The House Always Wins: A House Of Black Story
You always have to bet on Black
What do you get when you combine a skilled martial artist, a powerful & quick Aussie, an imposing brute, and a former cheerleader? One of the current hottest factions in All Elite Wrestling: House of Black.
THE LEADER: MALAKAI BLACK
Malakai Black made his debut with AEW on July 7th, 2021. When he debuted, he targeted arguably one of the biggest stars at the time in the company, Cody Rhodes. His presence would be felt throughout the company. Black made sure to make his name known to the world and those who may not have known who he was prior.
{Black, fka Aleister Black made himself a household name when he was with the WWE brand NXT. Black’s mystical and mysterious entrance and appearance helped him stand out from the rest. With his in-ring abilities, from his quickness and psychology to his devastating roundhouse kick finisher “The Black Mass”, Black found himself rising in the ranks of the then black and gold brand.
This quick rise to the top culminated with Black winning the top prize in the brand- the NXT World Championship. He situated himself at the top of the brand and stayed there for 108 days until an injury took him to the sidelines.
Black also had a run on the main roster, appearing on both RAW and Smackdown. He maintained the mysterious character and even had an undefeated streak for almost an entire year. Black unfortunately was released by the company a month before he would make his surprising debut with AEW.}
After his feud with Rhodes, Black would find himself feuding with tag teams. But he didn’t have a partner. At least not yet…
THE BRUTE: BRODY KING
When Black needed assistance, he made the call to Brody King. This towering force of a wrestler was the muscle Black required. The pair called themselves the Kings Of The Black Throne. This tag team would go on to gain gold in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and capture the vacant tag team titles.
{King made a name for himself when he joined the Ring Of Honor company in 2018. Although he was only in the company for 3 going on 4 years, 2 of those years were during the pandemic. This timeframe had him on tv yes, but not in front of a crowd. The people in the audience did not get to experience this imposing force live.
While in ROH, King would find himself winning quite a few multi-man titles. In fact, in 2019, King would be a double multi-man champion within 24 hours! With his involvement in the “Villain Enterprises” faction (with Marty Scrull and PCO), King gained the ROH World Tag Team Championship AND the ROH World Six-Man Tag Championship,
After the faction broke apart for a multitude of reasons, both in and outside the ring, King focused on solo competition. This even gave him a shot at the ROH World Championship in 2020, in a losing effort to then-champion Rush.}
King came to AEW to assist Black with his feud with the “Varsity Blonds” (Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr.) as well as “The Death Triangle” (PAC and Penta El Zero Miedo). These 2 would only be a normal tag team for about a month until a new member arrived…
THE WILDCARD: BUDDY MATTHEWS
Black wanted to create a faction that would wreak havoc in AEW and he looked no further than Buddy Matthews. These 2, much like King and Black, had a history with each other before arriving in AEW.
{Matthews, fka Buddy Murphy, was in WWE for a solid 8 years competing on both the “developmental” brand NXT as well as the main roster. In NXT, he found himself in a tag team with Wesley Blake. The team, managed by Alexa Bliss, quickly found gold becoming NXT Tag Team Champions for a lengthy title reign of 219 days.
Once the team split up, Matthews lost around 20 pounds so he could join the Cruiserweight division on 205 Live. This was a separate show which eventually found its way to the main roster after Matthews' time there. In this division, he truly got to showcase his abilities. The cruiserweights were quick, agile, and sometimes deceptively strong. Matthews would go on to win the respective title of the brand, the Cruiserweight Championship in his home country of Australia in 2018.
When his time on the purple brand was done, Matthews found himself on the main roster. It wasn’t until he arrived on RAW in late 2019 that he found himself facing off against a soon-to-be partner- Black. With incredible matchups between the 2 men, Matthews could not get a win over Black, losing 3 consecutive times to him. This led to Matthews becoming a disciple of the “Monday Night Messiah” Seth Rollins. Under the wing of Rollins, Matthews would capture tag gold again gaining the RAW Tag Team Championships.}
With Matthews' arrival, the trio went on to defeat Death Triangle and Erick Redbeard (fka Erik Rowan). This was just the beginning. The House gained moment in the trios division in AEW. And along the way, someone would find themselves being called into the darkness and mysticality of the House…
THE SURPRISE- JULIA HART
Black would sometimes use a black mist on his opponents, blinding them, and usually helping him secure a win. On December 8th, 2021 however, Julia Hart found herself the victim of the mist attack.
{Hart made her way into AEW at first as just the manager and cheerleader, quite literally, of the Varsity Blonds. Her in-ring competition was quite minimal, only having a handful of matches.
Once she was misted by Black, Hart sported an eye patch covering up the wicked aftermath of the mist. Slowly over time, Hart’s demeanor changed. She would sit on the stairs during the Blonds' matches, instead of being her perky self cheering them on. She distanced herself from them, sometimes not even coming down for their matches, and having them stay in the back for hers. The wickedness around her eye was slowly pushing out from underneath the patch.
Almost 5 months after the attack, Hart’s darkness reached its peak. During the House of Black’s trios match with Death Triangle at Double or Nothing, Hart shocked the world by spraying black mist into the eyes of PAC. She made her intentions known and aligned herself with the House. The mist from Black caused Hart to become a darker, more sinister version of herself she was finally embracing.}
Now that the house was complete, all 4 members wanted to spread the darkness across AEW.
Black found himself competing in a four-way match to determine the 1st AEW All-Atlantic Champion. Although unsuccessful, he did manage to mist the eyes of Miro (fka Rusev) leading to a small feud between the 2.
King was enthralled in a feud with Darby Allin. King would go to Allin’s meetups and signings and brutalize him in front of fans. All the animosity lead to a coffin match in which Allin did manage to get the giant in the coffin for the win.
More recently, after a few months off of tv, The House returned and set their sights on the AEW World Trios Championships and “The Elite” (Matt and Nick Jackson, and Kenny Omega). The House would go on to defeat The Elite at Revolution this past March and become the new Trios champs.
While the trio was winning gold, Hart found herself in a feud with a former friend Anna Jay. The pair both claimed the other had changed from when they became friends- Hart with The House and Jay with the “Jericho Appreciation Society” (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager fka Jack Swagger, Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, Sammy Guevara, Tay Melo and, Daniel Garcia). Hart would mist her former friend during a match, causing rage in Jay. This culminated in a Street Fight between the 2, and Hart walked away with the win.
The new champs decided to make their matchups a little more interesting. They told the locker room that all their title matches would be Open House Rules. The rules are as followed:
20 count on the outside
Any 3 competitors can form a trio
No rope breaks
Disqualifications are enforced
Dealer’s choice (this allows the opposing trio to create their own rule for the match)
Now that you know more about The House of Black, are you willing to join?