Mustafa Ali took to Twitter on Jan. 16, writing, “I have a message that is much bigger than my dreams in pro wrestling. Despite my best efforts, I will not be able to deliver this message while working with WWE. Therefore, I am requesting my release from WWE.” However, it was reported days later that WWE would not be granting him his release. The SmackDown star has not wrestled a match since October, and according to Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp, WWE’s Creative Team isn’t working on any plans for him.
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Sapp noted there is “little correspondence, if any, between the two,” meaning that until either Creative does come up with something for him or his contract expires (which is reportedly years away), Ali is effectively stuck in limbo. There was also a report stating Ali hadn’t been at a WWE event since a backstage argument with Vince McMahon over a character idea Ali apparently wanted to no part of. There’s no word yet on what that pitch was, though Ali did recently share a different gimmick that he filmed a vignette for but never saw the light of day.
WWE’s turbulent relationship with Ali over his character is, sadly, nothing new. He confirmed in an interview with ComicBook last year that he had to audition to prove he could play a heel character. That resulted in him getting made the leader of the infamous Retribution faction.
“I kind of looked at my career at a snapshot. I made my return. Nothing really happened. I was off for seven months, for no apparent reason to me other than just creative had nothing for me,” Ali said. “When I was initially looking at the mirror, I go, ‘What is wrong with me? Nothing’s wrong with me. Look at me.’ Again, after seven months, you have to eventually have that look in the mirror and go, ‘What am I missing?’ I think the thing I was missing was a little bit of edge. I knew I could cut a great promo. But again, within the confines of being a good guy, you’re very limited as to what you can say.
“So I presented the idea of doing something. It wasn’t being the leader of Retribution, it was, I met with Vince McMahon and the creative writing team and said, ‘I think I’m capable of doing more and this is the route I’d like to go.’ And it was basically, ‘Well, you’d have to show us,’” he continued. “So I recorded my own promos, my own videos. I had to audition basically to not be a good guy anymore. And if you go back and you watch these WWE Main Event matches I was having before joining Retribution, you would see the small details, the storytelling when I was slowly becoming more aggressive, a little bit more violent, having a little bit more of these heelish tendencies in my matches.”
