Malakai Black Details Months Leading To His WWE Release

During a recent appearance on the podcast "HardLore," AEW star Malakai Black discussed the months leading up to his WWE departure, including details on several long conversations with Vince McMahon and new theme music he had made.

"I had a whole talk with Vince," Black said. "This was in the COVID era. To make a very long story short, Vince was like, 'We gotta do something with you.' And I was like, 'Yeah, no s***.'" Black pitched an idea to McMahon that he described as a "James Bond-style villain," but with his own signature occult-themed aesthetic.

"We had a 45-minute conversation," Black continued. "It was kind of unheard of because Vince usually didn't talk [to people longer than] 5 or 10 minutes. He really took the time." From there, Black was sent home and began the process of working with the defunct hardcore band Brutality Will Prevail on his new theme music.

"I came back and Vince is like, 'Alright, let's hear it,'" Black shared. "So I sit there on my mobile phone, and I let Vince hear this extremely loud f***ing hardcore, blackened hardcore song. And Vince goes, 'Well, I mean, I don't know if that's music, but I'm 76 years old, so what the f*** do I know about music?'" McMahon approved the new theme, but it would only be used one time in what would become Black's last match in WWE.

Black was unhappy with the way his new theme was introduced, as it didn't get any build-up and did not come along with any changes to his character. The former WWE star stated that the circumstances had a lot to do with the pandemic and how stressed McMahon and the entire production staff were at the time. Following the debut of his new music, Black was told by McMahon that he was going to be taken off TV for six weeks until the Royal Rumble. From there, his character was supposed to get a reset.

"Then the new year came, and nothing happened," Black continued. "Obviously I didn't do anything until April of 2021, I want to say. Then we started shooting the vignettes for the Dark Father, that was the big reset. And then obviously everybody knows what happened."

Those mysterious vignettes would continue for a number of weeks before Black was released alongside future stablemate member Buddy Murphy, Ruby Riott, and several more WWE stars. About a month later, Black debuted in AEW with a new persona, sporting black makeup around his eye in reference to events from his WWE past. Black, alongside Buddy Matthews, Brody King, and Julia Hart, are currently wreaking havoc in AEW as the House of Black, and the former "WWE NXT" Champion has his sights set on future success in the promotion.