Aleister Black ‘expecting a lot of really cool stuff’ out of WWE SmackDown storyline
Aleister Black spoke about aligning on-screen with his wife Zelina Vega in a recent interview.
Black told Sports Illustrated that there had been pitches for him and Vega to work together prior to his initial departure from WWE in 2021.
“We started shooting little vignettes for it, and we started creating outfits for it,” he said. “That first mask that I ever wore when I worked with [AEW] was actually one of the masks that was utilized. If you remember the Dark Father character that was at the end of my initial run [with WWE], that would eventually see my wife joining me… that was one of the pitches.”
Black said that when he returned to WWE earlier this year, Triple H wasn’t initially interested in pairing him with Vega. However, he believes the success of other married couples working together, such as CM Punk and AJ Lee, and Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch, led to a change in perspective.
“When I got back, the conversation arose again and initially [Triple H] was not really into it. But I think that with the success of AJ [Lee] and CM Punk, and Seth and Becky, I think that he kinda went like, you know what, this might actually really, really work.”
Black and Vega run The Dark Arts Gym, an invite-only wrestling academy located in Florida. They post student shows to their YouTube channel, with the most recent being last month’s Dark Prospects Ritual 4.
Black continued to say that he hopes his pairing with Vega leads to some intergender tag matches.
“Hopefully this leads into some intergender tag matches, because we’ve been working in a laboratory on some unique stuff. I’m expecting a lot of really cool stuff from this and it’s a completely different dimension for myself and my wife.”
Black’s full interview with Sports Illustrated is available here.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.