Aleister Black has been released, as Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp revealed.
Black signed with WWE in 2016, making a surprise appearance at the United Kingdom Championship Tournament in 2017 before officially joining NXT in April.
Fightful Select reported the following:
Aleister Black's release is a puzzling one within WWE. While Thea Trinidad, aka Zelina was back at the WWE Performance Center recently, Fightful has not heard of any specific plans for her. We've not heard that an official contract has been signed, or that she was factored in to WWE creative plans for Black. Aleister Black was brought back to TV to kick off a feud with Big E, which we're told had no long-term endgame, and many of those associated with putting together the story didn't even know that he was being released. Recently, creative was told to stop making pitches for Black, but weren't told why.
Black won the NXT Championship in April 2018, holding the title for 102 days before losing it to Tommaso Ciampa. He was called up to the main roster in 2019 and began teaming with Ricochet.
He feuded with Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens in 2020 before disappearing from television in October. He returned on the April 23, 2021 episode of SmackDown with vignettes beginning to air to promote his on-screen return. Black interfered in the fatal four-way match for the Intercontinental Title on the May 21 episode of SmackDown, costing Big E the match.
There was no follow-up to Black's attack on Big E this past Friday on SmackDown.
Black last wrestled on the October 12, 2020 episode of WWE Raw, losing to Kevin Owens in a No DQ match.
Black posted the following comments on social media after news of his release was made official.
Im gathering my thoughts as this was a complete left field for me as obviously we just started the dark father character but this was it, thank you so much WWE universe for allowing me to create and give you small bits of myself.
— Devil's Blood (@WWEAleister) June 2, 2021
Black was among multiple releases made by WWE on Wednesday. You can view the full list by clicking here.
