Malakai Black Denies He Has Been Released By AEW, Says He Will Be Back "Pretty Soon"

Malakai Black's future in All Elite Wrestling has been uncertain since he bowed to the crowd at All Out, with the former NXT Champion noting soon after that he had asked for his AEW release and was taking time off to recalibrate.

It was believed that Black had been granted a highly-conditional release from AEW that would prevent him from wrestling for WWE for an unknown amount of time but the House of Black leader revealed on Instagram Live that he had not been granted his release from the promotion.

"None of it's confirmed. There's no confirmation because I haven't left. That's what this whole thing was about. I've been given time off by Tony to take care of a bunch of stuff. All this stuff has been played up like weeks. All this stuff was weeks ago," Black said.

The AEW star then stated he will be back "pretty soon."

"Anyway, I will see you guys in a couple weeks, maybe a couple of months, like I said, I'm only taking some time off. That's it. Just taking time off. There's no conspiracy to this. Just taking some time off. Alright. I will see you guys soon. Take care of yourself, stop believing any other narrative. Right now, I debunked it. There's nothing going on. Don't believe these people. Don't write, don't believe it, nothing. I'm fine, I'm going to be fine. Everything is fine. You'll see me right back with AEW pretty soon. I'm just gonna take some time. That's it," he added.

Black also claimed his contract had never been five years. AEW President Tony Khan revealed during the summer, though, that Black had "almost five years" left on his AEW deal.

H/T: Fightful