Malakai Black recently said WWE made him a “mountain” of promises before his release that never happened. Eric Bischoff isn’t so sure that’s what actually went down.
Black recently opened up about his WWE exit, saying the hardest part wasn’t losing his job—it was feeling like all the creative plans he’d been told about never became reality. While speaking on the 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff said he’s always had good interactions with Black, but admitted he has a hard time believing WWE literally promised everything Black now says they did.
“I don’t know Aleister Black. Well, I’ve had a couple conversations with him. Always found him to be a very pleasant, respectful gentleman and an interesting person, my impression of him, the short conversations I’ve had with him. That being said, I find it hard to believe.”
Bischoff did leave the door open for a misunderstanding. He said creative conversations happen all the time in wrestling, and it’s possible Black interpreted ideas being discussed as guarantees for the future.
“Do I believe he felt as though, or the implications maybe he interpreted as promises with regard to what they might do creatively? Sure, that happens.”
From there, Bischoff explained that frustration can change the way people look back at situations. He made it clear he wasn’t claiming to know exactly what Black is feeling, but said he’s been through career uncertainty himself and understands how emotions can take over.
“Especially when you’re frustrated or, in this case, maybe concerned about how you’re going to make a living because, let’s be honest, there’s not a lot of places for a character like Aleister Black to work that’s going to satisfy him, right? He’s not 20 years old on the indie scene. So, at some point that reality starts to make you pretty nervous and sometimes nerves turn into fear and fear turns into anger and anger turns into bitterness and before you know it, these people lied to me.”
The WWE Hall of Famer then suggested that people can sometimes convince themselves of a version of events that helps them deal with disappointment, before questioning whether Black should be looking inward instead.
“It’s not that you’re fabricating it for other people’s benefit. You’re fabricating it to yourself because you want to feel better about your situation or you don’t want to take responsibility for your situation. I’m thinking to myself, what did you expect to happen? You’ve been at the plate three times. You’ve swung and missed three times.
Maybe there’s another solution for you here as opposed to bit***** about, you know, a promise someone allegedly made you, whether they did or not. You know, do you give up total control of your life the minute someone makes you a promise? Whose fault is that? You know, I mean, you got to take some responsibility.”
Bischoff also questioned whether publicly criticizing WWE helps Black’s future at all. His view was simple: if a company already believes it has tried the same act multiple times without getting the result it wanted, comments like these probably won’t encourage another investment.
“Especially… if what you’re bringing back or hoping to bring back is a character that’s had three swings at the plate and missed. Now, I’m really not so inclined to sit down and have a conversation with you because you’re not bringing anything that I’m really that interested in. We’ve tried it. It doesn’t work. Thank you very much. I don’t need an apology. Let me move on.”
Bischoff stressed that he wasn’t attacking Black personally. In fact, he said he can relate to what it’s like when your career suddenly takes an unexpected turn, even if he doesn’t agree with Black’s interpretation of what happened.
“I don’t know, but I’ve been in his shoes. I know how that feels, like really well, intimately. I know how that feels. And that’s when you start saying and doing stupid things. It’s a weird form of self-medicating, is when you can kind of offload some of the responsibility for your situation to somebody else or something else, the weather, whatever. You know, just get it off my back.
Again, don’t know what Aleister’s going through, but for me it’s easy to relate to because, like I said, been there, done that. Hopefully give him some grace if that is it and he’s feeling the pressure. You know, I don’t know where Tony’s head is at, you know, or anybody in WWE.
But, you know, kind of understand where the cat’s at. Put himself in that position. He’s made these choices and he can make a choice to turn it around, but in the meantime it’s a pretty s***** spot to be.”
One thing’s clear after Bischoff’s response—he’s not seeing this story the same way Black does. Black feels WWE dropped the ball on what he was told behind the scenes, while Bischoff believes it was more about expectations getting mixed up with reality than promises being broken.
Whose side are you on here? Do you think Malakai Black has a valid point about how his WWE return played out, or do you agree with Eric Bischoff’s take? Let us know in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
