It was only a couple of weeks ago that Aleister Black returned to WWE to start a feud with The New Day's Big E. Vignettes had been airing on SmackDown prior to that, and it seemed the company finally planned to pull the trigger on the former NXT Champion on the main roster.
Unfortunately, Black was among those released earlier today, and he's already made it clear that the news came as a surprise (debunking reports he's wanted to be freed from his contract for a while).
Talking on a Twitch live stream, Black shed some light on what really led to his WWE release...
- Black was told that his release was a result of budget cuts and defended WWE Creative (while noting that they wrote the dialogue we heard him come out with in promos)
- He was told his ratings did good numbers - and that his merchandise sold well - and expressed gratitude to Vince McMahon, Triple H, and Paul Heyman
- Black hadn't been told about future plans for his feud with Big E, but knows they were supposed to "go at it" on SmackDown this Friday
- He did request to return to NXT, but WWE had plans for him on the main roster
- Reports that Vince McMahon isn't high on him are incorrect as the WWE Chairman was a big fan of his character.
- Black had been told he would only be off television for a few weeks, but that ended up being seven months.
You can check out the video of Black opening up about his WWE release below: