Aleister Black revealed that during his 2020 run he had developed a “dark father” persona as a long-term character trajectory. He explained that the idea was not simply to defeat opponents, but to psychologically corrupt them. “I had this whole dark father thing set up, which was going to lead a lot more into that,” he said. After leaving his previous promotion and arriving at a new one, he pitched the concept to Rhodes. “The first person I want to do that was Cody, so I explained the idea, and he was like, ‘No, that’s f***ing great. Let’s do that.’”

He went on to describe the mindset of the angle: “Let’s, get to the point where you make me do things, or it is no longer about putting my shoulders on the mat. It is about me of making you do all these things,” he said. “Did you really think this was about putting my shoulders on the mat… I made you do this, I made you do that.”

Black further applied that concept to his former bout with Adam Copeland. He recalled a spot involving a steel chair: “Adam has a chair in his hand… and the lights cut and the lights go back on. I’m standing next to Adam, and I’m telling him, ‘Do it. Do it, do it.’ And Buddy (Buddy Matthews) gets on his knees and puts his hands behind his back and just smiling, because all we wanted to do is to prove that we can, you know, we can corrupt people.”

This unused scenario offers new color on Black’s creative ambitions and illustrates how he views his role as being more about manipulation and influence rather than simply in-ring competition.

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