Speculation on if WWE will consider taking Keith Lee and a top AEW star back - Reports
AEW star Keith Lee and another top star could head back to the WWE, according to recent reports. The star is none other than Malakai Black.
Keith Lee and Malakai Black are both former NXT Champions and had great runs in the Black and Gold brand. Both stars seemed to have a promising run ahead of them on the main roster but fell victim to bad booking and were released shortly after. Malakai and Keith Lee signed with AEW after they left the Stamford-based promotion.
According to a recent report by Wrestling Observer Radio, AEW might let Keith Lee leave the company and potentially return to the WWE. It was also noted that Malakai Black may also follow him after his AEW contract expires.
"Both WWE and AEW contracts… You don’t have to, but they allow you to freeze. AEW has not frozen people as much, but they have the right to do it. With Miro I don’t see why you would do it. What’s the point? With Malakai, he probably has some time, with Keith Lee… Does it really matter? You gotta remember WWE did get rid of all those guys, I don’t know that they would take Keith Lee back, I don’t know that they won’t. Malakai I would strongly presume they would, I could easily see him going back." -WOR
AEW star Malakai Black never wanted to be in the WWE
Former NXT Champion Malakai Black (FKA Aleister Black) had a great run and presentation on the Black and Gold brand. However, after he was called to the main roster in 2019, his future seemed promising, but things ended up going nowhere, and he was taken off television by late 2020. Black was repackaged and made his return to TV in early 2021 but was shockingly released a couple of days later.
In an interview with Developmentally Speaking, Malakai revealed that he never intended to join the Stamford-based promotion. However, the significant growth of NXT attracted him to the Stamford-based promotion.
"Here's the funny part, I never really wanted to be part of the WWE. My goal was never the WWE. My goal was Japan for the longest time. And I did Japan, and it was around the time you know where NXT had developed itself as this like really cool entity where a lot of the people that I used to like wrestle myself on the independent scences were like making waves there. They were becoming stars, you know, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor all these," he admitted. [19:59 - 20:23]
Malakai Black signed with All Elite Wrestling in 2021 and has had a decent run with the promotion. It will be interesting to see if he returns to the Stamford-based promotion once his contract expires.