Over the last 5 years that I’ve been working with WrestleTalk full time, there have been
a lot of names that have either asked for their release, or let their WWE contracts
expire.
Jon Moxley, Brodie Lee, FTR, Austin Aries, Ho Ho Lun, Pac, KENTA, Shawn Spears, Toni
Storm, and Sin Cara are just a few of those names.
It was always seen as a bad look for the company.
The biggest promotion in the world, and top names that fans like ask to leave.
However in the last two years, WWE took the unprecedented counter-attack by releasing
talent before they even got a chance to ask for their release.
Which is what makes Mustafa Ali’s request all the more surprising.
Clearly deciding that 2022 will be a new year new me, Musfata Ali has requested his release
from WWE 16 into the new year.
Ali hasn’t been on TV since October 29th last year, where he lost to Drew McIntyre
in just two minutes.
He hadn’t won a match on TV since late August on Main Event, and you have to go back to
July of 2021 to find a win he had on a TV show that people actually watch.
But before we get into the ins and outs of Ali’s request - and why he’s reportedly
asked for it - I think we need to give some context.
Ali was brought into WWE in 2016 as a replacement for the Cruiserweight Classic where he was
eliminated in the first round.
He became a mainstay on 205 Live, where he and Cedric Alexander were described as the
“heart and soul” of the division, and had an incredible No DQ match against Buddy
Murphy in 2018.
He was moved to the SmackDown roster because - according to a WWE writer at the time - then-champion
Daniel Bryan was pushing hard backstage that all of the top babyfaces in WWE were 40-years
old and he wanted a younger star to work with.
Ali actually pinned Bryan which was to set up a WWE Championship program, but suffered
an injury ahead of Elimination Chamber - which inadvertently laid the groundwork for the
fan-led KofiMania movement that saw Kingston win the title at that year’s WrestleMania.
According to Ali himself, he was planned to win the 2019 Money in the Bank, but was told
as he was making his entrance for the match, that plans had been changed and Brock Lesnar
- who wasn’t even in the match - was now winning.
Although cool vignette promos aired on SmackDown for Ali, nothing ever came of them.
In early April 2020, teases aired on SmackDown of a new hacker gimmick that many presummed
would be the return of Ali - who hadn’t been on TV for about 4 months at this point
- but the storyline was dropped.
Ali instead just returned to TV after 7 months and lost to Bobby Lashley.
After bouncing around Raw with no direction, he was revealed as the leader of already dead-in-the-water
group Retribution and announced as the Hacker afterall.
Despite his best efforts to make the Retribution faction and storyline make sense on his Twitter
and on Raw Talk, it never made it across on TV.
In December 2020, Ali reportedly tore his PCL which required surgery, but was - again,
reportedly - told that if he worked through the injury there would be a big blow-off angle
to the Retribution gimmick.
That never happened, and instead the group disbanded on the Fastlane kick-off show.
He then moved into an odd-couple tag team with Mansoor, which was a lot of fun, but
was also on the same show as odd-couple tag team RKBro, and odd-couple tag team Super
Brutality.
The pair split up ahead of Crown Jewel, and that was all she wrote for Mustafa Ali.
Now one would assume that “backstage frustrations” over so many multiple changed plans would
have led to Ali asking for his release - but apparently there was a much bigger moment.
Back in November last year, Ali posted on Twitter a promo video for what could have
been his New America gimmick, but noted that “reasons beyond his control” meant that
the character had been scrapped.
QuizzleMania singles and tag champ Sean Ross Sapp is now reporting over on Fightful Select
that initially the character was accepted and they were “moving forward” with it,
before “those in power in WWE changed their minds”.
He expanded on his Backstage Report podcast that Vince McMahon wasn’t on board with
the gimmick and nixed it.
Sapp also notes that WWE Creative were under the impression that Ali was off on paternity
leave, and had been so since November.
However, Ali only reportedly requested one show off for paternity leave, and has been
available to return since December.
However, Ali hasn’t been backstage at a WWE event - at all - since the week before
Survivor Series, and it all ties back to that New America gimmick.
Once McMahon had decided that Ali’s new idea wasn’t going ahead, he pitched creative
that was - according to SRS - “something Mustafa Ali would never have done”.
Uh oh.
Before we jump the gun, though, SRS expanded on his Backstage Report podcast saying, “I
don’t know if it was controversial, or just dogs**t creative, or just something he was
uncomfortable with.
I don’t have that information.
It was just something Ali would never have done.
And the two argued.
And it was real bad.”
