Malakai Black: Only Five Or Six People Knew About My Surprise AEW Debut

Malakai Black has revealed only 'five or six people' knew about his surprise debut in All Elite Wrestling ahead of time, saying the moment now sits in the top three of his career so far.

Black shocked the wrestling world by showing up at AEW Dynamite Road Rager on Wednesday, attacking Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes.

Reports indicate that Black's WWE no-compete clause was actually significantly shorter than first believed - 30 days as opposed to the usual 90 days - and Black says he was determined to keep his debut for AEW a surprise.

When asked during a Twitch steam how many people knew about his appearance, Black said: "We made it a thing to make it available to as limited people as possible because that's how you keep it under wraps. Security, Cody Rhodes, and a few others. It may have been five or six total people.

"It was a good feeling. It's been a rough seven or eight months but I feel like I got a win last night. I feel wrestling got a win."

Black also revealed the whole move to AEW was very last minute and the possibility of creating a genuine surprise moment for wrestling fans, which paid off, has put his debut for All Elite Wrestling in the top three moments of Black's career.

He continued: "It was a hassle to keep under wraps. Once I found out that my contract was a tad different than the usual, I just came up with this idea. I had already made the character movie and I came up with this idea and the company liked it so we ran with it. It was all very last second.

"I feel like, in modern day wrestling, there are few moments to make a genuine surprise and get people to look your way. For me to sneak in, not be seen, dip and dive so they wouldn't see me, that took some skill.

"Kudos to AEW and the entire crew. What a great operation they have there. It feels good where I'm in a place where my creative mind can be utilized instead of stopped and controlled and knowing that things weren't going to work.

"Last night was top three one of my favourite moments of my career. I slept for three hours because my adrenaline was so high. It was the cumulation of months and months and months and having this big payoff was worth the pain, chaos, and perseverance."

H/T Fightful