Aleister Black recently spoke with Rich Ucchino of Sports Illustrated for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling and WWE.
During the discussion, the WWE SmackDown addressed his new on-air act with Zelina Vega, which many have claimed look eerily similar to the previous Karrion Kross and Scarlett act that recently departed the company.
While discussing the new alignment with his real-life better-half, Vega, Black mentioned that the idea of them being paired together as an act in WWE storylines was actually originally pitched back in 2021.
“We started shooting little vignettes for it, and we started creating outfits for it,” he revealed. “That first mask that I ever wore when I worked with [AEW] was actually one of the masks that was utilized.”
He added, “If you remember the Dark Father character that was at the end of my initial run [with WWE], that would eventually see my wife joining me… that was one of the pitches.”
Black also spoke during the discussion about his past WWE departure in 2021 and joining AEW a month later, before ultimately parting ways with AEW in February of 2025 and returning to WWE.
“When I got back, the conversation arose again and initially [Triple H] was not really into it,” he said. “But I think that with the success of AJ [Lee] and CM Punk, and Seth and Becky, I think that he kinda went like, you know what, this might actually really, really work,” he said. “He was completely sold on it and he really liked it. And then it kind of started building from there [during] those last two, three weeks. Where we’re now looking at the presentation that you saw last week, and slowly but surely we’re adding elements. This is a work in progress.”
Aleister Black and Zelina Vega will be featured on tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown, which emanates from the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and airs live at 8/7c on USA Network in the United States, and Netflix for international fans.
Make sure to join us here tonight at WrestlingHeadlines.com for live WWE SmackDown results coverage from Salt Lake City, UT.
alwaysourplan . . . pic.twitter.com/LKu27TfMOm
— ZV (@ZelinaVegaWWE) October 29, 2025
Everything is going according to plan for @ZelinaVegaWWE and @Aleister_Blxck… 👀 pic.twitter.com/GQelWe0nPC
— WWE (@WWE) October 18, 2025
