How Wrestling Stars Malakai Black And Zelina Vega Met And Fell In Love

Professional wrestling is filled with couples working together in the business. That’s no surprise, seeing as how it’s a job, just like any other. It certainly has to help to have your partner there with you on those long nights on the road, but what’s difficult are those wrestling couples who work in different companies. For example, Buddy Matthews is in AEW, while Rhea Ripley is one of the biggest stars in WWE. This was also the case for Malakai Black and Zelina Vega, with the former part of the House of Black in AEW, and the latter in WWE. This has changed recently, as Black has left AEW. Will he return to WWE and work with his wife, who he met there and has now been married to for years?

Zelina Vega & Malakai Black Met In WWE

The Couple Discovered That They Had A Lot In Common

• Malakai Black is from the Netherlands and wrestled first as Tommy End.
• Zelina Vega is of Puerto Rican descent and got her NXT start managing Andrade.
• Malakai Black and Zelina Vega are both into video games.

At first glance, Malakai Black and Zelina Vega don’t seem like they’d be a couple. Malakai is from the Netherlands and covered in tattoos from head to toe, while Zelina Vega is of Puerto Rican descent and not covered in ink. They grew up halfway across the world from each other, but it was working as wrestlers in WWE that brought them together. Zelina Vega signed with WWE in 2017, where she became Andrade’s manager in NXT. Malakai Black, who had been known as Tommy End, debuted in NXT the same year as Aleister Black.

In a 2018 Q&A on YouTube, Zelina was asked how she and Malakai hit it off. She said:

“I mean, initially, obviously it was that physical attraction. I was like ‘wow, who’s that, he’s hot.’ But then it was getting to know you as a person and how cool you were and how funny you were and sweet you were and then how much we had in common in video games and nerdy stuff. And that’s when I was like, ‘I want this one.’” (h/t WrestleTalk)

When asked on Twitter in 2023 how they met, Zelina responded:

Zelina Vega Spoke About How Hard It Was To Work In Separate Companies

Malakai Black Left WWE In 2021

• Malakai Black and Zelina Vega got married in 2018.
• Black was the leader of AEW’s House of Black faction.
• Vega and Black built their dream house together.

Malakai Black and Zelina Vega were quiet about their relationship at first, but eventually they went public before getting married in 2018. Both wrestlers ended up making it to the main roster of WWE, with mixed success. While Zelina is still in WWE, Malakai Black left in 2021 and quickly jumped ship to AEW. He became one of their top stars as the leader of the House of Black faction, but his success meant he and his wife now spent a lot of time apart.

In an interview with Seconds Out, Zelina opened up about how hard it was to work apart from her husband.

“It’s tough but it is something that’s nice that we both are in the business that we understand. I mean we both used to work, you know for WWE. Well, he used to. But it’s something that it’s so important to us like once we get home, there’s no phones. There’s just him and I and the cats. We just built our dream house that we’ve been trying to do for like three years. So, it’s just having that realness outside of the craziness is so important for us.” (h/t WrestleTalk)