Bio
Aleister Black is a Dutch professional wrestler who is also known as Malakai Black among the wrestling fans. He is best known for his time in WWE, mostly in the NXT which is the developmental territory of WWE. He has also worked on various independent circuit wrestling promotions. Presently, he is active in All Elite Wrestling AEW.
Aleister Black Height, Weight, Age & More:
The billed height of Black is 6’0″ and his billed weight is 215 lbs. He was born on 19 May 1985 and currently the former NXT champion is 38 year old. Before joining wrestling, he trained in Mixed Martial Arts and his MMA background helped him a lot in his professional wrestling career. He has worked in major wrestling promotions too.
Aleister Black: Age, Height, Weight, Wife, Net Worth, Family, Injury Details, Tattoo, and Other Unknown Facts
Aleister Black Early Life
Black was born on 19 May 1985 and currently the former NXT Champion is 38 year old. Alkmaar, Netherlands is the place where Alerister Black born. He had been a childhood wrestling fan and he grew up watching New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW. He was trained in kickboxing, pencak silat, and muay thai. He also has an MMA background.
Who is Aleister Black
Aleister Black aka Malakai Black is a 39 year old Dutch professional wrestler who is presently active in All Elite Wrestling AEW. He has also worked in WWE and he was a top star of the NXT which is the developmental territory of the promotion. He was also a big star of the independent circuit and won multiple top championships from all over the indies.
Aleister Black WWE Debut
Black signed his professional contract with WWE in 2016 and his first appearance in the promotion was in January 2017 during an episode of NXT UK. He appeared during the NXT UK Championship tournament and he played his indie character Tommy End. He made his NXT debut at NXT TakeOver: Orlando by defeating Andrade.
Professional Wrestling Career
Training and Debut
Black became a part of professional wrestling back in 2002. He was only 17 at the time. The first ring name he used in the wrestling world was Tommy End. He kept on using this ring name throughout the independent circuit and he also became quite famous under this ring name. He made his in ring debut in June 2002 and the first promotion to give him his first break was Pro Wrestling Holland.
European Independent Circuit
Later he worked on other wrestling promotions mostly based in the Netherlands. Outside of his country, Pro Wrestling Showdown was one of the early promotions to give him his International break. It is a famous British independent circuit promotion. He also worked on various other European Independence circuit promotions in Europe; mostly from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany.
Success on the Indies
Insane Championship Wrestling from Scotland, Over The Top Wrestling from Ireland, and Westside Xtreme Wrestling from Germany were the independent circuit promotions from Europe that were the early playground of Black. He had been pretty successful in all of these European independent circuit promotions and he used the ring name Tommy End in all of these promotions.
Championship Success
Black had a lot of success in all of these mentioned wrestling promotions, he was also pretty successful in terms of winning championships in Europe, as he won multiple top Championship from all over the European independent circuit including wXw Unified World Heavyweight Championship, and ICWA Heavyweight Championship. He also won other top championships from other promotions.
American Indies, Ring of Honor
After his success on the European independent circuit, Black visited the United States of America as well and he earned success on the American Independent Circuit too. One of the major promotions to give him his early break was a Ring of Honor. He could never win any Championship in the promotion but he challenged for the ROH World Championship a number of times. He got the biggest call of his career in 2016.
Professional Information Table
|
Ring Name |
Aleister Black, Malakai Black |
|
Aleister Black Nick Names |
The Dutch Destroyer |
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Profession(s) |
Professional Wrestler |
|
Aleister Black Height |
6’0” |
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Aleister Black Weight |
215 lbs. |
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Relationship Status |
Married |
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Aleister Black Net Worth |
$2 Million |
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Aleister Black Eye Color |
Blue |
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Hair Color |
Dark Brown |
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Wrestling Debut |
2002 |
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Mentor |
* |
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Aleister Black Signature Moves |
Double Foot Stomp, Anti Cross, Quebrada, Dark Ritual |
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Finishing Move(s) |
Black Mass |
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Theme Song / Aleister Black Song / Aleister Black Music |
Ogentroost |
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Catchphrases |
*
|
Aleister Black Net Worth & Salary
According to various media sources, the currently net worth of the former NXT Champion is estimated to be somewhere around $2 million. He is presently active in All Elite Wrestling AEW and reports also suggest that he earns something around $500,000 as his annual salary from the promotion. He has been active in AEW since 2021.
Aleister Black Family
Black was born on 19 May 1985 in Alkmaar, Netherlands. There is still no information available about his past life, his parents, or whether he has any siblings as Black prefers to keep his personal life private. Black is trained in kickboxing, pencak silat, and muay Thai and he applies his martial skills in his wrestling matches.
