The debut of Malakai Black on AEW Dynamite was a shock that nobody saw coming. At least, not so soon. The reasons for his sudden appearance have been well documented. However, talking in a recent interview with Metal Injection, Black talked about his release, including his unusual reaction to the news.

“It’s funny, but as soon as I got released, my wife started crying. I actually started laughing because they built me up for 5-6 weeks, they made me come back [to SmackDown], and now they’re pulling me off TV again? I just couldn’t take the whole situation seriously anymore.” Malakai Black (talking as Tommy End) explained.

The now Malakai Black went on to talk about how he felt WWE booking was something somewhat farcical. Creative minds seemingly changing with the wind.

“There’s nothing really consistent. Everything changes week to week or is done to the point of beating it to death.”

Malakai Black Always Knew AEW Was Where He Needed to Be

When talking about the relief of his release, Malakai Black just knew that he wanted to head to AEW. It was an immediate reaction.

“That was the immediate thought process. I was sick of it, even before everything went down. I loved my time in NXT, but I felt I did nothing of importance on the main roster. It was too much bipolar 50-50 booking, they would push me and pull me off TV.”

One thing has been consistent with Malakai Black’s comments since his release and that is the depth of frustration he felt being trapped in WWE. He went so far as to create a ‘release video’ proclaiming his entire WWE experience to be nothing more than a psychotic episode.

Malakai Black made a big splash, attacking Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes. With all of that pent up frustration ready to be released, his first feud promises to be a good one.

Malakai Black shocked the world when he appeared on AEW Dynamite just a month after his WWE release. Since his release, Black has taken to the popular streaming platform Twitch, using it as a platform to air his thoughts and feelings.

Talking on his wife’s (WWE’s Zelina Vega) channel he talked about how Malaki Black was a character a long time in development. Black elaborated, explaining that this was the vision he had from the very start. He even went as far as pitching the idea of Triple H ahead of his NXT debut.

“It’s funny. The reason I did this is because this is actually how I wanted the WWE version to be,” Malakai Black explained. “When I started, I wanted to come in as a heel. Hunter [Triple H] wanted me face. If anyone has ever seen any work of me on the independents, you would know that the gimmick I was portraying in the WWE was an amplified version of what I did on the indies. That’s why they wanted me. But I wanted to be a heel because I was coming off a heel run on the independents. But then Hunter had this idea of making me face, a stoic face character.”

Malakai Black Has Room to Grow in AEW

Malakai Black then went on to explain how he is enjoying the creative freedom afforded to him by AEW.

“It feels really good that I’m in a place now where my creative mind can be utilized versus stopped, and controlled, and being presented in things that I know are not gonna work. Because, no offense, I knew a lot of the stuff wasn’t going to work. I said that to them as well back in the day. Lo and behold it didn’t work.”

The level of frustration behind the words speaks volumes and echoes the thoughts and sentiments of other released superstars. However, WWE’s loss is AEW’s gain, and Malakai Black is now free to unleash his full creative force on the world. We have already seen glimpses of Black’s creativity. The wrestling world now waits with bated breath to see where he goes from here.

Former WWE Superstar and new AEW signee Malakai Black recently discussed several topics on his Twitch streaming account. One of the topics that the former Aleister Black addressed was the non-compete clauses that WWE have in place.

“There is a middle ground. From a business point of view, I understand having a non-compete” Malakai Black began during a recent stream. “As a person who works on TV, I understand that they want separation between you going from one place to another. I get that.”

“Do I think it needs to be three months? No. That’s the standard contract. Obviously, with me, you guys know what happened” Black added, alluding to the now public ‘clerical error’ that meant he could join AEW after 30 days instead of the standard 90 for WWE main roster talent.

Malakai Black on WWE’s Non-Compete Clauses

“Something definitely needs to change and maybe there needs to be better prior notice” Black added. “One of the things that I don’t think is completely accurate is ‘hey, today we decided to do that and we’ll follow up on it.’ I think you need a little more notice, but it’s a different process.”

“The WWE is not a normal company. They kind of make the rules themselves” Malakai would then claim. “That’s where I think [Joe] Biden is trying to make a change where they have all the pros and you have all the cons.”

“I understand the need for change on multiple levels and I also understand that there needs to be a middle ground and that there needs to be spacing in between. They still pay you when you’re no longer working for them for the duration of your non-compete” the former NXT Champion would then conclude.

Malakai Black (FKA Aleister Black, Tommy End) hosted Thea Trinidad’s (Zelina Vega’s) Twitch channel yesterday. During the stream, he spoke about how his AEW debut all came together.

“Once I found out that my contract was a tad different than the usual, I just came up with this idea,” said Black (transcriptions via Wrestling Observer). “We made it a thing to make it available to as limited people as possible because that’s how you keep it under wraps. Security, Cody Rhodes, and a few others. It may have been five or six total people.”

On AEW Dynamite this week, Arn Anderson was in the ring when the lights cut out. When they returned, Black was in the ring. He attacked Anderson and then Cody Rhodes as well.

“I pitched that idea and said, ‘What if we do multiple blackouts throughout the show and insinuated the technical difficulties?’ Commentary did a great job getting that over and it came off great,” he continued. The lights also went out during the Rhodes vs QT Marshall strap match, with commentary alluding to there having been technical difficulties throughout the day.

Shortly after Black was released from WWE, there were rumors that some in the company were pushing for him to be brought back. Black also addressed his decision to sign with AEW during the stream.

“It was the right move for me to make for me, my family, my career, the state of mind I’m in. It’s just a really good company. I can’t say enough good things about it. They have a bright future.”

“Last night was top three one of my favorite moments of my career… It was the cumulation of months and months and months and having this big payoff was worth the pain, chaos, and perseverance,” Black concluded.