WWE star Mustafa Ali recently spoke with Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Riju Dasgupta for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Ali discussed losing his first name and then getting it back:
“The biggest thing in WWE and I think in entertainment in general, maybe life in general, is I think people take things too personally, like, there’s a personal attachment to my name, Mustafa, it means something to me. But it wasn’t like they just sat around and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna mess with this guy today and take away his name.’ There was a calculated decision. I went and asked why and I said I’m not fighting it. I just wanted to know why. What happened was, during the time I was a good guy on the live events, the fans wanted to cheer for me. One half of the fans would start chanting Mustafa and the other half would start chanting Ali. They just couldn’t get on the same page and this happened over and over and over again. So the resolution was, well, if they only have one name to chant, that’s what they’re going to chant. I pleaded my case. If you just refer to me as Ali, but I have a full name. It was a decision that was made and it worked. Literally, the next couple of weeks when I was on the live events, they were just chanting Ali, so it worked. I mean, ultimately, I was able to get the name back through discussions and why I thought it was important, but again, there was no malice behind it. There’s nothing personal. It was just a decision made for my benefit in their eyes.”
Discussions of him coming out to Hulk Hogan’s Real American song:
“That was an actual discussion I had, and at one point, that was gonna be my entrance music. The reason for that is, a few years ago, we were laying the groundwork for me to do this politician-esque character. There wasn’t gonna be anything political specific about this character. He was just presented as a politician. He was quick witted, sly talker but kind of sleazy, podium, press secretary, Secret Service, and I was always saying things and making promises that I would never fulfill, kind of like politicians do nowadays sometimes. So it was just more of a tongue in cheek way to show some layers to my character. But the whole emphasis was, I would be launching campaigns, whether it be against my opponent or for a title opportunity. So everything in the background was just very politically motivated as far as the presentation. I remember talking to Vince at the time and saying, ‘Hey, you know what would really get this character over because there’s nothing more American in this world than Mustafa Ali. What if I came out to Real American?’ He was quiet. I go, ‘We own that song, right? Do we still own Real American?’ He goes, ‘Of course we do. Goddamnit.’ ‘Okay, what if I came out to it?’ He goes, ‘I love it. I love it.’ As of that meeting, I had it, and I think in a few weeks we were going to redebut me as this political character and that was going to be my music. But again, the decision was made that the character might not work for the network and the live audience.”
The Retribution storyline:
“The fatal thing about it was it never had a why. As much as I tried with online promos, I gave everything a reason because here’s the thing. I didn’t come up with the concept of Retribution. I didn’t come up with the names. I was just kind of given this thing, but at the end of the day, it was an opportunity, so I was like, rolling up my sleeves, stepping up, you know, ready to swing. I’m like, I’m gonna hit a home run with this. In all honesty, I thought I did. I had reasons for the names. I had reasons why we were all together and what brought us together. I had answered the whys, but the problem is the whys never made it to TV for you, the viewer, to understand the whys. Although social media has a lot of reach, there’s nothing that beats live TV because that’s what gets the most views. So we were just kind of, I don’t wanna say a victim, but it was just the placement on the card. Things took priority and ultimately, I think because the people that put it together, they didn’t have the real ‘why’ initially and that’s why it kind of just fell through the cracks. I went down swinging with it. I am forever thankful for the opportunity because I think it proved that I could cut one hell of a promo and that I could be a leader. If you really go back, because the big knock on Retribution is the silly names and take that away, what do you have? The performances were great. The promos were great. The presentation was great to a certain extent. It was just the story never really developed and why. People knock about The Retribution because they always lost. Yeah, that didn’t help, but at the same time, it didn’t hurt because as long as the losses meant something and we were going somewhere, we would have been fine. So my big take on it is I don’t think Retribution really sucked. I think we just never got an opportunity to answer the question of why.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
