TNA Wrestling star Mustafa Ali appeared on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet,” where he discussed various topics, including the background of his “Get a life, kid” segment with Brock Lesnar.
Ali said, “So it’s a little twofold, right? So I get that it was really funny, but if I tell you guys a real story and feel really, really sad, so I’ll share what I can. I would tell you guys, but I don’t want people to get in trouble. That was a shot at me from someone very high up, and not directly. The back story of this, and I’ll keep it to this. So I hope you guys can understand. I was sent to go do media, public relations for an upcoming event in Saudi Arabia called Night of Champions. So I go there. I’m not on the show. I’m going there. I’m making everyone happy. Just because it’s, you know, you’re always going to relate to someone that looks like you. I do these little events. Obviously, very appreciative of the turnout here. But the turnout there was insane. They’re expecting 500 people. There was like 3,000 people. So the guy’s like, ‘Oh, this Mustafa, maybe he does the show.’ I was like, ‘It’s the Night of Champions. You have to be a champion to be on the show. I’m not a champion.’ I didn’t realize I was talking to like the president of the GEA, which is a General Entertainment Authority that basically runs the shows in Saudi Arabia. He goes, ‘You leave it to me, I talk to Vince.’ I go, ‘No, no.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to request that you’re on the show.’”
On being told the segment was happening in Gorilla:
“I think what happened was someone told Vince what to do, and he’s like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So the whole day, I kind of could sense the nervous tension about something was going to happen. I had this promo, but I’m reading it, and it was like, and then what happens? They go, ‘Well, Brock’s just gonna walk by.’ And I go, yeah? And last second, you know, let me ask you guys this question. When someone’s doing a backstage interview, where does it happen? Backstage. Not by Gorilla. So they go at the last second, I’m getting ready, ‘Oh, we’re moving the shot to gorilla now.’ And I go, right, okay, here it comes. So I didn’t know he was gonna say that. So when he said that and he walked off, there was this dead silence, because everyone that worked there, they knew what happened. They’re like, Oh, they’re trying to send a message, but it’s like, why does it have to be at my expense?”
On Shawn Michaels reaching out to Triple H to have him join NXT:
“So it’s just one of those things, I think, because of the frustration and because of what had happened, I think that’s why Shawn had reached out to Hunter about NXT, because right after that is when I made my NXT appearance. But again, not to cry over it like that. It is what it is, the way the cookie crumbles. I know when I look at WWE, I know that I knocked on every door, I presented every idea, I never said no for the most part, and I did good work, man. I’m never gonna look in the mirror and be like, ‘Oh man, I failed.’ I talked to a lot of my peers that have unfortunately got let go. I go, are you doing okay? And they all said the same thing. They go, ‘Man, I just wish I tried a little harder. I wish I wasn’t mad.’ I go, when I got let go, I just go, well, there’s nothing else I could have done. I tried everything. Comedy, serious, being the little guy, this guy, whatever the hell. So I walked away with that. And then, you know, when Brock said, ‘Go get a life kid’, I quite literally did that. I’m the ****ing man now!”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
