Aleister Black may not be heading back to All Elite Wrestling anytime soon — and now MJF has publicly unloaded on him while discussing backstage issues inside the company.
While speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, MJF reflected on how much AEW’s locker room atmosphere has changed in recent years. During the conversation, he made it clear he believes the company feels completely different now that certain talent are no longer around: “Night-and-day different vibe.”
MJF explained that one of the biggest changes is that AEW no longer has wrestlers treating the company like a temporary stop before going back to WWE.
“I attribute that to there no longer being people in the locker room that look at my company as a stepping stone—they look at it as a legitimate company.”
He then described frustrations he had with wrestlers who allegedly entered AEW expecting to immediately position themselves above longtime roster members before eventually returning to WWE.
“We had some guys that came in and were like, ‘Pfft, I’m gonna show up, be a top guy, and go back to Vince.’ Really, motherf****? You’re gonna leapfrog me? Good luck—not on my watch. And it didn’t happen.”
MJF continued by accusing certain former AEW names of trying to politically maneuver themselves into top spots backstage.
“A lot of guys came into my company thinking they were gonna be able to ‘brother brother’ themselves to the top.”
He also made it clear he believes those types of personalities are no longer part of the current AEW environment.
“We are where the best wrestle. So we don’t have that in the locker room anymore, and it’s a breath of fresh air, man.”
From there, MJF bluntly stated that some people “had to get weeded out” before directly naming Malakai Black as the biggest example.
“The biggest offender? Hmm… I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s Malakai Black.”
MJF clarified that he is not attacking Black personally, but he openly questioned what he viewed as Black prioritizing a WrestleMania moment over fully committing to AEW.
“Do I think he’s a bad guy? No. Do I think he’s a mark for being like, ‘Oh, I need to have my Mania moment’? Yeah—there were a couple of guys like that.”
He then suggested some wrestlers who viewed AEW as a shortcut back to WWE ultimately discovered things did not work out as expected once they returned.
“They got weeded out, and then they went over there, and some of them found out the grass isn’t greener.”
MJF also tied the conversation directly into WWE’s current TKO-era contract restructuring situation, suggesting some returning wrestlers may now regret their decisions.
“But I’m sure those guys who thought, ‘I’m gonna use AEW to go back to WWE,’ I think you’re gonna see a lot of those guys either asked to take a 50% pay cut from the office or just get released.”
Importantly, MJF later clarified he was not personally trying to bury Black as a human being and said he was simply repeating what he had heard internally from others in the AEW locker room.
“I’m not shi***** on him. I’m just telling you what I was told by a majority of the locker room about this specific individual.”
The comments come after reports surfaced from WrestleVotes Radio claiming AEW currently does not expect Black to return anytime soon following his WWE release. Internal belief within AEW reportedly suggests a comeback is not viewed as likely in the foreseeable future.
Bottom line: MJF didn’t hold back at all when discussing former AEW talent allegedly treating the company like a stepping stone — and he specifically pointed to Aleister Black as the clearest example of that mentality.
Do you think MJF was justified calling out Malakai Black publicly, or should those kinds of backstage frustrations stay private? Leave your thoughts below.
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