It's a good night to talk about professional wrestling. I haven't done that in a minute. You know who one of my favorite wrestling acts has been over the last few years? The former Tommy End, Aleister Black. Black was easily one of the coolest acts in NXT, oozed a mysterious "It" factor, felt real and yet also felt larger-than-life. I mean, look at this entrance!
He was a real original and his NXT run was one of the developmental promotions best ever, culminating with an epic title run, followed by some great matches with Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. A star turn on Raw or Smackdown felt inevitable.
Sadly, as is often the case with NXT standouts, their star never shines as brightly on Raw or Smackdown. Black was relegated to cutting promos inside a broom closet, barely ever wrestled, and after a few months of doing nothing, was hastily turned heel and did nothing of note. His coolness factor was extinguished until he was ultimately taken off TV entirely.
It looked like Black was about to come back to Smackdown after what felt like almost a year away from TV as a healthy scratch. He started reading from a book of dark fairy tales to set up his return, where he would continue his heel run. And it looked like bright things were on the horizon when he showed up at the end of Smackdown a few months ago and kicked the New Day's Big E in the head to set up what would be an outstanding feud that would make the most of both guys. Less than two weeks later, Black was mind-bogglingly released from his contract and the storyline was never mentioned again.
After Black's inexplicable release, it was widely assumed that he'd wind up with competitor All Elite Wrestling. Then rumors started swirling that he might end up back with WWE after a round of negotiations, rumors that grew stronger after his wife Thea "Zelina Vega" Trinidad re-debuted on WWE Friday Night Smackdown last Friday after she had been released from the company months earlier. Surely, Black had to be next.
Then this happened.
The pro wrestling world just got a lot more fun, as the newly-dubbed Malakai Black showed up out of the blue in one of the coolest wrestling debuts in AEW's history and probably in wrestling, period, in years. There he is kicking Arn Anderson's head off and then doing the same to Cody Rhodes to set up a high profile feud, one that will presumably culminate at All Out in September.
And thus we come to the next chapter of Malakai (formerly Aleister) Black's career. It's going to be a fun ride. So let me wrap up this post with some of Black's greatest hits from his NXT run.
His NXT Takeover match with Adam Cole, featuring Cole setting up a chair apparatus and getting dropped on it, leading to the funniest "You deserve it!" chant ever:
His big return from the "Who killed Aleister Black?" angle, in an incredible segment that felt straight out of the Attitude Era:
His Super Bowl halftime match, still a rarity in pro wrestling.
And of course, a lot of his stuff that isn't on WWE's YouTube channel: His title win over Andrade (with one of the coolest endings I've ever seen), his grudge match with Gargano at Takever (which I was in attendance for), and his final NXT match teaming with Ricochet to face the War (now Viking) Raiders. Best of luck to the new Malakai Black in AEW. Looking forward to what's next.
