AEW star Malakai Black (Aleister Black in WWE) recently appeared on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, where he revealed that he felt a disconnect with Vince McMahon upon his most recent return.

“I have been told the actual reason, which I can’t talk about that because number one, it’s no longer relevant because I’m here now. Two weeks before I attacked Big E on the night of the last vignette, I had a sit down with Vince, and he was very convinced of it. He liked it. I just wanted to get his thoughts. I hadn’t seen him in six months. A lot happened at that point. I wanted to sit down with him a little bit and kind of see how he was doing.

“We had just a normal conversation. ‘How do you feel about it?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, great. I it like a lot,’ and then we did the attack on Big E. Something about it just didn’t feel right, and I told my wife. I don’t know what it was. The way he looked, there was a disconnect. Not a disconnect as in, ‘I don’t get it,’ but I kind of felt that he had made up his mind even back then. It’s his company. It’s fine. No harm, no foul.”

 John Laurinaitis was even surprised by his release:

“Johnny Ace calls me. Even he was confused. He’s like, ‘I have to let you go. I have a list of people today, and you’re the one that I’ve put question marks behind. I don’t get it. I’m sorry. We’re invoking the rights for 90 days,’ and with everything that happened, and everything the way it went, and with the vignettes, you just know. You had this gut feeling. I saw his number pop up, and I look at my wife. We’re in the gym. I was just warming up, and I remember thinking in my head, here we go, because why would he call me on a Thursday morning? That conversation happened.

“I was shocked. I was kind of like, ‘S**t, John, we just started.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t get it. Couple names on my list, I don’t get it. Sorry, kid. Phones always there,’ love Johnny, and my wife started crying because she knew. I feel so bad for her because she was about to come back, and one of the main reasons why she wanted to come back is because I was there, which was more or less the driving force, other than the promises that they made her.”