Malakai Black isn’t done talking about his second WWE exit, and he had sharp criticism for his final year with the company.
Speaking on ZELVX and CHARLIE GIRL, the current PROGRESS Men’s World Champion said the release stung even harder because of what he’d been told behind the scenes.
“You know, I can pretend that it didn’t suck, but of course it sucks. It always sucks, you know what I mean? And in my case, it sucked harder because of the mountains of things that were, like, promised and all the other conversations, and then, like, being presented with this fucking dud of a year, you know?”
Black also pushed back on the idea that his main event appearances reflected what WWE had originally planned for him.
“Despite main events, despite all these things, it was just anything as to what they said that they wanted to do. Like, to me, it was like, ‘Why did you guys even want this? ‘Cause this makes no fucking sense.'”
He added that Big Damo was the first person to reach out after his release, sending a voicemail that helped pull him through a rough stretch mentally.
“Damo sent some words to me, and I think I showed you the message, like the voicemail that he sent to me, that really, really drove home. And it really pulled me out of, like, a really bad spot that I was mentally because of, you know, obvious things.”
Black last appeared for WWE on the April 17 episode of SmackDown, where he was among the final competitors in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. A week later, on April 24, he was released as part of the company’s post-WrestleMania roster cuts.