There have been some rumors making the rounds regarding the reason Aleister Black was not included at the WWE Royal Rumble premium live event back on January 31 at the Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
They are not true.
Aleister Black recently spoke with Rob Pasbani of The Stunner for an in-depth interview, during which he addressed rumors and speculation about some of his tattoos, which include demon art, being the reason why he was excluded from the 30-man Royal Rumble match (see first video below).
Black noted that he was flown in to Saudi Arabia this past January, but did not compete at the event because it was the best thing for his storyline at the time with Randy Orton.
Featured below is an excerpt from the interview where he tells the full story.
“No, that is not true. I was supposed to be in the Rumble, but then they were going to start myself and Randy, and I felt like, man, if we are going to do that story and we’re going to start in the Royal Rumble, it’s just going to get snowed under. And we don’t want it to just go to waste for them to just be two guys that are being dumped out or anything like that. So why don’t we save it for the weeks to come?
“I think the initial setup of Saudi Arabia, my tattoos did come in question. That is absolute fact. In the initial setting, it was definitely like, ‘Well, we don’t know how they are going to respond.’ I’m talking five years ago when it all first started. That was definitely a conversation at the time I had with Vince [McMahon] and also was brought to me. But that is no longer the case. The last time I was in the ring with R-Truth, even though the segment was small, I was still presented on TV and everything was still pretty much there. My arms were exposed. Obviously, the side of my head is always exposed. You could still see a lot of my tattoos. I think that became just like, ‘Well, because it happened back then perhaps that’s the reason why it happened now.’ But no, that was not the reason why.
“It was, in my opinion, a very smart decision. Because looking back at what me and Randy did, it got its own life on SmackDown in the main event. That little clip between me and Randy where we both sit down at the same time got millions and millions of views. And I don’t know if it would have been able to exist in that way if we would have done it at the Rumble… Now it was able to live on its own, which, obviously, that’s what you want. Because that optimizes it. But no, that was not a thing. But, again, I always see those things or hear about those things, and I always consider it to be coming from a place of genuine care from fans, which I always appreciate. Because it’s a good thing, right? It’s good to know that fans care. It’s always good to know that people care.”
Although Aleister Black has never wrestled for WWE in Saudi Arabia, he was featured on a segment with R-Truth on an episode of WWE SmackDown that was in Saudi Arabia (see second video below).
