Aleister Black Was Worried He’d ‘Lose His Wrestling Career’ If He Wasn’t Depressed

Aleister Black a remarkable time in NXT as he became the NXT Champion and had several excellent matches. However, when he was called up to the main roster, Aleister Black largely floundered.

Aleister Black had been absent from WWE television for quite a few months as creative had no plans for him. Despite making a return on Friday Night Smackdown back in May and starting a new feud with Big E, Black was released by WWE.

Aleister Black has previously detailed how the last two years of his time in WWE were like a slow death and he had a lot of trouble dealing with WWE Creative on numerous aspects. After his AEW debut, he now goes by the name Malakai Black.

While speaking on the Drinks With Johnny podcast, Malakai Black talked about his battle with depression and how it would benefit him creatively. Black admitted that he once thought Black would lose his pro wrestling career if he wasn’t depressed.

“There was a time in my life where I thought that I was going to lose my wrestling career because I thought if I wasn’t sad or if I wasn’t depressed, I wouldn’t have any fuel to create. I wouldn’t have any fuel to make anything of myself and I would lose all the stuff that I had worked for. So, all this pain and anguish, and I hate using those words, they sound so edgy, but it’s not fun to have this really unhealthy mindset where you’ve convinced yourself that you can only be good if your absolutely f**king horrible and you destroy shit and you deliberately get involved with people you know are not good for you.

You get involved with people that will never understand you, are not on the same wavelength as you and you know are going to be bad for you so you deliberately stay in these situations and then halfway through it you get this weird, ‘What the f**k am I doing’ and this strange guilt trip and you’re trying to yank yourself out of it and that turns into shit. Whatever way you were trying to spin the bottle, it all ends in the same manner. You created this maze for yourself mentally that you can’t escape. You feel awful all the time. You feel negative all the time, but you don’t want to because now you’ve reached the point in your life where you’re over it. I remember one of my friends once told me the definition of hate is to be obsessed with something until the day you die. I was like, ‘I don’t want that. I don’t want to carry that with me.'”

With Malakai Black now finally in AEW, it seems his first feud will be with Cody Rhodes. We will have to see how Malakai Black’s character will flourish in the company.

h/t to Fightful for the quotes.