Report: Explanation For How Malakai Black Got Out Of WWE Non-Compete

Malakai Black, the former Aleister Black, debuted for All Elite Wrestling on Wednesday night, attacking Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes on the special "Road Rager" episode in Miami.

Black had been released from WWE on Wednesday, June 2, 35 days ago. While stories emerged that some recently-released talents were trying to bargain their way out of their non-compete clauses, there appears to be an interesting story as to how Black got out of his.

Though Black had been on WWE's main roster since early 2019, there seems to have been an error in his contract. Whereas a released main roster talent has a 90-day non-compete period, released NXT talents only have a 30-day non-compete.

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Black's contract was never properly "upgraded" upon coming to the main roster in 2019. This means that his non-compete period lapsed after 30 days instead of what should have been 90.

Johnson wrote, "PWInsider.com is told that back when Tommy End was moved to the main WWE roster several years ago, the company failed to update his contract from the standard 30 day non-compete that NXT level talents receive to the 90 day non-compete that main roster performers are given. So, what can only be described as a bad clerical error allowed End to be free and clear in time for the first episode of AEW Dynamite on the road and surprise everyone."