Malakai Black has given an emotional speech to fans, promising that he will return to the ring after taking time to “recalibrate” himself.
Earlier in September, it was reported that Malakai Black had been granted his conditional release from AEW. This followed rumours ahead of All Out of uncertainty regarding his AEW future despite signing a five-year deal with the company in July 2021.
As noted by Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc, Black has expressed concerns about his mental health due to his personal life and displeasure over the way that his character has been presented.
After defeating independent star Kidd Bandit at Prestige Wrestling’s ‘Perseverance’ event, Malakai Black addressed his wrestling future in an emotional speech.
“For the last 22 years of my life I have never, not once, taken a step back and recalibrated my life and took a chance to look back at all the stuff I’ve done in-ring but also the stuff I went through outside the ring.
“I’ve never done that because I’ve always had this attitude of, like, you know how they give horses these flaps at the side of their head so they can’t look to the sides (blinders)?
“I’ve done that for my entire professional career because I had this one attitude towards wrestling which was, you gotta think globally not locally. Because, if you think locally you’re going to get stuck in one place. That applies to everything by the way.
“If you wanna branch out you gotta not be worrying about the little things, you gotta focus on the goal. As cliche as that sounds, it’s what got me here to the United States.”
Malakai Black went on to praise fans before revealing that he is taking time off to recalibrate and get a new perspective. He promised that this was “not goodbye” but instead, “We’ll see each other soon”.
“So, for the 22 years that I’ve given my absolute everything to you – who are more than deserving of it, let me put that out there, you’ve all been fantastic.
“Please allow me to take a few weeks, maybe a few months, to just recalibrate myself and get a different perspective. I promise you, this is not goodbye, this is just, ‘We’ll see each other soon’.
"This is not goodbye, this is see you soon." Malakai Black at #Perseverancepic.twitter.com/OzAtEsuBjJ
— DOUKI Love Blog (@hellawretched) September 18, 2022
Malakai Black signed with AEW in July 2021, before debuting on Dynamite on July 7th by attacking Cody Rhodes and Arn Anderson. In 2022, Black has recruited Brody King and Buddy Matthews into his stable of destruction known as the House of Black.
In his last appearance for the company at All Out, Malakai Black was pinned by Darby Allin in a six-man tag match which saw the House of Black take on Allin, Sting, and Miro. Following the bout, Black bowed to the audience and blew them a kiss before exiting the arena.
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