Malakai Black has addressed the reports about his future in the wrestling business. The AEW star denied in an Instagram live stream on Monday night that he was granted a conditional release from AEW.
He pointed to his original comments on September 18th about how he was taking time off from wrestling and saying he had put the word “release” in quotation marks. He later clarified that he was remaining with AEW after taking some time off.
“That is false,” he said in regards to getting a conditional release. “I don’t know why you trust these people to tell you the truth. Because it’s not true.”
Black stated he was granted time off by AEW President Tony Khan, and any speculation about his release from the promotion being confirmed wasn’t true.
“It’s not confirmed. Clearly it’s not confirmed. None of it has been confirmed because I haven’t left,” Black said. “I’ve been given time off by Tony Khan to take care of a bunch of stuff. All this stuff was weeks ago. I posted that statement as a summary to understand why I [am taking] some time off. It is in the statement. It’s mind boggling.”
“I will see you guys in a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months,” he later added. Like I said, I’m only taking some time off…there’s nothing going on. I’m fine. I’m going to be fine. Everything’s fine. You’ll see me right back in AEW pretty soon. I’m just going to take some time, that’s it.”
Black also noted that he doesn’t have a five-year deal with AEW. It should be noted that Khan did say in July that Black has “almost five years left on his deal. I wouldn’t expect him going anywhere anytime soon.”
Black last wrestled for AEW when he, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews lost to Miro, Sting, and Darby Allin at All Out earlier this month.
— PWUnlimited (@PWUnlimited) September 27, 2022
https://twitter.com/BRAlNBUSTAH/status/1574616502111768589
H/T to F4Wonline.com for the transcription