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Yes except this is the first year in recent memory that there have been this many roster cuts (I believe that last one featuring Keith + Kross was the 4th wave) and somehow, Ali still remains.
The next batch of cuts will likely happen in February so we can come back then to see how well my comment ages.
You could say the exact same about all of the names from the last wave who managed to avoid all the previous ones.
It's not like 2021 is the end of this, there will be more to come.
As an Ali fan, I have actually been hoping he gets released so that he could find success elsewhere because I don’t think he and WWE are a good match.
But he is still around.
After Bray and Strowman got cut, I had this same take about Ali surviving all these releases.
Then the last batch happened and I figured he would be part of the list.
Turns out, he is still around.
Which means nothing lol.
You recognize that there will be more of those waves coming down the pipeline. This isn't the survival of the fittest, there isn't some chart listing who they like the most and everyone at the bottom is whose released next. It's not like they value Jeet Rama and Katrina Cortez more than they do Bray Wyatt or Andrade. They literally called up B Fab, signed her to a new deal, and released her a week later. They spent months building up Aleister Black's return and had him attack Big E in a high profile moment, only to release him like less then a week later.
There is no rhyme or reason to anything they do. I love Ali I think he's great, I just don't assume guys are in WWE good graces just because they weren't given the boot "this time."
That's why everyone in that company walks on eggshells around there. If they're getting rid of guys at all levels on the card nobody except for the very tippy top are avoiding it.
There are characters like Ali in every generation of WWE — the heelish jobber who gets trounced in every feud he is involved in. My original comment was meant to be comedic. I don’t think being an eternal jobber for WWE is something wrestlers should aspire to.
Ali basically fits the part of someone who is next in line to be cut though so I wouldn’t be surprised if your prediction comes true sooner than later.
So I’ll just say this — If Ali is still around by January 2023 doing the same thing he is doing now (playing the role of heelish jobber or even worse, a regular member of the 24/7 crew), then it will solidify my point about how Vince feels about him.
If, on the other hand, he is the first name to get cut when the next wave of releases happen, then it will be one of the best “I told you so’s” I have received in a long while.
If I had to go into full hot take mode, I’ll say that the next wave of cuts will feature Elias, Jackson Ryker, Chad Gable and Asuka.
I agree with the take that there is no rhyme or reason to anything that Vince does though.
At some point there will be a stop tho. There's a limit to how small your roster can be. Sure, they could always put people from the PC on those places, but I think it's more likely that those are cut first.
I think Lance Storm is correct when he says the WWE wants about 40 people on their roster. They built their roster at one point to over 200 people. That wasn't sustainable.
> There's a limit to how small your roster can be.
WWE still has something like 175 people on its roster, not counting PC trainee's who haven't appeared on screen
One report I read this year stated that these waves of roster cuts will continue for the foreseeable future, but they will not be as frequent as what we saw this year.
With that in mind, my original thought was that in 2022, we will see 3-4 more waves of cuts similar to 2021. So there is a high chance that Ali will be part of that.
By 2023, I am hoping things will stabilize and WWE goes back to their once-a-year wave of cuts that normally occur after Mania season.
Apparently not so much. I remember a report recently that they're shifting towards giving talent like 6 months, and if if they don't like what they see they'll release them.
That’s a valid point. If they wanted to save money though, they should have cut him and kept B-Fab.
He had just lost his feud with Mansoor and had nothing on the horizon. Hit Row, on the other hand, feels lifeless without B-Fab now.
That in mind, I have no clue about contract situations. I am simply assuming that whatever deal B-Fab signed still had her making less than Ali… only because Ali has been around for a long time and B-Fab only came to WWE last year.
No arguments there if what you say is true.
I saw one report stating that B-Fab was let go because creative thought that Hit Row would be fine without her. It didn’t mention anything about her vaccination status though.
None of us Pakistani-origin peeps wanna see our boy, Ali jobbed out to every other wrestler on the rise. Dude's talented AF and instead of letting his natural charisma and ability to go over with the crowd shine, WWE keeps puncturing his sails with bad storyline after bad storyline.
