As per the former wrestling star’s account, Mustafa Ali’s dismissal from WWE was both a shocking turn of events and, something he had been anticipating. His release occurred in September 2023, an unexpected development given he was competing for the NXT North American Championship during that period.
In a recent episode of the “Insight” podcast, Ali disclosed his emotions about his departure and why he felt both surprised yet unsurprised by it. He expressed,
“Not surprised that it happened. Surprised when it did happen? Yeah. I think I was in NXT at the time, and I actually had a pay-per-view match scheduled that weekend with Dominik Mysterio for the North American Championship.”
Upon questioning if he was to emerge victorious from the match, Ali divulged that the plan was indeed for him to claim the title. Further on, he disclosed,
“What happens is the network deal is coming up, and this is when Judgment Day, specifically Dom, is just white hot. I mean, they’re still white hot right now, but Dom was next level right there. So they were like, hey, everyone in Judgment Day has a championship. We want to put a championship on Dom, and we want to spike the ratings for NXT.”
Following his WWE exit, Ali has engaged in wrestling matches for many other promotions, notably claiming the X-Division Championship of TNA for a brief peroid.