“Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again”
– Black Sheep by Metric
I didn’t want to dislike Malakai Black.
When I wrote Malakai Cat Circus it was fun to write about the obvious exit that everyone was trying to act like wasn’t an exit. Whatever was talked about or planned at the time there was a lot of shifty ideas as to what it was, but while people were denying? It ended up just being a delayed truth.
On February 10, 2025, it was reported that his AEW contract had expired. That’s funny. He allegedly signed a five year contract back as per Tony Khan in 2022. All of a sudden it’s no, it was only three years with a two year option. It doesn’t really pass the smell test, just like Andrade’s contract simply being up and him not wanting to negotiate again with AEW when he was clearly doing jobs in the Continental Classic to leave properly.
I can’t prove this wasn’t a contract merely expiring (he signed that deal in July 2021 so if it was only a three year deal wouldn’t it have expired July of 2024? Oh here I go trying to refute dirtsheet reports, how dare I) but it would really lend credence to the idea that Malakai Black was asking to leave and was publicly trying to do an exit so everyone knew he wanted out so AEW’s hand would eventually be pushed.
Black’s final match in AEW was at Full Gear 2024 where he lost a four way tag match teaming with Brody King. Prior to this, his final angle was the loss to Adam Cole clean earlier in November, which led to the whole awkward scene that had people thinking he was finishing up soon.
I didn’t want to dislike Malakai Black.
When he came to AEW I thought he absolutely nailed his entrance. He nailed a look that made him stand out among the entire roster. He was still being a dark and brooding character like he was in WWE and NXT (and essentially his whole career) but there was an updated feeling to it. A real sense of chaos and mystery to him.
He was one of the top WWE stars cut due to costs in 2021 along with Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt. He wasn’t the one I was most excited for. That would be Isiah Scott later in the year, who would debut in 2022 in AEW as Swerve Strickland. But Malakai was absolutely close to the top of the list. Here was someone who was a top guy in NXT and everyone thought he should have been a top guy in WWE. He came to AEW on a silver platter and started right away with Cody Rhodes.
That feud with Cody was… weird. I don’t really blame Malakai for it. Cody threatening to retire, Cody setting himself on fire for… reasons, adding Andrade el Idolo to it. It went from being a great debut program for Malakai to clearly Cody having some sort of public temper tantrum nobody would admit would be an obvious sign to his eventual exit from AEW.
With Cody gone, Malakai began forming The House of Black, as well as Kings of the Black Throne with Brody King. Adding Buddy Matthews, they felt like a real threat in the company. I was excited for the possibility of Malakai Black winning the All-Atlantic Championship, but he lost the four way to PAC with Clark Connors and Miro also in the match. I was then excited with the concept of House of Black winning the Trios Championship.
I didn’t, however, like the Julia Hart angle at all. It wasn’t the right uncomfortable. It felt like a bunch of old men creeping on a teenager instead of something scary or gothic. Julia would join House of Black, which was probably best for her, but it’s no surprise she gravitated more to Brody King than Malakai Black or Buddy Matthews. Brody felt more like a father figure to her than some creepy manipulator of teenagers.
I didn’t want to dislike Malakai Black.
House of Black would eventually find themselves facing The Elite for the Trios Championship and defeated them at Revolution at a match that had me salivating at the prospects of a Black versus Omega singles match. Never happened. This will end up a recurring theme.
I don’t blame this on Malakai really, but I haven’t had much of a chance to talk about it otherwise. The show in Winnipeg. This was AEW’s debut, a real chance to make a big impact and have Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho both front and centre there in Winnipeg for AEW. You’d think both men would be given matches to really promote the Winnipeg boys there. The big match? A three way trios match where both Jericho and Omega lost to House of Black. Why did AEW do that? I’ll never understand. They are usually good with not burying locals in their home area, and it wasn’t a burial, but it was an extremely terrible use of both men in their home city.
House of Black would then start the Open House Challenge, which allowed the competing team to choose a stipulation. This seemed like an exciting idea at first, but instead it just led to really boring trios matches with guys who should never be boring. We also got weird lighting for the matches which was also… distracting. Effectively, what should have been a great Trios Championship reign? It turned the titles into one of the least exciting parts of the show.
At least House of Black would be participating on CM Punk’s AEW Collision show, so as featured players maybe the trios matches would get better. Instead they continued the feud with The Acclaimed and had a jobber match. Malakai did eventually get to work CM Punk along with FTR on a Collision building up to All In 2023 in Wembley Stadium, and that got the gears going.
Wow, CMFTR versus House of Black. Should this have been on the pay per view? Is this a hint at the future? Will Malakai Black and CM Punk, two guys who love their kicks, two guys with similar styles and likely similar philosophies on the wrestling business, would they be having a singles match? Nah. Never happened. Recurring theme.
The Acclaimed would beat House of Black for the Trios Championship and somehow even have a worse Trios Championship run than House of Black. This now freed up Malakai Black to do something else. Would he feud with someone exciting? Jay White? Bryan Danielson? Jon Moxley? Adam Page? Would him and FTR get back to their program now that CM Punk was gone?
