Aleister Black and his wife, Zelina Vega, have joined forces on WWE SmackDown, dubbing themselves “the necessary evil”. While many fans hoped for the alliance, Black revealed that WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque was initially hesitant to pair the real-life couple on-screen.
In a lengthy conversation with The Takedown on SI, Black discussed his return to WWE this past spring and the creative process that led to him teaming up with Vega. He noted that when he re-signed, Levesque had different ideas in mind that did not involve his wife.
“When I got back, the conversation arose again and initially [Triple H] was not really into it,” Black said.
Black suggested that the recent success of other real-life couples, specifically the mixed tag team match at WWE Wrestlepalooza, helped change Levesque’s mind. “But I think that with the success of AJ [Lee] and CM Punk, and Seth and Becky, I think that he kinda went like, you know what, this might actually really, really work”.
Less than three weeks after that match, Vega made her presence known by helping her husband defeat Damian Priest in a Last Man Standing Match on the October 10 edition of SmackDown. According to Black, Levesque was impressed by the execution and the positive reaction.
“He was completely sold on it and he really liked it,” Black stated. “And then it kind of started building from there [during] those last two, three weeks. Where we’re now looking at the presentation that you saw last week, and slowly but surely we’re adding elements. This is a work in progress”.
The alliance was put together quickly. Black noted, “It was a pitch initially, and then all of a sudden… we’re actually doing this in the span of a week. So we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this”.
The new pairing currently has unfinished business with Damian Priest. The “Archer of Infamy” returned to SmackDown last week and cost Black a match for the Men’s United States Championship. Black mentioned that he hopes this feud leads to intergender tag matches.
