Malakai Black Recently Contacted By WWE

With his free agency status now confirmed, Malakai Black’s name has been unearthed in allegations of contract tampering from WWE towards AEW stars.

News broke a few weeks ago that WWE had reportedly reached out to a handful of current performers signed to All Elite Wrestling. Malakai Black was believed to be among those contacted, and is now confirmed to have received correspondence from WWE, despite his five-year deal with AEW.

Writing in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer speculated if Black will return to WWE, now that he’s been granted his AEW release, though it doesn’t look likely:

“What we do know is that Black was one of the people WWE reached out to even though he had signed a five-year deal with AEW. Tony Khan had pushed that a few weeks back, but then Black waved goodbye at the PPV. Khan would not comment on Black’s situation but the belief is that Black was able to get a conditional release from that contract.

The belief is that it would include a non-compete period where he could work, as his wrestling this past weekend shows, but not for WWE. Whether that means he will go to WWE or return her is unknown, but going as far as to say promises not kept comes across as someone who doesn’t look to be returning.”

It was reported the week of All Out that Malakai Black had requested his release from AEW. Though it wasn’t confirmed and he still wrestled at the pay-per-view, Black all but confirmed the match was his last dance for the Tony Khan-helmed promotion when he bowed post-match and blew a kiss to the Chicago audience.

Wrestling for WWE as Aleister Black for four years, ‘The Dutch Destroyer’ achieved one reign as NXT Champion before losing all momentum upon transitioning to the main roster. He was released on 2 June 2021, shortly after returning to company programming to start a feud with Big E.