Championships and Accomplishments
Black had been extremely successful in terms with winning championships in the wrestling world. He had been a one time NXT Champion in the NXT which is the developmental contract of WWE. He also won the AEW World Trios Championship in the AEW. He has also won multiple prestigious championships on the independent circuit.
Championships and Accomplishments Table
| Championships and Accomplishments / Trophy (WWE) | NXT Championship (1 time), NXT Year-End Award (3 times), Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic (2019) – with Ricochet |
| Awards & Achievements (Outside WWE) | AEW World Trios Championship (1 time) – with Brody King and Buddy Matthews
FWG Lightweight Championship (1 time), FWG Lightweight Title Tournament (2009) FCP Championship (1 time) FCW Deutschland Lightweight Championship (1 time) ICW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Dante, ICW “Match of the Year” Bammy Award (2015) – for Legion (Tommy End, Mikey Whiplash, and Michael Dante) vs New Age Kliq (BT Gunn, Chris Renfrew, and Wolfgang) at Fear & Loathing VIII ICWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time), ICWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion (1 time), ICWA European Tag Team Championship/NWA European Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Dante PWG World Tag Team Championship (1 time, current) – with Brody King PWH Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Dante Pro Wrestling Illustrated – Ranked No. 23 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2020 PWS Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Progress Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Dante, Super Strong Style 16 (2016) SWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Dante wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship (1 time), wXw World Lightweight Championship (2 times), wXw World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Michael Dante, 16 Carat Gold Tournament (2013, 2015), Chase The Mahamla (2011), World Lightweight Tournament (2006) |
| Records | One time NXT Champion |
Personal life & Lifestyle
Black had been a childhood wrestling fan and grew up watching wrestling. His love for wrestling inspired him to train in kickboxing, pencak silat, and muay thai. Howevr, he was not a WWE fan during his childhood, but he grew up watching New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW. Keeping AEW’s recent partnership with NJPW in mind, we can expect Black to work in NJPW soon.
Personal Information Table
|
Aleister Black Real Name / Full Name |
Tom Büdgen |
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Birth Date
|
19 May 1985 |
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Aleister Black Age |
38 |
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Relationship Status |
Married |
|
Zodiac Sign |
Taurus |
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Birthplace |
Alkmaar, Netherlands |
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Nationality |
Dutch |
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Hometown |
Alkmaar, Netherlands |
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School/College/University |
Davenport West High School |
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Educational Qualification |
Graduate |
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Religion |
Christianity |
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Aleister Black Ethnicity |
Irish |
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Current Residence |
Tampa, Florida |
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Hobbies |
* |
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Aleister Black Tattoo |
Multiple Tattoos |
Aleister Black Movies and TV Shows
Black has appeared in a couple of movies according to reports from various media sources. Reports suggest he worked in a movie named Action Force: The Divide which also starred famous wrestler Roman Reigns. There is not enough information available about this movie. According to the Internet Movie Database, he appeared in at least one more movie named The Awoken. There is no information available about this movie.
Aleister Black Wife
Black is presently married to his fellow professional wrestler Thea Trinidad who is famous by her WWE ring name Zelina Vega. She is one of the top stars of WWE right now as she had been a former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion and also the inaugural Queen of The Ring tournament winner. Black and Vega married in 2018 and together they are living happily in Tampa, Florida.
Success in WWE and AEW
Joining WWE
Black got the biggest ball of his wrestling career in 2016 when he was approached by WWE and he got the opportunity to sign a professional contract with the promotion. He trained at the WWE Performance Centre for a number of months and he finally made his in ring debut in the promotion in January 2017. He made his in ring debut in the NXT which is the developmental territory of WWE.
NXT Debut
This is the first time he played the character of Aleister Black and this is also the character that made him famous among the WWE fans. He even appeared as Tommy End once in the NXT UK. Aleister Black was a pretty dark character and it became quite famous among wrestling fans. He made his NXT debut during the NXT Takeover: Orlando in April 2017 where he made an instant impact by defeating Andrade.
NXT Champion
Black started an undefeated streak after he started working regularly on the NXT. He had been promoted as a top star of the NXT and he defeated almost all the big names of his time in the developmental territory of WWE. Exactly one year after his debut at NXT Takeover: New Orleans, he defeated Andrade to win the NXT Championship. Overall he had an excellent NXT Championship reign.
