This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite saw Adam Cole go over Malakai Black. After the bout, Black embraced Cole after the match before he took a look back at the ring, leading to speculation he could be leaving or retiring.
Fightful reported that Black is not retiring, and the the word going around in AEW in recent months is that they believe Black could be done towards the end of this year or early 2025 if options aren’t exercised on AEW’s behalf.
That hasn’t been confirmed yet. AEW CEO Tony Khan stated two years ago that Black has been under contract “for almost five years.” Black took to his Instagram story to address his status:
“Here we are once more, a match down, and again, everybody is ‘He’s retiring. He’s retiring because of his injuries and this and that.’ Well, neither of these things. I’m not injured, nor am I retiring, nor am I leaving. I feel this happens every match I have and I don’t understand how many times you’re going to say these things and them not happening, and people still are going to fall for that. I haven’t been injured in more than three years, and I’m referring to my back injury, of course, and I only posted about that after it was already done. If you would have read the post, you’d have seen that and not read what other people have written about it. I’m fine. I’ve been fine for the longest time. I would really appreciate it if that stuff stops, man. If I’m going to retire, you’re going to hear from me, and not after Adam just cuts a promo just as a thank you for the match because that’s all it was. So thank you.”
If last night's Dynamite was farewell for Malakai Black, he lost his only 3rd singles match in AEW:
• Cody Rhodes in 2021
• Adam Copeland in 2024
• Adam Cole in 2024Nobody usually kicks out of The End/Black Mass and Cole did. So Black put him over huge on the way out. pic.twitter.com/NThwf1bChB
— Drainmaker 🌧️ 💵 (@DrainBamager) November 7, 2024
Malakai Black addressed AEW status pic.twitter.com/z9gjCeeuXw
— Andrew Ravens l WrestlingNews.co (@Andrew_Ravens) November 7, 2024