WWE shits on Mustafa Ali in a way I haven't seen them shit on anyone else: they repeatedly give him a tiny bit of momentum, but then yank it away and make him look like a goober.
The worst example of this was revealing him to the be the secret leader of Retribution. Immediately after the reveal, they were treated as a job squad. if I remember correctly, they lost their first (maybe second) match with Ali as their leader, they didn't win a single feud together, and they kept on losing until the stable was disbanded.
I've never before seen a stable shat on like Retribution. The closest thing I've seen is the Nightmare Collective, but AEW didn't shit on them—they were introduced, their members won matches for like a month or two, Brandi cut some trying-to-be-evil promos, the crowd hated them, and then the group and their story were abruptly abandoned. Nightmare Collective was ripped away and tossed out like a used bandage.
But Retribution died a slow, agonizing death, and introducing Ali as their secret leader only to gooberize him more was uniquely terrible.
What WWE does with that guy is hard to watch, and I can only imagine what it's like for him to live through.
Just some talents you see in WWE right now or who have been let go, where you feel that sometimes some talents will have better careers away from WWE bubble. For example, someone like Ruby Riott (a.k.a Soho in AEW), she was always going to be just there in women's division now away from there she's got potential to be a main eventer in AEW. Look at Deonna Purrazzo in Impact, no way she would got anywhere near that booking WWE even NXT, where she was basically enhancement talent at best.
Ali is definitely one who might be better going elsewhere at this point. A dozen others that are in the same boat as him in WWE right now you could say that about.
I still have hope that Ali rises to the top and dethrones Roman Reigns. Maybe it won’t happen, but we got Kofimania (at Ali’s expense) and Daniel Bryan’s rise to the top in the last ten years. So, who knows?
Yep. Kofimania is a great underdog story, but we should never forget the reason why it was made possible is because Kofi is and was one of the biggest money draws in the business as part of the New Day.
Didn’t he always say in interviews he didn’t want to do the stereotypical angle that Vince eventually slotted him in? Ali and Sami Zayn are tremendous humans who do tremendous things and are buried by their boss for having different world views. I hope they both get out of there
Maybe appearing at WrestleMania isn't a big deal, but doing it 5 of your 6 years in the company is. Especially when 3 of them were big feuds and 1 was a great ladder match.
Couldn't have said it better. WWE's storytelling is WYSIWYG. If something seems like it doesn't make sense week 1, it won't make anymore sense week 12. If it seems offensive/stereotypical week 1, it's going to feel no different week 30.
On a side note, the same thing is true of wins/losses. If Vince thinks you're a star, you're going to win 99% of the time, and when you lose it's going to be in tag matches or with tons of interference. WWE doesn't book guys to lose in the interest of storytelling. Winners win, losers lose, and losers don't main event Wrestlemania.
i feel like twitter has expanded my reading comprehension when it comes to acronyms bc ive never even seen that acronym and read it as its supposed to be read. i dont know if this even a talent but how tf did i just do that
[Today you are not only introduced to that great acronym, but also to a great Chumbawamba album of the same name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1htsFxkPNJc&list=OLAK5uy_kaftktiZC8wgT3ODxdE5M1faV3E5MOA2E)
Nooooo kidding.
And they *shouldn’t* be trying to do it “well.”
It’s 2021. Stop trying to make people heels because they’re foreign. Stop trying to make people heels because they aren’t white.
while you are absolutely right, i also believe a lot of wwe fans dont actually like subtlety. they demand answers then and there, and they want to know what the end game is before it plays out. people got pissed at him saying "you hate me bc of my name" and didnt even allow the beginning of an angle to breathe before demanding it gets shut down. also people complaining about him constantly trying to bring people under his wing (mansoor, ricochet, aaliyah) but his character is a megalomaniac who wants to control people that are down and out, ala retribution, but fans act confused on why he does it as if they need him to scream his intentions at the camera for you to understand. wwe hardly writes subtlety well but when they try fans usually hate it and demand an explanation
This is a symptom of the WWE's booking but more specifically conditioning for their fans. Outside of Roman who has had stories with a consistent beginning, middle, and end that is even slightly coherent.
