During an appearance on The Ringer’s Masked Man Show, Aleister Black addressed speculation regarding his run in AEW.
Going by Malakai Black upon signing in July 2021, his run in the company largely centered around the formation of the House of Black faction with Buddy Matthews, Brody King, and Julia Hart.
Rumors began to circulate regarding his injuries, a belief that he was reluctant to lose matches, and a generally bad attitude toward the company before leaving in February, speculation that the former AEW World Trios Champion attempted to refute:
One of the things, they’re like, ‘Oh, he never wanted to be in AEW.’ That’s completely false. That’s absolutely not true,” Black said. “I had a great time in AEW. I had a lot of fun. Did I do everything that I wanted to do? No, but that’s okay. Because at the end of the day, it’s not my company. I don’t have any say.
And it’s the same way for all the, ‘He didn’t want to lay down for people.’ If you really think that I have so much pull in the company that I can say who I’m not going to go up against or lay down against, you think I’m going to not, like, vouch for myself and put myself in the main events and stuff? You think I’m going to politic for — oh, I’m not going to lay down for this person.
Black went on to say his health has been fine despite a previous back injury and a minor knee injury, further stating that his lack of singles competition in AEW came down to Tony Khan being “very adamant” about House of Black competing in trios bouts.
Addressing his decision to return to WWE, Black called it a “calculated business decision” based on what each side wanted him to do.
I looked at what I wanted to do, where I wanted to do it, and how I wanted to do it. ‘Well, this is where my wife [Zelina Vega] was.’ Listening to option A with what they wanted me to do, listening to option B with what they wanted to do, and I picked the one that business-wise made sense for me. And also where my heart lay more in terms of, well, I feel I have a lot left that I want to do here. And I know on this side, this is what they want me to do. And that doesn’t completely align with what I want to do at this moment. So I’m going to go the other way.
Source: F4WOnline