Aleister Black recently offered a surprising look at Vince McMahon’s thought process regarding his character. Speaking in a new interview with WrestleRant, Black noted that he believes McMahon viewed the Aleister Black character, which was dark and mysterious, as a vampire. This belief allegedly led to a creative change in Black’s presentation upon his call-up to the main roster.
The Addition of the Creek Sound Effect
Upon his WWE main roster debut, a distinct creek sound effect was added to the start of Aleister Black’s entrance. The entrance, which featured Black slowly rising up on a backboard, was a key visual element of his character. According to Black, the addition of the sound was McMahon’s idea alone.
“That was definitely a Vince thing. I think Vince thought that the character was a vampire and felt like old school Nosferatu, rising up. 1920s Count Orlock type. So he felt that he heard a creek and that’s why he wanted to have the creek there.”
Fan Discontinuation and Character Negation
While Black himself did not mind the sound effect as much as some might assume, he understood why the WWE fans were disappointed by the change. He noted that even small changes can be difficult for people to accept, particularly when they feel it deviates from what they initially loved about a character. Black noted that the sound effect did little to enhance the persona:
“I didn’t mind it as much but I feel like for fans, it was a little bit of a discontinuation of what love and see. Change is always difficult for a lot of people to accept and this wasn’t the biggest change, but I do feel that I understand where fans were coming from because I don’t personally think that it added a lot. It also kind of negated what I thought of what the character was, so it’s a different translation, but at the same time, like I could translate it and it was fine, it didn’t make me a very different character just because it was a creek, but yeah, that’s something that he wanted to do and that was fine. It didn’t change my mind on a lot of things, but it was definitely his thought process in that regard.”
Black pointed out that while the change did not fundamentally alter his ability to perform the character, it did “negate” his own internal interpretation of the persona.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit WrestleRant with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can listen to the full interview with Aleister Black on the WrestleRant podcast.
