People In AEW 'Pretty Negative' About Prospect Of Aleister Black Returning

People within All Elite Wrestling are reportedly "pretty negative" about the possibility of Aleister Black returning to the promotion following his WWE release.

That is according to Dave Meltzer, who said on Wrestling Observer Radio:

"From what I have heard, and you may have heard differently, that the idea of Aleister Black and AEW was not fondly thought out by the people I spoke with there. Now, I did not speak to Tony Khan. 

"Andrade was mixed. I know people there that were not high on Andrade at all and others who were. Black, from what I gathered, pretty negative. There were even people who publicly said that. That they were negative on Black."

One AEW wrestler publicly against the return of Aleister Black is Shawn Dean, who is also the AEW Extras Coordinator. Dean replied to a post on Threads about AEW potentially bringing back the House of Black simply with, "No."

Aleister Black was previously a part of All Elite Wrestling from the summer of 2021 until the expiry of his contract in February 2025. Black was pushed as a singles star following his debut in a programme with Cody Rhodes. He then formed House of Black with Buddy Matthews and Brody King and primarily competed as a tag team and trios wrestler for the remainder of his AEW run.

It was noted at the time of Black's exit that he had received criticism from his AEW colleagues who were frustrated by the perception that Black was resistant to "doing business." This included a reluctance to doing jobs in the promotion and his frequent claims of being injured. It was also claimed the relationship between Tony Khan and Aleister Black was not strong.

Following his AEW exit, Aleister Black returned to WWE on the post-WrestleMania 41 episode of SmackDown. He was released on Friday, April 24, 2026 along with his wife Zelina Vega and 23 other wrestlers.

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