AEW star Malakai Black responds to retirement and injury reports

Earlier this morning, The Takedown on SI reported on news about the status of Malakai Black and his contract with AEW. Rumors swirled about whether we would see his return to WWE or if he might end his career.

A visibly frustrated Malakai Black took to his Instagram this morning to clear out the rumor mill (sort of).

“Here we are again one game behind us and again everyone says: ‘He’s retiring, he’s retiring because of his injury.’ I’m not hurt, I’m not retiring and I’m not leaving,” Black said in the post.

“I feel like this happens every game I have, and I don’t understand how many times you’re going to say these things and then they don’t happen and people still fall for it. I haven’t been injured in over three years. I’m talking about my back injury of course, and I didn’t post about that until after it was already done, and if you had read the post you would have seen that, and not read what other people have written about it. I’m doing well, I’ve been doing well for a long time. I’d really appreciate it if that shit would stop, man. When I retire, you’ll hear it from me and not after Adam (Cole) cuts a promo and says ‘thanks for the match’ because that’s it, so thank you.

– Malakai Black (via Instagram)

Black did not specifically rebuke the reports about his contract status with AEW, saying only “I’m not leaving.” Whether Black meant to leave wrestling as a whole or AEW remains unclear at the time of writing. There has been no confirmation from AEW on Black’s contract status since our initial piece and Black’s post.

Previously, a report from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select indicated that Black’s contract would expire “by the end of 2024 or early 2025.”

“Tony Khan himself had said in 2022 that AEW had Malakai Black under contract ‘for almost five years’. However, we have since been told that would include option years,” Sapp’s report said.

This is a development story.

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