When WWE released Aleister Black, also known as Tommy End, on Wednesday, the wrestling world was shocked.
Shortly after his departure was officially announced, Black hosted a stream on his wife, Thea Trinidad’s Twitch channel. First, Black expressed his gratitude for his time in WWE and his excitement for the”Dark Father” character he recently debuted.
“I’ve had a great time,” said Black. “I’ve had a phenomenal four, five years in the WWE. I’m just really thankful for a lot of things the WWE has done for me, and the most thankful I am is that I was given a platform that, although in limited amount, I was able to give you guys parts of myself, of my character. And I was really excited for this Dark Father stuff, it was actually created for the most part by myself. I wrote a lot of the context, and slowly but surely, the idea was that it was gonna unfold into an obviously more understanding of what he was talking about.”
Black then shared his mindset about his release; he stated that “it is what it is,” but he noted that his new gimmick was supposed to be his chance to break out as a top star on WWE SmackDown. He also thanked Vince McMahon and other WWE officials for how they helped him throughout his journey.
“Unfortunately, this was supposed to be my shot, that was what the consensus was,” said Black. “This is it, ‘We’re gonna push this character,’ and this happened. You can’t, this is an everlasting, evolving, fluctuating business, and I’m very thankful for Vince and for Hunter and for Bruce and for Heyman and for all the people that have always helped me out.”
Finally, the former NXT Champion told fans that they shouldn’t blame the creative team; he praised the “talented” group and commended their efforts. He then reflected on the final two years of his WWE run and called it a “slow death” because it took an emotional toll on him.
“The one thing I also want to say, don’t get mad at our creative,” said Black. “Our creative tries, well our, their, [I’m] no longer there, their creative tries their absolute hardest. And there are good people working there. There’s good people. Very creative, talented people. I’m very thankful for our creative. I’ve always had a good relationship with Bruce [Prichard] and stuff like that. Bruce was also one of the people that tried to protect me in a lot of situations.
“I think the last two years were a slow death for me. I think that it was very hard to get [inaudible] numerous conversations that I’ve had with Vince, and everybody trying really hard. It did numbers on my self-esteem, too. Because at one point you’re like, the ratings are good, the numbers are good, the merch is good, why are we not…you know? And it’s like one of those things where they like, the word ‘intrigue’ was always there. ‘Oh, we find you very intriguing.’ I’m like, okay good, let’s present something then, let’s do something. And I have thrown so many things at the wall because I keep creating. I keep creating characters and gimmicks and storylines over and over and over and over.”
Black’s attempts to create a new character in order to return to TV briefly worked, as he was repackaged as the “Dark Father” character he mentioned. But due to his release, WWE fans won’t get to see how this character would have developed on WWE SmackDown.
