The NXT Champion Aleister Black has had one hell of a year on the yellow brand. Not only did he put up the feud of the year against Velveteen Dream but also got his hands on the NXT Championship at Takeover: New Orleans.

Black’s character is one of a kind and has made him immensely popular with the NXT Universe. However, what you might be unaware of is that Black’s journey to this level of success is as unique as his character.

For example, the man comes from the Netherlands, a country where pro-wrestling isn’t popular at all. Therefore, he had to find his calling through sheer will as he travelled all over Europe to make a name for himself.

In an interview with The Fightful, Black revealed that his main market was Japan and Europe. Though he took pride in what little work he did in the States, he never saw it as his “defining fight”.

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My market was never really the United States. My market was Japan and Europe and I was very happy with my market being Japan and Europe. What I did in America, I’m very proud of, but it wasn’t my defining fight. The United State was not the hill that I was dying on. I was more than content with what I was doing and where I was going.

Black went on to say that he was so pessimistic about a WWE run that he never really considered it as an attainable goal.

Never in a million years would I think that WWE was like, ‘You know what, he would actually suit us.’ Had I thought about the idea prior to coming to WWE? Yeah, I had. But I was always like, ‘WWE wouldn’t want to have me. Because that was always my mindset. I was going to focus on what was attainable, because for me, going to WWE was never attainable.

Black was voted “Superstar of the Year” at 2017’s NXT Year-end Awards and is now a champion in the WWE. The man has attained what he deemed unattainable and has an even brighter future ahead of him.

What did you think about this excerpt from Black’s journey to the WWE? Tell us in the comments below…

Darshan Sheth

Darshan Sheth is a 20-year-old news contributor from India. He has been writing about pro-wrestling in particular since late 2015 and has not looked back since.

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