On June 2nd WWE announced that Aleister Black had been released from his contract, and the wrestling world immediately started talking about Black possibly jumping to All Elite Wrestling.
On Wednesday night the former WWE star made his debut at AEW Dynamite: Road Rager, and it was later reported that he was able to do so because he only had a 30 day non-compete clause as opposed to the standard 90 day non-compete.
He will now be known as Malakai Black moving forward, and during a recent Twitch stream Black talked a little bit about how his AEW debut came together.
“It was a hassle to keep under wraps. Once I found out that my contract was a tad different than the usual, I just came up with this idea. I had already made the character movie and I came up with this idea and the company liked it so we ran with it. It was all very last second. I feel like, in modern day wrestling, there are few moments to make a genuine surprise and get people to look your way. For me to sneak in, not be seen, dip and dive so they wouldn’t see me, that took some skill. Kudos to AEW and the entire crew. What a great operation they have there. It feels good where I’m in a place where my creative mind can be utilized instead of stopped and controlled and knowing that things weren’t going to work.”
The former NXT Champion also added that maybe five or six people knew about his debut before it actually happened.
“We made it a thing to make it available to as limited people as possible because that’s how you keep it under wraps. Security, Cody Rhodes, and a few others. It may have been five or six total people. It was a good feeling. It’s been a rough seven or eight months but I feel like I got a win last night. I feel wrestling got a win.”
What was your reaction to Malakai Black’s AEW debut? Sound off in the comments below.
H/T Fightful
[…] Malakai Black recently explained how he was able to keep his All Elite Wrestling debut a secret, and you can get more on that here. […]