Aleister Black has a good explanation for why he turned on Kevin Owens

First off, your latest reminder that R-Truth is a global treasure is this - when he realized Aleister Black was the next guest on last night’s Raw Talk, his reaction was “Aw snap! Dracula.” Despite some attempts by his guest to intimidate the “funny man,” Truth also told Black he “liked him in Twilight” and closed the segment by saying he’d let Aleister get back to his coffin.

Back to the matter at hand... throughout his match with Kevin Owens on the Sept. 14 Raw, the announce trio of Michael Cole, Byron Saxton & MVP wondered why Black turned on KO. Aleister (and his creepy Bond villain eye) addressed that while talking to Truth & Charly Caruso on the post-show. His reasoning is sound. It’s also cool, as it pulls in a lot of Kevin’s recent and long-term backstory:

“Kevin’s negligence [points to his ‘damaged’ right eye] is why we’re here. And it seems the entire WWE Universe can’t catch a night’s sleep because I haven’t explained myself. Kevin’s a family man, right? Wife, kids, everything. You see the thing is, my father was a very cruel man. But not to the level of cruelty that Kevin has for people like me, and the negligence he shows people like me. I feel Kevin’s a fraud. Kevin uses one word and it clears him of everything he’s done. Kevin is known to throw his friends, people around him under the bus. But he uses the word ‘family.’ He gave his family up in terms of why he couldn’t be there, why this [Black’s eye] happened. And the entire WWE Universe forgives him - and makes me the bad guy for attacking him. Is that sufficient, do you think?

... if I jump in the fire for another man, I expect him to do the same for me. My point is that he’s hiding behind excuses.”

Owens does have a long history of turning on people himself, and his path to becoming a babyface was to play up his relationship with his family. KO’s absences this year have reportedly been due to his loved one’s battles with COVID-19 and his concerns about catching it at the WWE Performance Center & transmitting the coronavirus to his family. Turning that into motivation to get revenge on him is super-villain 101.

Black also mentions the means by which Owens defeated him on Monday (a Stunner after the lights in the ThunderDome flickered), and asks if perhaps KO isn’t associated with RETRIBUTION. Which... he’s probably not? But Kev did sound pretty fed up himself on Raw Talk last week...

We’ll see if any of this matters come next week. At least it’s a reminder that the most interesting character work and storytelling on the main roster happens on these less-structured after-shows.

And that R-Truth is a global treasure.