After months off television and weeks of vignettes, Malakai Black (Aleister Black in WWE) returned to television on the May 21 episode of SmackDown.
Black seemingly kicked off a feud with Big E as he gave him a Black Mass, which led to Apollo Crews getting the victory and retaining the Intercontinental Championship. The feud never went anywhere as Black was off television the following week and released on June 2.
Speaking to Alex McCarthy of TalkSPORT, Black recalled potential plans for the feud.
“The only note that I ever got was that it was going to lead to me and him at SummerSlam. That’s all I know and after that, it was whatever it was going to be. He won the title exactly two months after I got released and he was kind of in limbo but very quickly they were building him up to, rightfully so, be the champion. It’s funny because I did something in my own way that caught the eyes of professional wrestling and he did something that he set out to do since starting his journey in pro wrestling. So I messaged him and he gave me the best message back. We were like man, what a difference two months can make for two individuals that were basically lost in the shuffle who were set out to do great things, but then kind of muffled down. In two months, everything changed for the both of us. I have a lot of love and appreciation for Big E, and respect," he said.
Big E would defeat Baron Corbin on the SummerSlam Kick-Off show before winning the WWE Championship on September 13.
Black debuted for AEW on July 7 and kicked off a feud with Cody Rhodes.
Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Dynamite beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
