Malakai Black has opened up about the disappointment surrounding his most recent WWE run and revealed one idea that was originally intended for WrestleMania.
Black, known as Aleister Black in WWE, returned to the company following WrestleMania 41 after finishing his run with AEW. During his year back with WWE, he worked programs with names including Randy Orton and Damian Priest and was also paired on-screen with his wife, Xelina.
Black and Xelina were ultimately released by WWE in April.
Speaking with Xelina and Charlie on the ZELVX and CHARLIE GIRL podcast (see video below), Black recalled Damian Priest reaching out to him immediately following his release.
“When I got released, the first person on the phone to send me a message that really hit me on a deep level was Damo,” Black said. “Damo said some words to me that really drove home. It really pulled me out of a really bad spot that I was mentally.”
Black admitted the release was particularly difficult because he felt his return had failed to live up to what WWE had discussed with him beforehand.
“I can pretend that it didn’t suck, but of course it sucks. It always sucks,” he continued. “In my case, it sucked harder because of the mountains of things that were promised in all the other conversations, and then being presented with this f**king dud of a year.”
Despite working main events during the run, Black said the direction never matched what had originally been presented to him.
“Despite main events and all these things, it was just wasn’t anything that they said they wanted to do. To me, it was like, why did you guys even want this? Because this made no f**king sense.”
Black also discussed his relationship with Damo dating back to before their WWE careers. Following Black’s release, Damo offered him bookings with PROGRESS Wrestling, which Damo and his wife Nikki Storm had acquired after Storm’s own WWE departure.
Elsewhere in the interview, Black revealed that the smoking jacket he later debuted in PROGRESS was actually created for a potential WrestleMania entrance.
“I was able to debut my smoking jacket, which is a funny story because four months before WrestleMania, this is not a knock on Seth because Seth had no idea, but I started talking to Jason (Baker), and I said, ‘I have this smoke device, and I want to put it under my cloak,’” Black recalled.
The concept would have involved Xelina remotely triggering the smoke during Black’s entrance.
“During our entrance, she would have the remote and when I roll in and sit, she would press the button and smoke would come out of my jacket,” he explained.
Black then revealed that the entrance was being designed when the working plan called for him to face Randy Orton at WrestleMania.
“Initially, the plan was for WrestleMania because up until that point, the pitch for me and Randy Orton was WrestleMania. Obviously, that never saw the light of day, but I didn’t want to dump the jacket.”
Black and Xelina were released by WWE shortly after WrestleMania.
