, which came 190 days after Malakai Black arrived. Buddy Matthews debuted forty-three days later to begin the House of Black's reign. Julia Hart joined the dark faction at Double or Nothing just a few months later. The group has found some success as Black, King, and Matthews spent 175 days as World Trios Champions, while Hart had 155 days as TBS Champion.
The Princess of the Black Throne joined the faction after approaching them with her ideas. In his new interview with Stephanie Chase, King recalled how Black suggested Hart cut promos, develop the gimmick, and then bring it back. He praised her for really working on the development, adding that she began asking questions while he trained her in the ring, bringing out her other side, one that wasn't the "bubbly cheerleader" everyone knew.
King recalled how Hart soaked up the knowledge like a sponge. He had immense praise for the 22-year-old, noting that she is so far advanced. The near-ten-year industry veteran was asked if he and his stablemates were shocked when Hart approached them with the idea of joining and making such a drastic change.
"I don't know if it's shocked as more. It was definitely surprising, but it takes a lot of guts to go up to three scary grown men that you don't know, and you're just like, 'Hey, I have this idea, what do you think?' But that's the kind of hunger and drive we need out of young people at AEW... to take that chance and risk. We didn't even have approval from Tony Khan, that this was going to happen," Brody King said. [From 15:34 to 16:07]
King continued by revealing how he and his wife Ashley eat dinner once a week with Julia Hart and her husband, AEW's Lee Johnson. He sees Hart as his wrestling daughter.
"It was, 'Hey, let's kind of make everything and present it,' and then once it was presented, it was, 'OK, well this looks cool...' She's become basically my... I always call her my wrestling daughter. We go out to dinner once a week, me and my wife, Hart, and her husband, and whenever she has a question about wrestling or needs advice, we're always here. We've taken her shopping to where she picked up the hat, and she was like, 'Hey, I think this is cool!' I was like, 'You're buying the hat!' Then we bought her the hat, and the rest is history [laughs]," Brody King said. [From 16:08 to 16:50]
Hart has not wrestled since suffering a shoulder injury on April 21 at the Dynasty pay-per-view. That night, she dropped the TBS Championship to Willow Nightingale in a House Rules match. King noted that he expects Hart to return "soon," but no timeframe was provided.
Brody King was finally pinned by longtime AEW rival
Brody King and Darby Allin battled for years long before they joined AEW. There have been seven singles bouts between the West Coast natives since 2018.
Allin defeated King by pinfall at AEW WrestleDream on Saturday. Not only was this Darby's second career win over Brody, but it was his first time pinning the House of Black member as his August 2022 Dynamite victory was a Coffin Match.
The first-ever singles match between Brody and Darby was a ten-minute time-limit draw in January 2018 at EVOLVE 99. King defeated Allin twice in 2018 at SFP and AAW events, then again in March 2019 for PWG.
King's first All Elite win over The Daredevil came at Fyter Fest 2022. Darby's Coffin Match win came one month later, and their next match did not happen until WrestleDream.