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Kings of the Dark Throne: Malakai Black Expanding House of Black in AEW

Malakai Black & Brody King

On Wednesday night’s edition of AEW Dynamite, Malakai Black appeared in a vignette teasing the long-awaited expansion of his House of Black so often mentioned in storylines across AEW and his appearances in other U.S. indies since his WWE departure. “What makes a House strong?” he pondered in the eerily gothic video segment. “Is it the foundation, the bricks, the mortar? Well, perhaps. But the people that reside in it are the bricks, the mortar, the foundation. But even that foundation needs ideals…” During the video, Malakai Black appears to be indoctrinating someone into his House, going so far as to spit a black mist into their face while preaching over an ominous and tattered book (in the Japanese wrestling lore of Dokugiri (Asian Mist), a “black mist” is a poison mist that usually blinds an opponent – although in this case, the poison may actually affect the mind and allow instead its victims to truly “see” the ideals of the House of Black).

Following the event, Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net reported that former Ring of Honor (and current NJPW STRONG) star Brody King has in fact signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), leading many to speculate that it was Brody King that was the masked disciple of Malakai Black in the video, set for an impending unmasked debut – especially following the final line in the video, where Black says to the masked disciple, “…now you’re so much more than a King.” And while to some, it may seem a random pairing, the seeds for this union have already been in place for several months on the West Coast, particularly in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). On August 2, 2021, Malakai Black made a shocking return to PWG – his first appearance since appearing at PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2016 prior to signing with WWE – at PWG Mystery Vortex 7, when he appeared out of the darkness to assist PWG World Champion Bandido and Brody King, who were being beaten down by the new unholy alliance of Demonic Flamita, Black Taurus, and the recently returned Super Dragon.

This lead to Black and King uniting as a new unit – dubbed Kings of the Dark Throne – who challenged the team of Flamita and Taurus for the PWG World Tag Team titles, which had been vacated following The Rascalz’ Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz heading to NXT to become MSK (Wes Lee & Nash Carter). On September 26, at PWG Threemendous VI, the new dark unit won the PWG World Tag Team titles, bringing The House of Black its first gold post-WWE. Last month at PWG It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want to Rock N’ Roll), the Kings of the Dark Throne proved successful in their first title defense, defeating a recently reunited Work Horsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry).

https://twitter.com/Machobeard4life/status/1442453798149050368

With Malakai Black and Brody King now successfully crowned as a unit, it would make sense for the two to continue their push together in a dark Brotherhood, especially with the shutdown of Ring of Honor, King’s home promotion. Now that the House of Black is expanding with its second induction, the question now begs to ask if this it or if the House will be adding more disciples – and whether any of those disciples will come from Brody King’s own twisted Brotherhood in ROH, VLNCE ULTD, which also included Chris Dickinson, Tony Deppen, and Homicide.

Regardless, it appears that the new House of Black unit is on a collision course with The Varsity Blondes. Last week, Malakai Black interrupted a Varsity Blondes promo backstage and misted Julia Hart in the eyes. This week, Hart was nowhere to be found, and an irate Griff Garrison laid down the challenge for Malakai Black to face him next week. This is most likely heading to a potential debut for Brody King to interfere in the match and lead to a House of Black versus Varsity Blondes encounter, to officially launch the House of Black into the tag team ranks of AEW.

Main photo by Mikey Nolan Photography

More from LWOS Pro Wrestling

Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.  You can catch AEW Dynamite Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TNT and AEW Dark: Elevation (Monday nights) and AEW: Dark (Tuesday nights) at 7 PM ET on YouTube. AEW Rampage airs on TNT at 10 PM EST every Friday night.

Jamie Greer

Jamie Greer

Jamie Greer joined LWOPW in 2015 and was the site's Managing Editor from 2016 through 2020. After handing over ME duties to Alex Richards, he remains a frequent contributor to the site. He's also written for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, WrestleZone, The Windsor Star, and other publications. He lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and son.

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