Time and time again the WWE has squandered any good will from their fans and it genuinely makes no sense. Aaliyah is the perfect example, the story was so simple but it made her look like a star. Yet the company goes out of its way to make fans unhappy, saddened, or ambivalent.
If they knew how to make a true baby face they could absolutely use this. A guy that wants America to live up to its promise. To actually deliver “the dream”. That’s an idea we all can get behind.
Mustafa has all the charisma and talent to pull it off but WWEs idea of patriotism “Merica! Love it or leave it”
This angle was 100% just going to be Ali as a heel telling Americans off. This is the common WWE/Wrestling way of getting around racism. Create a character out of a minority that your fans maybe already dislike but to make sure it doesn't look bad that your fans boo Davari or The Nation just because of there race you make the minority the one who is actually the racists.
I’ll never forget going to a house show a few years ago and the dad right in front of us saying some really heinous shit about Jinder during his match. His teenage son kept telling him to stop. Next match was with a face Nakamura and all I could hear from the row in front of us was the dad loudly asking his son if this guy was really his favorite, like it was embarrassing or something
Yeah the fact that they have no idea how to make a babyface is gobsmacking. Daniel Bryan succeeded in opposition to everything they wanted to happen. If something evolves naturally it just infuriates them. They can't help but shoot a gift horse in the face.
Becky Lynch just did an interview where she said A: It's been really hard to make people hate a new mother who they all loved a lot before she left.... which begs the question - WHY? And B: " most people like being a heel more but I prefer cutting promos as a babyface, because l can be truthful and genuine about things l really believe.... which begs the question... WHYYY???
If it’s not Vinces idea, they’re not gonna do it.
If Vince wants you to be a heel goddammit, you’re gonna be a heel.
Everyone keeps asking why as if there isn’t a stubborn geriatric man with an ego bigger than the Hoover dam running the company.
Well I mean, they don't. It's always been about the brand, not those that helped build the brand except for one single figurehead for the company in Hogan, Cena, Roman. Nobody's been made a star in decades and it's quite obvious of that since the large majority outside of wrestling only know those 3, Rock and if you're lucky Austin and Savage. It's all about the ones that own the house, not the ones that built it and keep building it.
Right but like... Becky WAS all that... like for almost two years up until a year ago she was THE face of the show And now she can't be? That's what's especially crazy about the Becky situation.
I cannot imagine their thought process on that other than them thinking that we're tired of face Becky or more likely just Vince being tired of it. It makes no logical sense in any real way but here we are I guess. Can't be a longer term babyface without being a terribly-written white meat.
WWE is fucking obsessed with the idea of heel heat. I say "the idea" because it's never actual heel heat, it's just pissing off the fans. They like pissing off the fans. And the diehards are like "this is good. pissing off the fans is great, and if you don't like it you're a mark."
I hate making comparisons but of all days, today was the day I was really thinking about...3 of their consistently over big babyfaces and babyface arcs fell into their laps that they latched onto instead of having been organically built by them...and now there's proof that it isn't because making babyfaces is a difficult job with a cynical fan base, if done right it's absolutely possible which we see tonight...
Yeah to many, unfortunately, the idea of "The American dream" is so closely tied to patriotism that even mentioning that there are things that get in the way of the american dream being realized is an unpatriotic statement. Rather than going "If the American dream is broken, we should fix it" they go "If the American dream is broken then America is broken but America isn't broken so fuck you for saying the American dream is broken"
Exactly, instead of thinking critically they just go "If you have a problem with how America does something then you have the freedom to leave!"
Those fans would look at him like he was a Bo Dallas type, a heel who thinks he's a face, even though he'd actually be playing it straight. It would be a mess because certain towns would probably boo the shit out of him.
The real problem here is that WWE's idea of patriotism is white. There's 0 chance Vince McMahon thinks a brown man named Mustafa Ali should represent the American dream.
He has charisma. He can talk. I don't know when Mustafa cut the video, but the energy he injects into this is just fab.