If that’s what you chose, congratulations! Malakai wouldn’t be facing any of the top singles stars of AEW and would instead go into the tag division. That’s fine, right? Kings of the Black Throne had a great theme song. House of Black would lose to FTR as 2024 opened, which led to an escape the cage elimination trios match later that month. This would be a rematch since House of Black beat Daniel Garcia and FTR two weeks prior.
Think about that. Escape the cage. Why would they need to do an escape the cage elimination? Oh. Malakai doesn’t like getting pinned, does he?
I didn’t want to dislike Malakai Black.
Malakai doesn’t appear in the AEW World Tag Team Tournament that was going on to Revolution. Likely because they weren’t winning. Kings of the Black Throne would be iced so Malakai could beat Bryan Keith and then… have a trios Atlanta Street Fight as House of Black faced Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett, and Mark Briscoe? What?
I mean, at least if this leads to Mark Briscoe versus Malakai Black that’d be c… yeah that’s not happening. He beat Briscoe in two trios matches and they never saw each other again.
Malakai Black did however move into a feud with Adam Copeland, which led to a TNT Championship match at Double or Nothing! He basically got the match by beating Kyle O’Reilly. Oh cool so he’s back in singles I guess. I don’t know if there were any plans beyond it but Copeland won the match then had to vacate due to injury.
Oh, did he get pinned? No of course not. Malakai, the heel, lost by passing out of a submission. I guess at least he didn’t demand another escape the cage stip. Would have been hard for Cope to walk out.
Malakai and House of Black then re-entered the Trios division! Why? Well, how else do they get on All In 2024 in Wembley? AEW ends up booking a four way trios ladder match, which I have zero memory of. I’m sure it was a ladder match.
Malakai and Buddy Matthews then get a number one contender match for the Tr… World Tag Team Championship, and it ends up a three way. Guess why. Go ahead! You don’t want to? Fine. It’s because they were’t winning the match and Private Party were.
Failing to randomly win a Tag contendership leads them to House of Black matches again until the Adam Cole loss randomly. It was around this time I realized AEW was going real hard on NXT nostalgia for some reason with Malakai, Buddy, Adam Cole, etc. I actually talked about how I’d welcome Undisputed ERA coming back together. They did do that, and it’s been the best thing for those three guys in years.
Funny enough, right before leaving, Kings of the Black Throne got together for one last time and beat FTR to enter a four way at Full Gear 2024.
I didn’t want to dislike Malakai Black.
I hope this breakdown of Malakai Black’s career lets you see just how often Malakai was bouncing between three divisions. He was never sticking to one. He had so many great potential singles matches on the table, but because some of them might mean he has to take a pinfall loss? He didn’t do them. He instead would do Trios and Tag matches where his partners could lose the fall. And then, when he finally takes a clean pinfall loss, it’s to Adam Cole and the whole thing feels like his swan song. It absolutely ended up his final singles match in AEW, even if it wasn’t his final match.
Malakai would often go on Twitch to confirm/refute rumours about himself, stuff about how maybe he was working hurt or he wanted out or he was unhappy with people. He was constantly refuting rumours, but never confronting the fact that his AEW career felt like someone who considered himself above the AEW originals and below former WWE talent. Aside from the Cody feud it never felt like he cared about moving to the top of the card.
I never got the feeling Malakai ever really had it in his gut to be the top guy we all wanted him to be. Which is funny since the moment his AEW contract “expired” the talk is WWE wants him as a top guy when he returns. Is he going to go back to WWE as one of Triple H’s hand picked favourite’s and be the guy he was in NXT? Or are we going to see a lot of the same guy we saw in AEW?
Malakai’s career in AEW just feels like someone who wasn’t interested in putting the collaborative effort to get to the top. He didn’t have the passion like Swerve Strickland has. He isn’t winning to be a part of the team like Adam Cole has. I don’t know how things were backstage, if he was hard to deal with, if he was refusing to lose matches by pinfall because he was trying to save his career for his next WWE run, or if like his twitch videos he’s just a very misunderstood boy and we all just don’t know the truth. I just know how it smells.
It was a good thing for AEW to try Malakai Black, but he didn’t work out. And unlike some guys I have a real hard time blaming All Elite Wrestling. I don’t think Malakai wanted to be All Elite. He just didn’t want to be unemployed.
In the future? I hope AEW identifies these people sooner. Not everyone in AEW is only going to have AEW on their mind. There’s nothing wrong with doing everything you can with someone who might still take a call from WWE in the future. But it’s the guys like Malakai who clearly are not committing to AEW? Next time they have someone like that? Better to cut bait. You’re only delaying the inevitable and costing someone else valuable TV time in the process.
I didn’t want to dislike Malakai Black.
I wish him the best in his second run in WWE. Maybe he gets that big push to the top. Maybe he finally gets that singles match with CM Punk. Maybe he gets to be the spin kick Undertaker people thought he’d one day become. Or maybe they throw him back in the bisexual lighting room on Smackdown and he has to wait for people to knock on his door. I don’t know. I just know Brody King is better without him. Julia Hart is better without him around. AEW is better without him taking up a spot.
“Black sheep, come home”
