Aleister Black and Zelina Vega are finally an on-screen alliance in WWE, but this partnership almost happened four years ago. In a new interview with The Takedown on SI, Black revealed that WWE had plans for the real-life couple to unite on television just before his release in the summer of 2021.
Black stated that the company was already preparing creative materials for the pairing. “We started shooting little vignettes for it, and we started creating outfits for it,” Black said. He also revealed a surprising origin for his early AEW aesthetic, noting it was repurposed from this scrapped WWE angle.
“That first mask that I ever wore when I worked with [AEW] was actually one of the masks that was utilized,” Black said. “If you remember the Dark Father character that was at the end of my initial run [with WWE], that would eventually see my wife joining me… that was one of the pitches”.
This was a significant change from Black’s previous stance. He noted that years ago, during a radio interview with Cincinnati’s ESPN1530, he was confident he and Vega would never be paired on WWE programming. However, the “aesthetic of them together caught the eye of upper management”.
Those plans were ultimately dropped when Black departed the company in 2021. Upon his return this past spring, the conversation started again, though it took time to get approval. Now that the alliance is official, Black and Vega are feuding with Damian Priest, who returned last week on SmackDown to cost Black a United States Championship match.