Why Aleister Black’s WWE Return Felt Like Coming Home

Aleister Black has addressed his return to WWE and why it feels like a homecoming for him.

On the first episode of WWE SmackDown after WrestleMania 41, Aleister Black made his triumphant return “home” to WWE by delivering a Black Mass kick to The Miz.

Aleister Black signed with WWE in 2016, had a great run in NXT, then struggled a bit on the main roster and was let go in June 2021. From July 2021 until late 2024, Black was known as AEW’s Malakai Black.

The WWE return of Aleister Black was highly anticipated because he was utilized effectively by Paul “Triple H” Levesque in NXT. However, Vince McMahon never seemed to fully understand the character on the main roster, so Black wasn’t utilized effectively. Now that Vince is no longer part of WWE and Triple H is running the main roster, there is excitement about Black’s future.

While speaking to the Atomic Drop newsletter, Aleister Black opened up about returning to WWE after being away for the past four years.

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot and I feel like it happened very organically. I think the first day that I came back, like physically being backstage, you know, walking around and talking to people and being quote/unquote reintroduced to the company and stuff like that. It’s strange, right?

Because it’s like a mixed feeling of nostalgia and familiarity whilst there is something unknown, because obviously as much as the setup is the same, internally, its guts have been like rearranged if that makes sense, because it’s no longer the same people in charge, but at the same time, it’s the same people that I connected with the first time around.

And I remember being very nervous, but then realizing that everything felt the same in the most positive sense and then I was like, why are you so nervous? You know all these people. And then at that point it was really strange. It was like all my like anxiety just kind of dropped. And I’m like, yeah, this time around it’s even better, you know what I mean?”

One of the people Black knows well is the WWE Women’s United States Champion, Zelina Vega, who is Black’s wife. The couple has been married since 2018, so being in the same company together is likely beneficial for their marriage.

“It Felt Like Coming Home” – Aleister Black Speaking About WWE Return

The discussion continued with Aleister Black discussing his work with Triple H and WWE President Nick Khan while also referencing WWE as his home.

“I’ve always had a good relationship with Triple H, and I get along great with Nick Khan, and the locker room is something that I’ve always preached about, how fantastic the boys are in WWE.

And it just really felt good, it felt like coming home, and I know that sounds somewhat cliché, but I’ve never experienced that feeling of coming home in that sense, and I think that was the first time I could ever say it felt like coming home and everything made sense again.

I was in that system for eight years and it is a completely different system than anything else. Nothing is like WWE, no locker room I’ve ever been in, and it just felt like this is what it’s supposed to be for me, you know?

I was really excited to be back, of course, and like I said initially it’s a little bit anxiety driven. But then once you walk around and you get a feel of everything, you’ll say to yourself, ‘hey man, you know all these people, you know all this and everybody’s just going around doing what they always do and everything is just right’, it works, everything runs so smoothly.

Then, we get ready for the show, and here we go, rock and roll, everybody’s heading in the same direction and that’s just a really good feeling.”

Aleister Black was in action on WWE SmackDown in Tampa in a triple threat match with Shinsuke Nakamura and LA Knight in a Money in the Bank qualifying match. During the match, Black hit Nakamura with a Black Mass kick, but Knight was there to throw Black out of the ring, and Knight pinned Nakamura to win the match.