Malakai Black Reveals Part Of His WWE Entrance Was For The Undertaker
Malakai Black has revealed that one particular part of his presentation in WWE was originally meant for WWE icon, The Undertaker.
Black finished his run as Aleister Black in WWE in early June 2021 when he was released from his contract with the company alongside former WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman, Santana Garrett, Buddy Murphy, Lana, and Ruby Riott.
With a “clerical error” working in Black’s favour, the former NXT Champion stunned the wrestling world when he emerged from the darkness at AEW Dynamite Road Rager in July as Malakai Black. He immediately set his sights on Cody Rhodes and has since decimated Rhodes in short order in a match at AEW Homecoming last week. Afterward, a shaken Rhodes appeared to be bringing his in-ring career to an end before Black returned striking him with a crutch.
Now the Dutch star has discussed his time in WWE with fellow AEW star Chris Jericho on his Talk Is Jericho podcast. One part of Black’s presentation in WWE that stood out was his mysterious entrance that saw the Dutchman appear to arise from nowhere. Black told Jericho that this had originally been earmarked for someone else entirely.
Black explained:
“So I got a text from Hunter one morning, and he says ‘What do you think of this?’ and he shows me this big lift that goes up. I’m like ‘So I lay on it and it goes up?’ and he said ‘Yeah, it was gonna be for ‘Taker but ‘Taker was too heavy for it, what do you think of it?’ I was like ‘I’ll take it.’ [Laughs] I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It was just meant for me to basically rise up out of the mist, that’s why the whole thing was black. In certain shots, you couldn’t really see that the board was elevating me.”
“It was more of a visual trick, I was materialising through the smoke. I thought it was different man, I thought it was cool, and I thought it added such a cool layer to the entrance. I thought it added a cool layer to the Aleister Black character and entrances in general, I like to think if you go back in the modern era – perhaps not the past era – but in the modern era I think my entrance is definitely unique.”