Now, you're going a 100 miles an hour to your point,
you're wrestling against the WWE Champion, it's SmackDown.
This is basically the pinnacle of what we're doing at the time and
you continue to build.
It was the slow and steady, you started seeing a lot more Ali, a lot more Ali.
We're approaching Elimination Chamber, you have the injury that you sustain,
what's going through your head?
>> I don't wanna say it's like a hard topic for me, but I hate what,
if's it's I hate him, right?
And there's nothing you can do about it.
The thing happened with Randy, it was an accident, but my face got caved in.
And I haven't really disclosed all of this, but as we all do,
we get hit and you try to get back up.
>> Yep. >> I got back up, I finished the match,
I showed everyone was fine,
I really thought I was fine- >> Yeah.
>> To be fully clear, I wasn't hiding anything,
I really thought it was just a really bad black eye.
I knew where I was, they did the test, I was good.
And then later that night, I have to go back out.
And Erick Rowan ends up grabbing me by the face and
doing like the claw chokeslam thing on the table.
I remember just laying on the table going, man, the room is spinning right now.
But, again, systems check, I'm able to get up on my own, I go, okay,
I feel fine, I'm okay.
I get worried that for next week, I'm on a Gauntlet Match and now,
I'm realizing, this is my moment.
They're building me up going into this big Elimination Chamber pay-per-view for
the WWE championship.
This is what I've been working for my entire life, 17 years of the whole blood,
sweat and tears, broken bones, missing, like this is it, this is my moment.
And we have like a live event loop leading into that TV.
And I don't even remember the matches, but I just remembered instances of
the room spinning, and I'm having trouble breathing, and this and that.
And there was at one point, it was a Tag Match, I take a turnbuckle,
which I've taken a million times and
I'm out on my feet, and somehow finished the match, and that was it, man.
I remember like sitting in the hotel room that night trying not to cry,
cuz I know there's no way they're gonna let me perform on SmackDown.
And because of that, there's no way, and
how long can I come back in five days and go dude, you're out for a while.
The announcements made that Kofi is replacing me, and
then we all know what happens then it goes something in stories you're on.
>> That launched Kofi Mania.
>> Right, and it's like, okay, silver lining,
right, great guy gets this awesome opportunity, but you don't know.
Because all I know,
I was about to beat five of the best on SmackDown going into Elimination Chamber.
And let me ask you, do you not think that I could steal
the show inside Elimination Chamber knowing what I'm capable of?
That was my night, so I guarantee you I was heading to WrestleMania.
And that's where all this baggage and this what if, and
this thing that's gonna drive me crazy for the rest of my life.
What if I didn't get hurt?
>> Not to put the cart before the horse, but
now Mustafa Ali retribution our Monday Night Raw.
You guys have free reign to the place, what are you looking forward to for
not only yourself, but Threats of Retribution in months to come?
>> Look at what I'm saying, what we're doing, I'm making the promise and
awarding to every Raw superstar.
That just because you're done with the past,
it doesn't mean the past is done with you.
Every single one of us have been wronged in the past.
So we have made it our personal mission to be judge, jury and executioner.
Your sins aren't forgiven until they're punished, this is retributions motto.
So anyone that has done wrong, good or bad, anyone.
If you've done wrong, retribution will find you and I think
that's a really interesting dynamic, because you don't know who's next.
>> Well, I was almost next, because someone swung a baseball bat and
nearly took my head clean off my shoulders.
And I didn't do anything wrong.
>> I sent an email to that guy right away, he was taking all retribution [INAUDIBLE].
>> [LAUGH] >> I said, you know, Corey gets the pass,
Corey's taking care of me.
>> [LAUGH] I appreciate that.
>> Like what you hear?
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