Malakai Black: “I promise you this is not goodbye, this is just we’ll see each other soon”

Malakai Black speaks to the crowd in attendance following his main event bout against Kidd Bandit for Prestige Wrestling

Malakai Black speaks about what the future holds for him.

Prestige Wrestling’s ‘Perseverance’ show took place on 9/17 and the main event of the evening was Malakai Black versus Kidd Bandit.

Post-match, Black spoke his mind to the audience about what the future looks like for him. This month, it was first reported by Fightful Select that numerous talents informed them that Black was granted a conditional release from All Elite Wrestling or is done for the foreseeable future. While speaking at the Prestige show, Black said he will answer the majority of questions that people have in due time.

He went on to state that throughout his 20-plus year career, he has never taken the time to step back, recalibrate his life and look at all he’s been able to do in wrestling. Black asked that people give him a few weeks or a few months to get everything in perspective but he promised that it’s not a goodbye and it’s just a see you later. He then spoke highly of Kidd Bandit before leaving the ring.

Wow, a wire [attached to the microphone]. This really is an indie show. I’m joking, I love it here. Look, on a real note, I understand that all of you have questions. What am I doing? Where am I going? Look… on a serious note, understand that in due time, I will answer the majority of these questions. However, for the last 22 years of my life, I have never not once taken one step back and recalibrated my life and took a chance to kind of look back on all of the stuff that I’ve done in-ring but also the stuff I went through outside of the ring. I’ve never done that because I always had this attitude of like, you know when they give these horses these flaps to the sides of their heads where they can’t look to the sides? Blinders, there we go. I’m Dutch. I don’t know the word for that as well as my English is guys [Black laughed]. Look, I’ve done that for my entire professional career because I had this one attitude towards wrestling which was you gotta think globally, not locally because if you think locally, you’re gonna get stuck in one place, right? So that applies to everything by the way. If you wanna branch out, you gotta not be worried about the little things. You gotta focus on the goal and as cliché as that sounds, it’s what got me here in the United States. So for the 22 years that I’ve given my absolute everything to you who are more than deserving of it. Let me put that out there, you’ve all been fantastic. Please allow me to take a few weeks, maybe a few months to just recalibrate myself, get everything in perspective. I promise you this is not goodbye. This is just we’ll see each other soon… and while I embark on this illustrious mission of mine to find myself in a way that I like life again, I know that the independent scene and wrestling scene in general are in good hands because of talents like this young lady here [Kidd Bandit]. Kidd, I don’t know what you’re made of but I just hit you with some of the hardest strikes I’ve ever given, you’re still standing — well I mean, you’re laying down but you get the point. Your eyes are still open so, it doesn’t matter who you are. You are a professional athlete in my book and I thank you for this match.

After Black, Buddy Matthews and Brody King took on Sting, Darby Allin and Miro at All Out, Malakai stood atop of the entrance ramp and took a bow before heading to the backstage area.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit the original source with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription. 

About Andrew Thompson 9455 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.