On a recent episode of Kevin Nash’s podcast, “Kliq This”, he had high praises for fellow wrestler John Cena, referring to him as the “last old school guy” in wrestling. Cena is scheduled to reappear on WWE TV on January 6, which will mark the start of his farewell tour.
Nash reminisced, “I spent a little time with Cena when I was there. He’s a fan of lifting. I admired his approach. In my opinion, Cena was the last of the old-school wrestlers. Cena was indeed the last old school guy to pass through.”
Appearing on the “Insight” podcast recently, Mustafa Ali spoke about a temporary name change that took place during his WWE tenure in 2019, where he was simply known as Ali. Later in the same year, he switched back to his original name.
According to Ali, “During live events, the producers write reports. During my babyface run, I was probably fighting against Shinsuke Nakamura or someone else. Half the crowd was chanting ‘Mustafa’ and the other half was chanting ‘Ali’. After a few nights of this happening, it was noted in the report. Presumably, Vince, who was making the decisions at that time, decided to just refer to me as Ali. Subsequently, I was informally asked by Road Dogg if the name Mustafa had any special significance for me. I told him that in Arabic, the name Mustafa means ‘chosen one’. It implies someone who is representative of the people. The name does carry some value for me. He then explained the rationale behind the decision and reassured me that there were no ill intentions, and that the simplification of my name was considered easier for the audience. When I asked if I had a say in this alteration, I was told, not really.” [laughs]