TNA Wrestling star Mustafa Ali spoke with The Wrestling Classic about various topics, including his experiences working with Adam Copeland while they were both in WWE. He shared how Copeland’s advice was beneficial to him during that time.
Ali said, “He (Adam Copeland) had come back to the company… I think it was the COVID-era and he had the conversation with Vince (McMahon) about how he could help out more, and he gave Vince a list of five guys he wanted to work with and it was like me, Cedric (Alexander), Buddy (Matthews), Aleister Black and I think Apollo Crews, and the big thing was promos. So I always felt very confident with my promos and then I went to Adam’s promo class, so to speak, and this guy, man, we would just FaceTime each other and he goes, ‘Alright, how you feeling today?’ And I go, ‘Oh, like this’ and just cut a promo. So, I just FaceTimed this promo to Adam on the fly right there and this guy just heard my promo, my words, my struggle, and he’d sit there, he goes, ‘Hmm, why don’t you try –’ and he’d cut the same promo back to me, but 100 times better with mannerisms and facials and thought, and you could see the gears — I’m just, wow… So I owe him a lot right now. I feel like this politician, dictator-esque character that I’m doing in TNA, the cadence is just like — we’ll shoot something and the director will yell, ‘Cut’ and we look up and I can see everyone going, ‘F*ck…’ Yeah, it’s Edge. Edge really told me about how to make your words mean something, your mannerisms, and it’s almost like you gotta forget that there’s a camera there. You gotta really cut the promo to that person. So, yeah, I gotta give him his props. I don’t think a lot of people know, behind the scenes, he’ll find somebody. If you earn his respect I think, I think he’ll give you the time of day, you know?”
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(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
