Malakai Black in main event at Orlando's AEW Dynamite show

Secrets are nearly impossible to keep in professional wrestling in the age of social media, yet Tom Büdgen — better known as Malakai Black — managed to pull off a genuine shock when he made his debut for All Elite Wrestling in July.

It was believed Black would need to sit out a 90-day, non-compete period following his release from WWE in June. Instead, his contract expired after 30 days — a fact disclosed to an extremely small group of people, most notably AEW President Tony Khan.

Black drove nearly 300 miles south from his home in Orlando, not wanting to risk anyone catching a glimpse of him at an airport. Upon arrival, he waited patiently at a hotel overlooking the Knight Center in Miami.

"All I could see were people going, 'Oh, still 60 days until he's let go.' I was thinking to myself, 'Boy, are you in for a surprise tonight,' " Black said this week in a phone interview.

The lights cut out as Arn Anderson, of Four Horseman fame, addressed the crowd. When they turned on, Black emerged in the corner of the ring and delivered his signature spinning heel kick to the 63-year-old icon.

Fans in the arena chanted "Holy (expletive)" in unison, lapping up the promotion's latest plot twist. Recently, AEW added the hugely popular trio of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole to its burgeoning roster, one which already included global stars Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, Christian Cage and Cody Rhodes — the company's executive vice president.

Founded Jan. 1, 2019, and based in Jacksonville — where Khan's father, Shahid, owns the National Football League's Jaguars — AEW has built a hardcore legion of followers in search of a credible, competitive alternative to the long-established WWE.

AEW's episode of Rampage on Oct. 16, which aired on TNT, drew a television audience of 578,000, according to a Forbes article. However, in the key 18-49 age demographic, Rampage (313,000 viewers) was nearly dead even with WWE's Friday Night SmackDown on FS1 (314,000).

On Saturday night, AEW descends upon Orlando — WWE's secondary home, and hub of talent development — for its Dynamite show at CFE Arena on the campus of UCF.

Competition certainly exists between America's top two promotions, but it might not be as cutthroat as the late-90s heyday of the "Monday Night Wars."

Paul Wight toed both sides of the line in those days, starring for WWE after defecting from the long-defunct World Championship Wrestling. In February, he ended a 22-year run with Vince McMahon's company and signed with AEW.

After the news broke, Wight said he received a phone call from McMahon, wishing him well.

"He told me it was a good opportunity for me, and that he was happy for me," Wight said. "Vince has to run a company the way he thinks it should be run, and that involves how he thinks you should be booked as a talent or how he wants to utilize you as a talent. And I don't disagree with that; it's his show, and he has to run it the way he feels comfortable. … There's no hard feelings; that's the way business is some times. Sometimes it doesn't work out to your favor, but when there are other opportunities, then you take advantage of them."

Wight said his "Big Show" character had run its course, getting a laugh out of internet jokes about him making "more (face and heel) turns than NASCAR." WWE saw the 49-year-old's value as an ambassador for the company, rather than an in-ring performer.

"It's a great thing, if you're ready to step into a retirement role. It's a golden parachute type of idea, but I still want to compete, work on the commentary side and help younger talent," Wight said. "AEW presented all those opportunities, and I saw some magic there with what they were doing. It's just something I knew, being in the business this long, that it was something I wanted to be a part of when the opportunity came up."

Black, who will main-event the Dynamite show in a match with Rhodes, said competition exists in various forms. He recalled an NXT event in which he challenged a returning Tommaso Ciampa backstage to "outsell" one another.

However, the 36-year-old Dutch wrestler does not view the suggested WWE-AEW rivalry as "us-versus-them."

"I don't talk about it; I don't have that in my head," Black said. "All I care about is that wrestling fans get a product they love and they can get behind, whether that is the WWE product, the AEW product or a local, independent wrestling program. I care about my friends on both sides of the spectrum being able to provide for their families and to perform to the best of their abilities."

One of wrestling's most clichéd narratives is whether two feuding foes can coexist, often resulting in televised tag-team matches and culminating in a pay-per-view blow-off.

In this case, art might just imitate life.

Can the multibillion-dollar juggernaut accept another alternative, one actively plucking its underutilized or unsatisfied talent, in a the so-called sports entertainment landscape — one it monopolized for the last two decades? And can AEW remain fresh and reach a wider audience, building itself into an instantly recognizable acronym in the mainstream?

Wight, for one, believes the two companies can survive — and thrive — separately.

"You want diversity in wrestling," Wight said. "You don't want two products that look the same. Someone might not be successful in AEW, but they might be successful in WWE. Likewise, someone might not get their opportunities to succeed in WWE, but they might get their chance to shine and develop themselves for AEW.

"You want that for the fans. You want that for the talent themselves. Diversity is the key; you want options, especially with today's social media, apps and changing the channel at just the press of a button. You want that availability to find the fans and give them what they want."