Multiple Reports on Aleister Black’s WWE Status

Aleister Black still hasn’t appeared on WWE television since being drafted to SmackDown last October. But if the latest reports are to be believed, there’s a chance that could be changing. Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio this week that the former NXT Champion was dealing with “some minor injuries,” before echoing a report from last November that the backstage higher-ups aren’t nearly as positive of Black as Paul Heyman was during his run as Monday Night Raw‘s executive director.

PWInsider‘s Mike Johnson then reported on Thursday that the Dutch star has been training at the WWE Performance Center for several weeks. He did not confirm whether or not Black had been medically cleared.

Prior to his disappearance, Black turned heel for the first time in his main roster run while feuding with Kevin Owens. He revealed in an interview with ComicBook that the heel turn was something he pushed for backstage, and that what was shown on television was just a fraction of the character he had in mind.

“I think it was long overdue. I just think that I had a conversation with the Undertaker a while ago, where he said that eventually, you’re going to run into moments where fans need a more humane side, so they can latch onto a little bit more, so that you open yourself up a little bit more for a human emotion that people can latch onto and have a little bit more of an understanding,” Black explained. “Even if that understanding is not necessarily a positive reason, there needs to be a moment where people can go like, ‘I understand him.’ I think that we drifted away from the character too far at one point, that people were confused as to what it is that Aleister Black was and what he was all about, so the character change needed to come. And this was also something that I addressed with them and it was agreed upon, hence the character change.

“We’re still in the stages of producing it a little bit because it didn’t go the way that it was supposed to go, but we got a lot of it out, but not everything and so we’re still steering that ship at the moment,” he added. “I was really excited for it and I hope that with the coming weeks we can create something that has a lot more relatable content to it.”

What do you think Black will do once he’s finally back on TV? Let us know in the comments below!