AEW Star Fires Back At Retirement Speculation, Denies Plan To Leave
An AEW star is adamant they’re going nowhere.
On the November 6th episode of Dynamite, Adam Cole took another step towards a match with MJF at Full Gear with a win over Malakai Black. Cole is currently in competition with Roderick Strong ahead of Full Gear, with the first man to three wins facing MJF at the event.
However, the manner in which Cole earned the win raised some eyebrows. In the closing stages, Cole kicked out of the Black Mass and then lowered the boom on his rival as Black sat cross-legged and seemingly invited the move. After the bell, the pair embraced, and Cole paid tribute to Black as he addressed fans.
This was followed by reports that Malakai Black could become a free agent by early 2025 with many in AEW believing this would be the case. The star has repeatedly been linked with a return to WWE going back to 2022.
Black spent five years with WWE before being released in mid-2021.
Malakai Black Claims He’s Not Leaving AEW
Black wasted little time in responding to the speculation, and he was clearly less than impressed by the rumours. In a post on Instagram, the star said he wasn’t injured, has no desire to leave and return to WWE, and hasn’t suffered an injury.
“Here we are once more, a match down, and again, everybody is ‘He’s retiring. He’s retiring because of his injuries and this and that.’ Well, neither of these things. I’m not injured, nor am I retiring, nor am I leaving. I feel this happens every match I have and I don’t understand how many times you’re going to say these things and them not happening, and people still are going to fall for that.
I haven’t been injured in more than three years, and I’m referring to my back injury, of course, and I only posted about that after it was already done. If you would have read the post, you’d have seen that and not read what other people have written about it. I’m fine. I’ve been fine for the longest time.
I would really appreciate it if that stuff stops, man. If I’m going to retire, you’re going to hear from me, and not after Adam just cuts a promo just as a thank you for the match because that’s all it was. So thank you.”
Black’s friend and tag team partner Brody King also decided to have some fun with the speculation on social media. King said that Black was indeed leaving wrestling behind to follow his true calling of running a cat circus. The star quipped that he knew Black would be leaving wrestling after he shared a video of his cats recreating a match between Will Ospreay and Ricochet.
H/t to WrestlingNews.Co