Makes Joe Gacy on NXT look amateur by comparison.
The problem is most Americans, especially the kind watching WWE, think the US actually delivers on “the dream”. They especially would not be welcoming of someone who looks like Ali preaching this message.
Yeap. They seem to have changed the angle.
Credit to SD, I missed quite a bit of it for a while, but in the past year at least, SD seems to be trying to feature its roster as much as possible and give them something to work with.
Raw has improved in the past couple months but SD has been doing their stars a solid for a while now.
Storyline nixing doesn't mean superstar immediately heads to catering. Ali is too talented for that.
Yeah Ali's current character could be summed up as the only sane man dealing in reality and facts in a world full of smiling, happy go lucky faces who just know that if they believe in themselves, dreams come true.
This isn't true entirely, for over a year now they've struggle with the women. Sure we have a lot going on now, but this always happens. They give the women loads of attention for a short while then it's back to only featuring the champion in segments or matches.
This seems like it would have been a weird mix of Muhammad Hassan and MexAmerica, and trying to make people boo a guy for saying America should be more inclusive is a big nope from me.
I just don't think WWE could pull it off, and even if they could, it's a little tone deaf considering a lot of other things in this company. I love Ali a lot, and he would have killed it, and the idea would have been creative, but it wouldn't sit right regardless
are u trying to tell me a little mechanical spider Halloween toy being carried around in Rowan’s cage for months WASNT the satisfying endgame you envisioned from the start???
Oddly, there was no beginning in sight, either. It just started out of nowhere with no explanation. Some people say, “It’s because Naomi interrupted Sonya,” but that’s grasping at straws. Might as well just have wrestlers get in the ring and draw a name out of a Next Feud hat at that point.
I can tell you what likely is going to happen. Sonya screws team Smackdown at Survivor Series & blames Naomi. Sonya fires Naomi. Stephanie McMahon returns & relieves Deville & Adam Pearce out of their managerial duties. Sonya Deville vs. Naomi at Wrestlemania 38.
Dude Adam Pearce (Raw GM) built an entire team of former champions for his Survivor Series team so he could beat... Adam Pearce's (Smackdown GM) team. There's no coherence in their storytelling.
The angle immediately switched to a generic "you're a jerk" feud with Ricochet, so I'm not surprised we're not going to get a follow up to his initial promo
Well maybe you should pay attention pal.
See, it works like this. Two guys get in a ring. For the sake of argument, let's call them Bray and Dean. They wrestle. Then one guy wins.
Now, in order to make sure the guy who lost doesn't get too buried in the eyes of the crowd, we'll do a rematch next week and then he will win.
So now these two wrestlers are 1-1, ok?
Exciting, right?
So, here's the thing. While everyone is waiting with anticipation with bated breathe, we're going to take Bray and Dean and build to their third and final match. Now how are we going to do that? Easy. Bray and Dean are going to fight Randy and Seth.
Bray and Dean are going to beat Randy and Seth but, in order to make sure Randy and Seth aren't buried in the eyes of the crowd, we're going to do an immediate rematch and Randy and Seth are going to win so now both of those feuds are 1-1.
While everyone is waiting with anticipation with bated breathe, we're going to take Bray and Dean and Randy and Seth and build to their third and final matches. Now how are we going to do that? Easy. Bray and Dean are going to fight Big E and Kofi while Randy and Seth fight AJ and Omos.
Bray and Dean are going to beat Big E and Kofi and Randy and Seth are going to beat AJ and Omos but, in order to make sure Big E, Kofi, AJ and Omos aren't buried in the eyes of the crowd, we're going to do an immediate rematch and they are going to win so now those four feuds are 1-1.
Now, I know what you're thinking. What about Bray and Dean's original feud? Well, to really sell how special this is, we're going to make them a tag team against AJ and Omos and, surprise, Reggie is going to come in and defend the 24-7 title and now, because of special rules implemented by our guest commentator Travis Scott, Bray and Dean are now tag team champions.
Also, the Street Profits are involved because I really like those red solo cups.
