Malakai Black Reportedly Granted AEW Release
Malakai Black has been granted his conditional release from AEW, according to a new report from Fightful Select. News broke last month that Black had requested his release despite being on a long-term contract with the young promotion, though his request was denied. It was then reported that Black had been talked out of his request, only for him to signify he was leaving to the NOW Arena crowd after a six-man tag team match at Sunday's All Out pay-per-view. Tony Khan refused to comment on his status in the post-show media scrum.
Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp is now reporting that Black is "done with the company for the foreseeable future," with sources claiming he had been granted his release. Khan apparently wanted to keep Black and have him be a member of the AEW roster "for years to come," but eventually changed his tune.
"...we're told that a meeting took place sometime recently and it was decided that if Black wanted out, they should probably allow it," Sapp wrote.
There's speculation that the release was granted under specific restrictions, including the prevention of him wrestling anywhere else for the foreseeable future. It was previously announced this week that Black had begun to pull out of independent wrestling bookings. Outside of AEW, he currently holds the PWG World Tag Team Championships with The House of Black's Brody King.
Despite spending months building up to the debut of his "Dark Father" persona in WWE, Black was unceremoniously released by the company in June 2021. But thanks to an oversight in his contract, he only had a 30-day "No Compete" clause in his contract, enabling him to arrive in AEW just one month later at the Road Rager event. After a feud with Cody Rhodes, Black began building up his House of Black stable that now consists of King, Buddy Matthews and Julia Hart. Stay tuned for more updates on his status as they become available.
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