Malakai Black Reveals James Bond Inspired His Repackaged WWE Gimmick

When you think of Malakai/Aleister Black you're bound to think of black metal, skulls, and general occult imagery. What you’re not likely to think of is James Bond, 007, the MI6 agent with a license to kill.

Well you’d be wrong - sort of - as Black himself revealed that he pitched a Bond-inspired character pivot to Vince McMahon during his latter days in WWE, with Black revealing the following on the Hardlore podcast:

“I had a whole talk with Vince. This was in the COVID era. To make a very long story short, Vince was like, 'We gotta do something with you.' And I was like, 'Yeah, no s***,'" Black said, noting how he pitched an idea described as a "James Bond-style villain" but with the occult trappings of the Black character.

"We had a 45-minute conversation," Black continued. "It was kind of unheard of because Vince usually didn't talk [to people longer than] 5 or 10 minutes. He really took the time." 

After this meeting, Black was sent home and worked with hardcore band Brutality Will Prevail on new theme music before presenting it to McMahon:

"I came back and Vince is like, 'Alright, let's hear it.' So I sit there on my mobile phone, and I let Vince hear this extremely loud f***ing hardcore, blackened hardcore song. And Vince goes, 'Well, I mean, I don't know if that's music, but I'm 76-years-old, so what the f*** do I know about music?'" said Black.

It seems that McMahon was left shaken not stirred by Black's presentation, as the former NXT Champion was released in Summer 2021, with the ‘Dark Father’ character not given a chance to get off the ground.

H/T: Wrestling Inc.