Malakai Black Slams AEW Release Reports
Malakai Black has lambasted reports of him receiving his AEW release despite many believing that he had all but confirmed he was on his way out of the company.
Malakai Black roared into AEW, emerging from the darkness to take out both Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes with his Black Mass kick. All of this happened just one month after Black had been released from his WWE contract amid ongoing budget cuts in that company.
Despite an initial high-profile role in AEW, Malakai Black found his on-screen time becoming lessened despite putting together the House of Black group with Brody King, Buddy Matthews, and Julia Hart. It has been reported that Black has been given a release from AEW following speculation surrounding his future that surfaced around the All Out event.
Malakai Black released a lengthy statement on social media where he seemed to indicate that he had requested his release from AEW:
“I did indeed ask for my release, the last 2 years of my life have lended to a lot of set backs. Both me and my wife have been affected by uncontrollable actions from outside that resulted in loss of life, medical set backs, career jeopardizing, the suicide of a close friend and a close family member almost losing their life, then experiencing an injury that I was sure was the end of my career.”
Now in new videos from his social media, Malakai Black has denied asking for his release saying that the term was in “quotation marks” in his original statement.
Black then added emphatically that his release from AEW had not been confirmed:
“That is false. I don’t know why you trust these people to tell you the truth. Because it’s not true.”
“It’s not confirmed. Clearly it’s not confirmed. None of it has been confirmed because I haven’t left. I’ve been given time off by Tony Khan to take care of a bunch of stuff. All this stuff was weeks ago. I posted that statement as a summary to understand why I [am taking] some time off. It is in the statement. It’s mind boggling.”
The Dutch star then added that AEW fans could see him back in action in a matter of weeks:
“I will see you guys in a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months. Like I said, I’m only taking some time off…there’s nothing going on. I’m fine. I’m going to be fine. Everything’s fine. You’ll see me right back in AEW pretty soon. I’m just going to take some time, that’s it.”