The Unknown Soldier: The Aleister Black 19-Month Undefeated Streak Comes to Quiet End

On Monday Night Raw, Aleister Black was pinned by longtime rival “The Monday Night Messiah” Seth Rollins. After the pin, the commentary went on business as usual, as if it was just another routine victory by Seth Rollins on his road to purifying the WWE Universe. But in actuality, it ended an astonishing 19 month and 32 televised match undefeated streak in standard singles matches since his call-up to the “main roster” following his defeat to NXT Champion Tomasso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix in January of 2019 (while some will claim that he lost to AJ Styles on Raw on March 2, 2020, it was more of a Gauntlet Match where Black had previously beaten Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows before Styles entered the match). It was one of the strongest pushes out of the gate on a call-up or debut in ages, and WWE just washed it away as an afterthought with no mention, either during the streak’s continuance or upon it’s muffled ending.

Onward he goes.@WWERollins just earned a hard-fought victory over @WWEAleister on #WWERaw! pic.twitter.com/mHpD0vxA0C

— WWE (@WWE) July 21, 2020

To put things in perspective, John Cena lost his first two matches upon his June call-up in 2002, to Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. CM Punk only made it thirteen matches during his 2006 call-up to WWE’s ECW, before Hardcore Holly ended his run. Daniel Bryan lost his first singles match when he was called up in May 2010, losing a Beat the Clock Challenge against Batista, and then went on to go 50/50 in a feud against Michael Tarver (!). Roman Reigns won his first singles match in December 2013 against Mark Henry, but in his fourth singles match in February of 2014, he was stopped by Bray Wyatt. Before he became The Rock, Rocky Maivia won his first nine matches on WWF TV and PPV starting in 1996, before he was stopped in early 1997 by Savio Vega. Steve Austin was his first eleven matches upon entering the WWF, both as The Ringmaster and “Stone Cold”, with his streak ending at WWF In Your House 8: Beware of Dog, where he lost to, oddly enough, Savio Vega. And the man who ended Black’s streak on Monday night had the worse fate of them all, losing his first singles match against The Big Show in March of 2013.

While all of those names have gone on to much bigger careers than where Black is now, the fact that Aleister Black was continually pushed to win shows that WWE at least has more faith in Black at this stage than they did with the aforementioned names early into their own singles career. But yet, Raw’s commentary team, even the usually astute Samoa Joe, seemed to ignore the fact that Aleister Black had just shattered an unofficial record as arguably the longest televised win streak in modern WWE history and it wasn’t even worth mentioning. Which may sadly indicate that WWE doesn’t think that highly of him at all. He’s just a player in a role, not one for of the chosen ones destined to actually write WWE’s mythology.

The Aleister Black 32 Televised Match Win Streak since call-up in January of 2019

1. July 3, 2020 – def. Murphy, RAW

2. May 26, 2020 – def. Seth Rollins, RAW

3. May 12, 2020 – def. Murphy, RAW

4. April 13, 2020 – def. Oney Lorcan, RAW

5. April 6, 2020 – def. Apollo Crews, RAW

6. March 30, 2020 – def. Jason Cade, RAW

7. March 26, 2020 – def. Bobby Lashley, WrestleMania 36

8. March 23, 2020 – def. Leon Ruff, RAW

9. March 20, 2020 – def. Leon Ruff, Main Event

10. March 9, 2020 – def. Seth Rollins, RAW

11. March 8, 2020 – def. AJ Styles, Elimination Chamber

12. February 24, 2020 – def. Erick Rowan, RAW

13. February 17, 2020 – def. Erick Rowan, RAW

14. February 10, 2020 – def. Akira Tozawa, RAW

15. February 3, 2020 – def. Eric Young, RAW

16. January 27, 2020 – def. Kenneth Johnson, RAW

17. January 20, 2020 – def. Ryan Gingell, RAW

18. January 13, 2020 – def. Murphy, RAW

19. December 30, 2019 – def. Murphy, RAW

20. December 16, 2019 – def. Deonn Rusman, RAW

21. December 15, 2019 – def. Buddy Murphy, TLC

22. December 9, 2019 – def. Akira Tozawa, RAW

23. December 2, 2019 – def. Tony Nese, RAW

24. October 21, 2019 – def. Jason Reynolds, RAW

25. October 14, 2019 – def. Eric Young, RAW

26. September 3, 2019 – def. Shelton Benjamin, SD

27. August 6, 2019 – def. Sami Zayne, SD

28. July 28, 2019 – def. Andrade, SD

29. July 16, 2019 – def. Cesaro, SD

30. February 20, 2019 – def. Roderick Strong, NXT

31. February 19, 2019 – def. Andrade, SD

32. February 18, 2019 – def. Elias, RAW

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