Mustafa Ali Returns From Injury at WWE Live Event

Mustafa Ali made his in-ring return on Saturday night at a WWE live event in Minneapolis, [...]

By Connor Casey

Mustafa Ali made his in-ring return on Saturday night at a WWE live event in Minneapolis, Minnesota after being out of action for the last few weeks.

Ali took on Daniel Bryan at the event for the WWE Championship, but came up short of winning the title.

Ali was originally booked as one of five contenders for Bryan's title inside the Elimination Chamber match earlier in February, but had to be pulled from the event due to a number of injuries. Kofi Kingston was added to the bout in Ali's place, and wound up winning over the crowd days before the match when he lasted a full hour in a gauntlet match against Bryan, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles.

Kingston's continued support from the crowd initially earned him a one-on-one title match with Bryan at Fastlane, but he wound up being replaced by Kevin Owens after Vince McMahon appeared on this week's SmackDown Live and claimed Kingston wasn't a big enough draw. Fortunately for his fans, Kingston is reportedly being set up for a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 35 instead.

But even in his absence Ali continued to stay active on social media, cutting a homemade promo that made it onto SmackDown Live.

"I've been taking a few hits lately, and I just took another one," Ali said on Feb. 12 after getting pulled from Elimination Chamber. "WWE has informed me that I am not medically cleared to compete this Sunday at the Elimination Chamber and I will not have an opportunity at the WWE Championship. Nothing hits harder than that, nothing more frustrating than your body giving up on you before your heart does. I don't know what to think or what to feel but what I do know is this is not the end. No, I still hold that pen, I still write my own story. So it's going to take a whole lot more than Samoa Joe running me over. And it's going to take more than Randy Orton kicking my face in. It's going to take more than Erick Rowan slamming my head through a table. You guys keep trying to put me down, but I will not stay down.

Ali first debuted with the WWE as an alternate for the Cruiserweight Classic, but grew to prominence in the cruiserweight division after making it to the finals of the Cruiserweight Championship tournament that culminated at WrestleMania 34.

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