The Devil Made Him Do It.
The artist formerly known as Aleister Black, Dutch professional wrestler Tom Büdgen was recently released by WWE, making a surprise appearance in rival promotion AEW last night.
Aleister Black is dead. Long live Malakai Black.
Black, who wrestled in NXT and WWE between 2016 and 2021, was released by the company on June 2nd, and his debut in All Elite Wrestling comes just one month after the fact. On last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite, Malakai Black made his presence known in the upstart promotion, attacking Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes and beginning a new reign of terror.
Prior to Black’s debut in AEW, he had uploaded a short horror movie to Instagram, which features bloody gore effects from Jason Baker, part of Tom Savini’s makeup effects team.
The video essentially kills off “Tom” and ushers Malakai into the world, with Black slicing the throat of his doctor and escaping the mental institution he was being housed in.
After being underutilized in WWE in the wake of his shift from NXT to the main roster, it looks like Black is going to be getting a proper spotlight in AEW, and this promo video alone suggests that he’ll be leaning into the darkest aspects of the character. It’s not often you see a professional wrestler literally murder someone in a promo, we can sure say that much!
Check out the awesome introduction to Malakai Black below…
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