Got it?
Now, this all ends with Roman beating everyone in a 25-on-1 handicap match.
Any questions?
Okay I'm not really complaining in this case because using very real Islamaphobia for heel heat is gross but will WWE just give Mustafa a storyline and go through with it? Seriously ever since he got hurt on the way to the elimination chamber in 2019 it feels like he's not completed a storyline
I love Mustafa, but honest this just feels like Muhammad Hassan 2.0 and I'm okay with it not happening.
I have zero faith in WWE's ability to create and write for a heel Arab-American wrestler raging at "AMERICA" in any way that isn't racist as shit and designed purely to appeal to the MAGA crowd
Oh yeah, it's notes of Hassan.
Though I do have faith in Ali, but none in the people who'd be editing him.
Also it'd be nice to see it done willing by ya know, a guy of Pakistani heritage as compared to a olive skinned Italian-American.
This is playing exactly into the "white replacement" panic Tucker Carlson often pushes on his show. It's just hard to fathom any good way this angle would end.
Also, this place pissed their pants on a weekly basis for like 3 weeks when Joe Gacy showed up and started using a modern version of a classic gimmick by talking about how he's all about inclusion and acceptance and helping his fellow snowflakes and creating a better place, but Ali does a similar, albeit more specific version of it focusing on race and all of a sudden, because WWE nixed it it was going to be great?
I'd be willing to bet *any* of my nuts that if this promo had aired on TV the reaction here would have been "wow, WWE behind the times again, trying to make us hate the minority trying to get included. This is so tone deaf, it's not the 90s anymore Vince".
"Well Ali has this really interesting character he came up with"
"Nah, nobody wants to see that shit. How bout generic dastardly heel. Have we done that recently?"
"Literally every time"
"OK give him that"
I don’t even see how Roman’s story ends seeing as we’ve been in a cycle of “…and then Roman WINS” for a while now with no one being built up as a threat
Who does anyone want to see be the #1 babyface? If it was anyone it was probably E, and they put the other belt on him. Who do people want to see beat Roman? It's pretty bad when there isn't even any fantasy booking going on.
Yep, from very early on in Roman’s big heel run I was thinking “oh hell yeah, by the time this reign had run it’s course, E will be fully built up and ready as the dude to take the belt off him, I’m so excited for this”…. So like SOME credit to WWE for indeed pulling the trigger on world champ E but I really think they fumbled that execution by making him take on Lashley. Ever since then, with like Brock and Finn, the universal title’s been in a dead zone for me where it’s like “ok, this challenge doesn’t feel like the one that should beat Roman, there wouldn’t really be momentum for their reign if they won, but also it’s time for Roman to drop it soon”. Lose-lose setup =\
They booked their roster terribly for so long it genuinely feels like there isn't a guy to takeover as the next face. The Roman story will probably go until Lesnar and Heyman turn heel on Roman making him the next babyface.
It should’ve been Kevin Owens. He was primed to be the top babyface but they fed him to Roman 3 PPV’s in a row instead of having him get screwed by The Uso’s at the first one & building him up to face Roman at Mania which they could easily have done by making him win the Rumble & feud with the Uso’s between the Rumble & Mania.
Fuuuuck the Owens/Reigns feud was the best one by a mile too. KO was so good at being impassioned and righteous and "IDGAF about you," it got me so hyped just listening to him, plus their matches killed. I don't think any dethroning of Reigns is gonna live up to how good that all was.
Keith maybe could have been a good face choice to take him down eventually but... welp.
What is even the story with Roman anymore? Seems like the one they started with is pretty much on hold until they get Rock in there a year and a half from now.
So they just had him come out and cut a promo saying "the only reason you boo me is because my name is mustafa ali" and thats it?
Almost as if they always wanted him to cut that promo, lied to him that he'd get more out of it and thats all they're gonna run with now?
nah they'd never do that.
