Malakai Black reveals he’s been dealing with an injury he thought could be career-ending

Malakai Black has only averaged two or three matches a month since debuting for AEW last year. Most fans probably figured it was an effort to preserve the House of Black leader’s mystique, which it probably was.

Even so, it turns out there’s also been a physical issue holding Malakai back. On his Tik Tok yesterday, Black shared about a back injury that until recently he thought might force him to retire at age 37.

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 literal year of treatment that went from working to complete failure on several occasions 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.

I wouldn’t recommend video 2 to any of our trypanophobic readers, but other than that it’s not particularly “horrendous,” so we can probably chalk up the word choice to English not being Malakai’s first language — and his flair for the dramatic.

Still, as anyone who’s lived with it can attest, back pain f***ing sucks. And while Black’s recent schedule’s been on the light side, it seems he’s worked through this issue for a lot of matches over the past year. Here’s hoping the relief he’s gotten recently lasts and we’re able to see him working more, and less painfully, in the near future.