AEW Star Almost Forced Into Shocking Retirement
This AEW wrestler was almost forced into early retirement at 37 years old.
Malakai Black has revealed that a back injury recently brought him close to what would have been a shocking retirement from professional wrestling.
The AEW star told the story on TikTok. Up until about three months ago, Black was convinced that even after a year of treatment, back issues were going to force him to step away. Things changed when the right vertebrae was hit during treatment, however, and now, after a rehabilitation program, Malakai has been able to work deadlifts and other compound moves back into his training regime.
Said the House of Black leader:-
Till about 3 months ago I was dealing with a back injury I was convinced was going to force me into retirement, but after a literall (sic) year of treatment that went from working to complete failure on several occassions we all of a sudden hit the correct vertebrae during a dry needling session and everything released. From there we were able to rehab and strengthen. You can check video 2 for this horrendous view and my personal reaction to it. However, allowing me now a few months later to slowly move back into deadlifting and a few more compound moves.
This may go some way towards explaining Black's relative inactivity between the ropes. Signed to AEW in July 2021, Malakai has wrestled only 13 bouts for the promotion in 2022, sitting the entire month of April out entirely. Here's hoping that he is now finally on the mend.
Black's latest bout was a triumph for him and Kings of the Black Throne partner Brody King over The Dark Order's Alex Reynolds and John Silver on 13 July.