Main Roster Run
After an amazing run in the NXT, Black made his main roster debut in 2019 and he also started an undefeated streak on the main roster. He continued to team up with his Tag Team partner from the NXT, Ricochet. Black received a very strong booing in the main roster overall but he could never win any Championship. In 2021, he attacked Big E during an Intercontinental Championship match but he could never continue this story since he was released instantly after this attack.
AEW Run, Recent Days
His fans were really disappointed with this sudden release, but during the time WWE released a lot of names. Soon after getting released by WWE, he joined AEW and instantly started a feud with Cody Rhodes. He had been renamed as Malakai Black in AEW. He also runs a stable in the promotion named the House of Black. He is still active in the promotion and there are rumors of the former NXT Champion potentially returns to WWE in the future.
Iconic Quotes From Aleister Black
“I had a very hard-working father and a very hard-working mother. My dad was someone that would get up at 5 in the morning and work ’til 4 in the afternoon and then had a hobby he made money with. After he’d get home, he’d have a meal and have a drink and then flow right into that, trying to provide.”
“There is a considerable amount of content to what made Tommy End Tommy End and what makes Aleister Black Aleister Black, but there are a lot of similarities. I sometimes feel like Tommy End shed his skin and became Aleister Black. I truly feel that in WWE Tommy End could become Aleister Black.”
“As a 4-year-old, I saw two men competing in the ring, and I thought it was martial arts. I asked my parents if I could do martial arts. So, I was 5 or 6-years-old, and I was doing karate and jiu-jitsu. Later on, I started kickboxing. Then, it just progressed. I did a little bit of everything, but predominantly, I did kickboxing.”
“I started training wrestling in the pre-social media era and I was very cautious – I thought, ‘I can’t have people know my real last name.’ So I changed my last name to End because I always called myself ‘The End.’ I thought that was cool. I thought I’d take my real first name and my ‘fake’ last name, and that’s how I came up with Tommy End.”
“I get messages from people telling me all the time through Twitter or Instagram about how my path has inspired their path. It’s good for them, for people who have a certain amount of mental problems, suffering from depression or anxiety, being able to have someone who recognises them and helps them.”
“I was a big fan of the more Mexican-based wrestlers when I started watching WCW, and I saw guys like Silver King, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio. And where I come from, we have this European heritage with World of Sport with guys like Johnny Saint, Johnny Kidd, ‘Rollerball’ Mark Rocco, Robbie Brookside.”
“I only thought I’d get one arm done at first. One arm turned into the other arm. Then I started tattooing my lower arms. I remember saying, ‘Mom, don’t worry, I’m never going to do anything on my neck.’ Then I went to my neck and my chest and my legs, and I kept on progressing from there.”
Notable Feuds and Rivalries of Aleister Black
Black had an excellent career in the world of professional wrestling so far and he also had some amazing rivalry with some of the top stars of wrestling. In NXT he had a number of big rivalries with some of the biggest stars. One of his biggest rivals from the NXT was Johnny Gargano and together they had some excellent matches. Gargano was also famous for beating the undefeated streak of Black in the NXT.
Gargano’s best friend Tommaso Ciampa was also a top rival of black in the NXT. He also had an excellent rivalry with Andrade. He made his debut against Andrade and also defeated him to win his only NXT Championship in 2018. After joining the AEW in 2021, he instantly had a big rivalry with Cody Rhodes with deal remains the biggest rivalry of his AEW career.
Aleister Black Injury
Black suffered the worst injury of his career in 2018 during a match in the NXT when he got one of his testicles shattered into seven pieces. He still managed to deliver a 22 minute long match even after picking up this injury. He shared details of this injury while speaking with Pro Wrestling 4 Life;
“Me and Tommaso were in this feud. This is the reason why I wasn’t on TV for three months. We were supposed to get into an angle with me, Johnny and Tommaso that was going to be a TakeOver match. It was already announced.
“A week later, we went on the road. Tommaso had just won the belt from me. We were on the road. We were in Las Vegas. We had this thing where I jump on the top rope, he comes running and crotches me.
“I fell in the ring. I remember telling the referee, ‘Can you give me a second? I just got hit in the nuts’. I wrestled the full 22 minutes. I cut a promo after the match.
“I came backstage and I just knew something was wrong. I collapsed. I was crawling on the floor. I was in agony. My down there was swollen and protruding through my trunks.
“I had to grab a towel. I said, ‘I think I need to go to the hospital’. They picked me up and took me to my locker room. I collapsed again. Everybody started laughing because they thought I was joking.
