ByDJ Siddiqi,
Contributor.
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.
DJ Siddiqi is a reporter who covers the NFL, NBA, and pro wrestling.
Aleister Black has to be one of the more intriguing superstars in the WWE at the current moment.
The 40-year-old is no newbie by any stretch of the imagination, having carved out a notable career in multiple states before making his mark in the United States in the WWE’s NXT brand. The Dutch-born wrestler – the first in WWE history – emerged as one of the biggest names of WWE’s developmental brand, winning the NXT World Championship while having notable feuds against the s of Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.
It’s hard to believe, but Black’s NXT tenure culminated seven years ago in 2019. Black originally made his WWE debut in early 2019.
Since then, Black’s wrestling journey took him to AEW for four years ing his WWE release – he also at point requested a release from AEW – before making his return to WWE less than a year ago.
Although Black has been around for awhile is no rookie by any means, there’s a lot of unchartered territory and potential for the veteran. That’s because up until recently, he hasn’t been involved in many major storylines or feuds with main event caliber wrestlers. Black recently scored the biggest win of his career over 14-time world champ Randy Orton on a recent episode of Friday Night Smackdown.
He was also involved in a feud with former world champ Damian Priest. That means Black is only starting to scratch the surface when it pertains to his WWE career. Black acknowledges that fact and said that many know him for his NXT tenure rather than what he’s accomplished so far since being brought up to the main roster many years prior.
“It’s never not been the direction that I wanted to go – it’s always aiming for the highest and trying to grab the highest apple on the tree, because that’s what you want,” said Black in a one-on-one interview. “Any wrestler in any capacity, in any standard shoot, if you’re not in it for the highest part, then I feel you’re going to be content with lesser. For certain people that might be good. For myself, I can’t. I always have to push towards the highest thing that I can get in with or without the help.
“I’ve never been Mr. Body, I’ve never been a bodybuilder guy,” Black continued. “So I always had to rely on just sheer talent and esthetics and storytelling and promos and match structure and captivating audiences in certain ways.”
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Black’s match against Orton main-evented Smackdown and featured a notable sequence between the two in which Black had his sit-down pose while Orton was getting into his viper stance. As Black noted, the sequence went viral on social media.
While the creative direction of the storyline remains to be seen heading into Wrestlemania 42, the fact that Black has been involved with two former world champions heading into the biggest time of the year in the WWE says a lot about what creative may have in store for him.
“This was the first button of what should be a lot more,” said Black of laying the seeds for his feud with Orton. “Obviously, you never know, because the things in our industry change so quickly. But with that reaction, and with the viewership, and with the viral clips coming out of that match, clearly a lot of people were highly interested in it. There’s such a style contrast, and I think that’s what captivated people a lot, where with myself I think forever I’ll be seen as this guy from NXT, where he made his name in the WWE, and rose through the ranks. Orton being a generational wrestler coming from a third generation himself, and having made such a name for himself at a young age, still being at the highest echelon in a completely different style and a different era being brought up.
“These two things are being put together almost at the right time, because obviously I’m seasoned enough to garner my skill to match that of his, and he is who he is,” Black continued to say. “I think for a lot of people, it was just this can be very interesting in terms of the styles, and obviously with the verbiage being spoken and the insinuation of a possibility of a Randy Orton that we all once very much feared — right on top of the Randy Orton that everybody already normally fears – throw back to the 2009 era if I can play my cards right.”
Aleister Black is coming off of the biggest win of his career over 14-time world champion Randy Orton. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
Black’s unique wrestling ability is marked by his mixed arts background. His matches feature a lot of kicks and MMA-style moves. While that is notable in itself, his character is the one that makes him stand out even further. It’s a character that has a very dark tone that sees Black make his opponents question the worst in themselves with a high degree of psychology utilized in his promos.
The mixed martial artist is extremely intelligent with a very creative mind. You can also tell from talking to him he has an interest in philosophy and is very analytical of everything he observes.
Black detailed that the background behind his character – one that can bring out the worst in people – is centered around modern day culture and society. It’s a culture and society that has become very self-centered and divisive over the past 10 or 15 years with the influx and popularity of social media and endless scrolling.
“I myself have become jaded towards how I view human nature a lot, especially over the last decade with how I feel,” said Black. “Mankind has decreased in its hospitality towards one another. You look at social media, you can’t open a picture without arguments. You can’t open X without seeing random profiles (ages) 15-to-21 saying the most abhorrent things towards one another. It really made me kind of think that for a big part, the true nature of mankind is pretty corrupted. It’s pretty volatile.
“There’s war, famine,” Black continued to say. “We, the human race, have put each other and others through horrible things. At the end of the day, I believe that there is good people, but I am starting to wonder if the good people are being outweighed by the bad people. Because the true essence of evil is not people that consider themselves evil, but they consider themselves to what they do to be the right thing, if that makes sense. That got me thinking in terms of, what if I reflect that into what I see on a day to day basis?”
Black further elaborated on the deeper background behind his character. It’s one that has a direct correlation to current society and could be a great heel character to many of the top acts in the company.
“Instead of trying to tell the audience that they’re a-holes for doing that, I should tell them, ”No, you’re right. It’s because this is who you are. You should have anonymous accounts. Don’t fight it. Don’t fight that true nature, because that’s really who you are. You are all volatile people. You are all horrendous towards each other, as long as what you think serves your personal purpose,’” Black continued to say. “I think that the portrayal of mankind is something that we can study throughout the generations, but I feel we’re in a fast track in the last 15 to 20 years, with the invention of social media, because everything is out there, there is a mass consumerism of attention.”
Black has said that he tries to focus more on the positive and good things of humanity, saying that there are good people out there. But he does notice a lot of the negatives in society these days, which led to the creation of his character.
“We don’t see any value in individualism,” said Black. “We see value in thinking that the more people us, it means that we are individuals. I felt that my character has always had social commentary if you really want to sit down and divulge into it, and that’s a conversation that is absolutely sure to be had. But I feel now more than ever, I feel we’re witnessing the downfall of our society in an alarming rate, where negativity has become the main currency.
“We don’t care about the positivity, we care about the negative,” Black continued to say. “We don’t want to listen to it when it’s good, because when it’s good, nothing can change when it’s negative. We can say something about it, because we can allow it to affect ourselves, or we can add to the change the continuous thought process of I know everything without knowing everything. Education has become a watered down system where we take pride in our ignorance. We feed misinformation to the masses so we can keep them under control.”
Black makes sure to mention that his perspective comes from a “point of observation” – he does believe in the good of man and wants people to appreciate and look more towards the positive rather than the negative.
“My mindset, I hope that anybody who listens to this understands that the social commentary always comes from a place of observation,” said Black. “I truly believe in the good of man. I hope that people will look at the good of each other and look out for one another. We live in a society nowadays where so many things are hypocritical. I’m asking you to enjoy what you are giving and not just in the sense of you yourself, but also in the product that is professional wrestling.
“Try not to be super critical of things, but be critical enough because you want and demand and should always be allowed to get better,” Black continued to say. “But also understand that sometimes a good match is just a good match, and sometimes a good promo is just a good promo. Not everything needs to be dissected, because sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy something because you enjoyed it.”
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