Malakai Black Teases Leaving AEW At All Out
Is Malakai Black on his way out of AEW?
After the House Of Black (Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews) lost a Trios Match to Miro, Darby Allin & Sting at Sunday's All Out pay-per-view, Black seemed to say goodbye to the crowd at NOW Arena near Chicago, IL. According to Bryan Alvarez of The Wrestling Observer, Black blew a kiss to the crowd and took a bow. The trio of House of Black also hugged at the top of the stage, suggesting that they had just wrestled their last match together as a faction.
In the lead-up to All Out, several reports suggested that Black requested his release from AEW. According to Wrestling Inc.'s own Raj Giri, Black "has repeatedly shown concerns about his mental health due to personal life and demoralization due to the booking and handling of his character." Giri also noted that AEW denied the release.
Thereafter, PWInsider confirmed Giri's report, while adding that "a personal situation [has been] weighing heavily on him [Black] and he's privately talked about taking a long, perhaps permanent, break from professional wrestling, in order to deal with the issues."
Earlier on Sunday, Fightful Select noted that a top AEW star was planning on taking some time away from the company. However, the report did not specify if Black was the wrestler contemplating taking a break from AEW.
For what it's worth, Black himself posted a cryptic message on his Tumblr earlier this week.
"2 years of this," Black wrote. "Sometimes it feels like all of it will be to no end, nor will it have any real meaning when its all over and done. It's strange to think certain things in your life will be a memory with no attachments anymore while they were once the most important thing in your life. It truly feels like the entire journey happened for the sake of happening."