Despite being on their books for over two years now, Malakai Black has only wrestled 10 singles matches with AEW. Following his surprise debut in Summer 2021, Black burst onto the scene in a big way, squashing Cody Rhodes in dominant fashion in his first AEW match. Black continued to compete in singles for the rest of 2021 before Brody King arrived in AEW in January 2022. This led to the formation of House of Black, a stable that eventually added Buddy Matthews and Julia Hart. The male group of three within the group dominated the AEW Trios Division, eventually capturing the AEW World Trios Championships this past March at AEW Revolution.
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While King and Matthews have had a couple of singles bouts in the past year, Black’s last one-on-one match came in June 2022.
Malakai Black Reveals Injury, Addresses Singles Absence
Speaking on his Instagram Story, Malakai Black provided some insight into his current health situation.
“There’s something I want to quickly address. I understand that this is always done from a perspective of caring. So before I say things, I appreciate the fact that people care and that it comes from a good place,” Black started. “But about a year ago, I made a video about rehabbing a back injury that I had. The video shows the process, and I talked about overcoming that injury, strengthening my back. After the video was posted, people started running with this idea that, ‘Oh, he has a bad back and therefore A, B, or C,’ which is not the case at all.”
Black continued by emphasizing his back situation is not the reason why he has only worked trios matches for AEW in recent memory.
“Again, the narrative is, ‘Well, he’s not in singles matches because he has a bad back. He nearly retired because of it.’ None of these things are true,” Black continued. “Why am I not having singles matches? I don’t know. I think it’s because they really wanted us, as House of Black, to do trios.”
While his back is fine, Black did reveal he is currently nursing a minor injury.
“Rest assured, I do not have a bad back. The reason why I am at home right now is due to a minor injury,” Black added. “I had a slight calf tear and a hyperextension in my knee. I’m almost ready to go back on the road. I appreciate the concern, but the reality is that I’m fine. And you will see me sooner rather than later.”