“Chris Hero said, ‘You’re not ok, are you?’ I said, ‘No. I think something happened’. I explained what happened and he said, ‘We have to take you to the hospital’. He put me in the ambulance with Christian, the NXT doctor.
“They drove me to the Las Vegas hospital. I had to wait quite a while to actually get surgery. I had to wait like six or seven hours before I got the surgery.”
Other Details
Black has appeared in a total of four video games in total as playable characters. The first video game he appeared in was WWE 2K18 which was released back in 2017. He also appeared in WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20. He was released from WWE in 2021 so he did not appear in any other WWE game. He also appeared in AEW Fight Forever video game which released in 2023.
|
Aleister Black Salary |
$500,000 |
|
Brand Endorsements |
AEW Merchandise |
|
Sponsors |
* |
|
Charity |
Not known |
Aleister Black Social Media Accounts
Black is active on Instagram from a verified account. There is an account in Twitter by his name which is not verified, even though it is believed to be his real account. His Twitter account has a total following of 275.9K and his verified Instagram has a total following of 838K. Here are links of his social media accounts where you can follow him. Aleister Black Twitter, Aleister Black Instagram.
Aleister Black Win Loss Record
| Promotion | Win % | Draw % | Loss % |
| AAW | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) |
| AEW | 46 (80.70%) | 0 (0.00%) | 11 (19.30%) |
| AEW/NJPW | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) |
| AIW | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) |
| Beyond | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) |
| BJW | 1 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| BJW/CZW/WXw | 8 (72.73%) | 0 (0.00%) | 3 (27.27%) |
| BJW/DDT/K-DOJO | 4 (80.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (20.00%) |
| Blitzkrieg! Pro | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) |
| CZW | 5 (62.50%) | 0 (0.00%) | 3 (37.50%) |
| CZW/WXw | 1 (50.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (50.00%) |
| Dark Arts Gym | 1 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| Dragon Gate/WXw | 1 (50.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (50.00%) |
| EVOLVE | 4 (40.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 6 (60.00%) |
| FCP | 8 (66.67%) | 1 (8.33%) | 3 (25.00%) |
| HOG | 1 (50.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (50.00%) |
| Indypendence Day | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) |
| NEW | 2 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| NXT | 160 (89.89%) | 1 (0.56%) | 17 (9.55%) |
| OTT | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 3 (100.00%) |
| Prestige | 3 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| PROGRESS | 15 (57.69%) | 0 (0.00%) | 11 (42.31%) |
| PWG | 6 (54.55%) | 0 (0.00%) | 5 (45.45%) |
| RevPro | 1 (50.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (50.00%) |
| WrestleCade | 1 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| WWE | 61 (74.39%) | 1 (1.22%) | 20 (24.39%) |
| WWNLive | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 2 (100.00%) |
| WXw | 109 (60.22%) | 5 (2.76%) | 67 (37.02%) |
| WXw/CHIKARA | 1 (50.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (50.00%) |
| WXw/GHW | 0 (0.00%) | 1 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| WXw/NOAH | 1 (100.00%) | 0 (0.00%) | 0 (0.00%) |
| TOTAL | 440 (71.90%) | 9 (1.47%) | 163 (26.63%) |
Aleister Black Manager
Black never worked with any professional managers in WWE. However, he worked with Ricochet as a tag team both in WWE and NXT, and Ricochet managed him during his singles matches while they worked as a team. He formed a faction in the AEW named The House of Black and he gets managed by his teammates during his matches in AEW.
FAQS
Q. When did Aleister Black start wrestling?
A. Aleister Black started working in 2003
Q. How tall is Aleister Black in feet?
A. Aleister Black is 5’11” tall in feet
Q. Who is Aleister Black manager?
A. Aleister Black does not have a manager, however, his Judgment Day teammate accompanies him and remains on the ringside during his matches
Q. What is current Aleister Black song?
A. Aleister Black uses the song ‘Catch your Breath’ and ‘I am Danger’
Q. Who is Aleister Black mother?
A. Aleister Black’s mother was Leonie Devitt
Q. Who is Aleister Black father?
A. Aleister Black’s father was Fintan Devitt
Q. Who is currently Aleister Black girlfriend?
A. Aleister Black is currently married to Mexican sports journalist and model Vero Rodriguez
Q. Who is Aleister Black brother?
A. Aleister Black has four siblings in total. One of them Anne-Marie who is his sister
Q. How much is Aleister Black worth?
A. Aleister Black’s net worth is something around $2m
Q. How many times Aleister Black won the NXT title?
A. Aleister Black had been a two times NXT Champion