This was reportedly a “heated argument” between the two, and Ali hasn’t been seen
around WWE since.
Sapp adds, “You can draw from that what you want.”
Ali himself noted to Metro last October that Vince McMahon had told him that he was “too
polished, too clean, too nice” and that he didn’t know if Ali had it in him to work
as a top star in WWE.
However according to Sapp, “One wrestler on the Smackdown roster said that for someone
that works on his craft as much as Ali does, not having anything for him or featuring him
at all was seen as a punishment.”
Ali was reportedly well liked backstage in WWE by his peers, and was often seen pitching
creative for his character.
The question comes now, do WWE actually grant his release?
According to Fightful Select, a higher up in WWE has said that they have been granting
release requests as of late, as it would be hard to justify the decision not to because
of the amount of “budget cut” releases over the last two years.
Ringside News added that “We were told that WWE is willing to let anyone go who wants
out, unless someone asks to be released that Vince McMahon doesn’t want to lose.”
As of the time of this recording, Ali has not currently been granted his WWE release.
WWE’s Ricochet responded to Ali’s Twitter post asking for his release saying, “I love
you, man”, while AEW’s Santana simply added, “Respect.”
What do you think is next for Mustafa Ali?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Likely it won’t be the Royal Rumble, and according to Dave Meltzer, it won’t be anyone
from AEW either.
Last week the very reliable WrestleVotes tweeted that WWE were trying out for an “unexpected”
forbidden door entrant for the Men’s Rumble match - perhaps looking to capitalize off
the brilliant buzz the announcement of Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James got.
This led to a lot of fan speculation that it could be someone from All Elite Wrestling
- particularly an ex-WWE name like Chris Jericho or even Jon Moxley.
However Meltzer notes in the Wrestling Observer Daily Update: “There will be no AEW involvement
at the Royal Rumble.
Jon Moxley will not be at that show.”
No AEW return date has been announced for Moxley yet, but he will be at GCW’s show
at the Hammerstein Ballroom next week defending his title against Homicide.
And perhaps we now know why there is some bad blood - if you’ll pardon the pun - between
AEW and WWE.
Over the weekend, The Toronto Star posted an article titled: “Can Tony Khan’s AEW
beat Vince McMahon and WWE at its own game”, which - surprisingly - had a statement from
WWE about the competition that they keep telling people is not competition.
WWE’s statement read - in reference to the TayJay vs. Bunny & Penelope Ford Street Fight
on Rampage a few weeks back - “If you look at the gory self-mutilation that bloodied
several women in the December 31 event on TNT, it quickly becomes clear that these are
very different businesses.
We had an edgier product in the ‘Attitude’ era and in a 2022 world, we don’t believe
that type of dangerous and brutal display is appealing to network partners, sponsors,
venues, children, or the general public as a whole.”
It’s an interesting choice of wording, especially when you consider that Vince McMahon once
wrote a letter to Ted Turned in 1996 where he asked WCW to stop the act of “self-mutilation”
on their TV show.
It’s also not the first time that McMahon or WWE has said this about AEW.
On a 2019 investors call, Vince described All Elite Wrestling as a “blood and guts”
promotion, which gave birth to the name of their version of War Games.
It’s also been reported that it was WWE that told Dominos Pizza about a commercial
of theirs that aired during the Chris Jericho/Nick Gage main event, which led to them telling
Front Office Sports that they were going to “assess our advertising presence on [AEW]
going forward”.
Voices of Wrestling tweeted they can’t confirm that WWE told Domino directly, but “[WWE]
have been calling journalists in hopes the story picks up steam.”
Which was also backed up by David Bixpenspan who was shown screenshots of an email sent
to a journalist of a mainstream publication by WWE asking to write an article about the
incident.
But remember, they’re not competition.
Sean Ross Sapp noted on Fightful Select’s Q&A podcast last week that TNT and WarnerMedia
are not concerned about the amount of blood on AEW’s programming, as they have other
shows with violence in them that airs on their networks with no complaints.
It was also highlighted by many - including potato man Andrew Zarian - that WWE wanted
to have blood in their Summerslam main event of Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton, but didn’t
want to upset sponsors.
So they had Lesnar cut open Orton hardway using the sharp end of his elbow which also
gave Orton a concussion.
Which, you know, is a lot more dangerous than blading.
3 of the 4 women in the street fight match have also shared their thoughts on this via
Twitter, with The Bunny and Anna Jay sharing images of the match with emojis, and Tay Conti
flipping the bird with the simple caption “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” kissing emoji.