The WWE release of Malakai Black was one of the most surprising occurrences in the company this year, especially because he had only returned to WWE programming after months of absence, a week before his firing.
The former WWE star provided some more insights on the circumstances leading to his release while appearing on Talk Is Jericho. He detailed a meeting with Vince McMahon that took place before his WWE release.
Black explained that he had a normal conversation with the boss two weeks before his final WWE appearance. They talked about the future plans for him:
“Two weeks before I attacked Big E, on the night of the last vignette, I had a sit down with Vince. He was convinced of it and liked it. I wanted to get his thoughts as I hadn’t seen him in six months and a lot had happened.
I wanted to see how he was doing. We had a normal conversation. We did the attack on Big E and something about it didn’t feel right. I told my wife [Zelina Vega] as well.”
However, according to Malakai Black, the Boss looked at him with a feeling of disconnect which makes him think that he had already made his mind about the future of the former NXT champion:
“The way he looked, there was a disconnect. Not a disconnect as in, ‘I don’t get it,’ but I felt he made up his mind, even back then. It’s his company, it’s fine. When (the release) happened, Johnny Ace [John Laurinaitis] called me and even he was confused.
My wife was crying because she knew. She was about to come back and one of the main reasons she wanted to come back was because I was there.”
Malakai Black made his return to WWE programming during the May 21 episode of SmackDown. He ended up getting released after another week of absence on June 2. Black has since signed with AEW.
