-- AEW's Malakai Black's status with the company has been a topic of online reports over the past week with fightfulselect.com initially reporting that Black appears done with AEW and isn't expected back despite Tony Khan previously stating that he was under contract until 2027. Since then, even more reports have emerged that not only indicate that Black is finished with AEW but that he could possibly be headed to WWE.
-- On f4wonline.com, Dave Meltzer confirmed that the backstage feeling is that Black won't be back with AEW though nobody is willing to go on record to confirm his status. Meltzer added that the talk in WWE circles in the past that he would be headed back whenever his AEW contract expired and that lately there's been talk within WWE creative about him.
-- Meanwhile, pwinsiderelite.com also picked up on the story and became yet another source to report that Black is leaving AEW but added that he is not expected to become a free agent until the February-March time period. Their report noted that Black technically remains under AEW contract but that the promotion simply won't be using him for any future appearances. This report strongly speculated that Black would likely head back to WWE as he was previously pushed heavily in NXT when Paul "HHH" Levesque ran it and that it would be a natural landing spot for him considering his wife Zelina Vega is still employed by WWE.