Malakai Black opens up on fractured relationship with WWE before joining AEW

Malakai Black felt the WWE made the decision for him to leave for AEW with how he was being booked on the main roster.

Black made an unexpected debut on AEW in early July, accelerated by an error in his contract that didn’t have the usual 90-day non-compete clause. He was immediately portrayed as a main event player, which WWE somehow failed to do.

Speaking to the first ever AEW world champion Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho, Black opened up on his final days in WWE. The Dutchman revealed that WWE essentially made the choice for him with how he was booked and felt like he “hit a wall.” (H/T: Fightful)

“Towards the end of my stint in WWE, I felt it was time to go. I felt they made the decision for me. I told my wife months in advance, ‘this isn’t working out the way they promised me it was going to work out. I’m going to move on to different things.’ I felt like I hit a wall and they don’t want to push me over the wall and I wasn’t going to keep bumping my head into the wall because eventually, I feel I owe myself more in life. I want to be a player,” Malakai Black said.

Malakai Black has enjoyed a strong start in AEW

Malakai Black debuted at AEW Road Rager and immediately went after Cody Rhodes. The former Aleister Black continued to torment the AEW EVP in the weeks leading up to their match at AEW Homecoming.

Following a spellbinding entrance, one of the best seen in AEW, Black made a sinister statement, defeating one of the biggest names in AEW in a matter of minutes. To add insult to injury, Black pinned Cody with one foot on his chest to cap off a memorable in-ring debut.

How WWE didn’t see greatness in Malakai Black will always be a mystery, but their loss is AEW’s gain as we look set to see Black realize his potential in Tony Khan’s promotion.

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