Malakai Black Wanted To Quit WWE Months Before His Release

Former NXT Champion Malakai Black was released by WWE two months ago as part of the ongoing WWE budget cuts which saw other wrestlers including Braun Strowman and Mickie James getting future endeavored.

Black went on to sign with AEW under his current name, and everything seems to be going well for him so far. His time in WWE though didn’t pan out the way he expected it to. Speaking on Talk is Jericho, Malakai Black recalled telling Zelina Vega, his spouse, that he wanted out of his WWE contract prior to his release.

“Towards the end of my stint in WWE, I felt it was time to go. I felt they made the decision for me. I told my wife months in advance, ‘this isn’t working out the way they promised me it was going to work out. I’m going to move on to different things.’ I felt like I hit a wall and they don’t want to push me over the wall and I wasn’t going to keep bumping my head into the wall because eventually, I feel I owe myself more in life. I want to be a player.”

Malakai Black seems to be enjoying his time in AEW much more compared to his WWE run. He made his in-ring debut for the promotion on the August 4th AEW Homecoming and defeated Cody Rhodes to win the bout.

H/T Fightful