Malakai Black Issues Statement Regarding Mental Health, AEW Release

He has spoken. Malakai Black took to social media recently and issued a statement regarding his status with AEW, mental health issues, and more. This comes after reports surfaced that he requested and was granted his release from the company.

The statement reads as follows:

All.

Firstly thank you all for your messages, know they are being read and appreciated. With all the turmoil going on in the landscape of Professional Wrestling I took the time to think of my words but also needed to wait until conversations between mine and AEW’s camp had come to a conclusion.

Firstly, I dislike reading parts of my private conversations between myself and AEW in regards to my mental well being on the internet. These conversations were private and not meant to be shared with the public. As by now most people realize I am a very private person and do not feel the need to have stuff like this out on the internet. If you’ve been following me longer than a cup of coffee you’re aware I’ve spoken about them prior but would like to be the one deciding when this finds it’s way to the public and not through someone else’s mouth, as with anything through the lips of someone else: that story gets distorted.

Secondly, to be in line with the above, they also need context:

I did indeed ask for my release, the last 2 years of my life have lended to a lot of set backs. Both me and my wife have been affected by uncontrollable actions from the outside that resulted in loss of life, medical set backs, career jeopardizing, the suicide of a close friend and a close family member almost losing their life, then experiencing an injury that I was sure was the end of my career. I spend every week going through several sessions of rehab, dry needling and therapy just to be able to walk and compete. Now this being the tip of the iceberg and with the combination of the promises in my professional field that were not upheld which resulted as a combination of all of these to a complete demoralization of life and career. This decision had been in my mind for the past six months.

It’s hard to really put a finger and say “this was the moment it all went wrong.” But I can tell vou after many years that I have learned from a rational point of view to see when I need to hit the breaks; which is what this is.

Perhaps once my mind settles on certain things and processes the last 2 years a bit better I will convey (via a different platform than written out) what the exacts were that happened, and have a more informed conversation about them.

For now know that I am good, and am taking, for the first time in 22 years, a few months to recalibrate the last 2 decades of my life.

Lastly, I have read a few narratives online in regards to my “release”, mental health and my personal life that I can summarize swiftly; if it didn’t come from me, it didn’t happen. Stuff about conditional releases, stuff in my marriage or using said mental health to leverage the other when as I said before that part wasn’t even going to be part of the public conversation are false. My marriage is fine, I am fine. It is just time to make sure those things stay that way.

Once again, I appreciate your support and we will see each other soon enough.

 

 

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A post shared by Malakai Black (@malakaiblxck)

Black also spoke about what was going on with him at a Prestige Pro Wrestling show in Pomona, California, where he defeated Kidd Bandit. He said the following:

“Look, on a real note, I understand that all you have questions… what I am doing, where I am going. Look, on a serious note, in due time, I will answer the majority of these questions. However, for the last 22 years of my life, I have never not once taken a step back and re-calibrated my life. I took a chance to kind of look back at the stuff I’ve done in-ring but also the stuff outside of the ring. I’ve never done that because I always have this attitude of like, you know, when they give the horses with the flaps on the side of their heads so they can’t look to the side? I’ve done that for my entire professional career because I had this one attitude towards wrestling which was you got to think globally, not locally because if you think locally, you’re going to get stuck in one place. That applies to everything, by the way. If you want to branch out, you cannot be worried about the little things….You’ve all been fantastic. Please allow me a few weeks, maybe a few months, to just re-calibrate myself. I promise you. This is not goodbye. This is just we’ll see each other soon.”

[h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription]

"This is not goodbye, this is see you soon." Malakai Black at #Perseverance pic.twitter.com/OzAtEsuBjJ

— Ratlan Givens (@hellawretched) September 18, 2022

 

Editor’s Opinion:

It’s great to see that he’s taking some time for himself and doing what he needs to do to make sure he is in the best mental state possible. I think that he’s very brave for making some of these issues public and can be an inspiration to many others who may be going through some of the same things that he has. Black is a superstar and I can’t wait to see him back in action; we wish him all the best in his journey and we are rooting for him 100%!

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