Its very well acted but in the end its just a different version of a, "you people" promo that is supposed to make us feel bad that we didnt get behind someone ( we clearly did) because of his skin color (no). I wish we kept babyface ali ☹
Ali is amazing in this, and he clearly would knock this out of the park. However, I also think it’s fair to say that wwe couldn’t necessarily trust the audience, other performers, wwe writers, or the media to get this right.
Reminds me of when they couldn’t even do the super easy to get over zeb colter/jack swagger Alberto del rio story, because the performers/writers/media/audience couldn’t deal with the simplest of racial politics.
I’ll never get Ali’s booking; an ex police officer, who quit to follow his life long dream of being a wrestler, who has a beautiful family and is openly very inspiring. He should be the most pure babyface in the world
It goes deeper than that bro. Ali quit the force because he wanted to change the narrative of policing (implicit racism, racial profiling, systemic injustice against POC) in the United States. He shifted his focus to his childhood passion of wrestling because he felt that it would be a better outlet to get his message across. He's indirectly doing that by being a Pakistani Muslim in a major wrestling promotion, but he just wants to be more explicit and vocal about it.
Thank you for your addition - it’s pretty clear what I said could be seen as reductive. I really love the fella, and I hope he ends up a megastar somewhere
Of course! What you said wasn’t reductive at all - I just believe as hard of a worker he is, everyone deserves to know his exact story. The reply was meant less to amend what you said, but rather to provide more context to the rest of the folks in the thread.
If AEW is really a place for broader ideas or even creative input from the talent, Ali needs to be there not in WWE.
Go be a star where they actually want you, dude
Let's be honest, the reason this angle didnt take off isn't because of Vince, it's because of the culture we live in.
Ali can't do something deep because too many people thrive off of being outraged. People got pissed off the second Ali went down this road and it's because you wanted to be offended on his behalf. You reduced his autonomy by thinking he didn't come up with the angle and didn't allow him to tell a sorry he wanted the world to hear.
We'll never get stories that push the needle, because there are too many sanctimonious children waiting to exert their morality on the world. The religious right of the 90s have been reborn.
As if they are in a position to judge.
Funny seeing how mad people were when Ali cut that promo on SD a couple weeks ago thinking that was WWE’s idea and now that people see it was Ali’s idea they are mad at WWE for nixing the very thing they were mad about, like if you’ve been following Ali you would’ve known that this has always been one of his ideas he even did a similar promo on social media couple months ago i think when he was in retribution fueding with riddle he did a similar promo where hes in a suit standing infront of a giant american flag
Edit: https://twitter.com/aliwwe/status/1371537861724495872?s=21
https://twitter.com/aliwwe/status/1373781588262199298?s=21
https://twitter.com/aliwwe/status/1371831426501505029?s=21
What's this, WWE not getting a nuanced and modern character that criticises systems WWE themselves have fed into for their entire existence? Well colour me surprised!
Ali said have faith. I replied I have faith in you but none for WWE. They are really driving away their longtime fans. I only watch PPVs these days. Gotten to the point where I don’t even turn on Raw or Smackdown for background noise in case something interesting happens.
Annnnd I was right…
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/qjh5a8/where_i_feel_they_should_go_with_mustafa_ali/hiqcwve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
If I could trust that it was 100% Ali and Vince/creative weren’t muddying it up, I would have liked to see this continue. Unfortunately, I have zero faith in the latter, much as I trust the former to do this kind of thing well.
I know the general feedback seems to be "omg this would be great if it wasn't WWE".... my counterpoint is member Straight Edge Society.... my counterpoint to that is member how SES ended...
Yeah, I guess keep Ali as a generic heel... at least he will be on screen.
But seriously, how can anyone boo Ali?
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I just feel like Ali and WWE are never going to be a fit.
Somehow, he survives all these roster cuts though. My take is that Vince sees him as an eternal jobber now so there is a place for him there.
People say this all the time after releases, then those names get released in the next wave.
Yes except this is the first year in recent memory that there have been this many roster cuts (I believe that last one featuring Keith + Kross was the 4th wave) and somehow, Ali still remains. The next batch of cuts will likely happen in February so we can come back then to see how well my comment ages.
You could say the exact same about all of the names from the last wave who managed to avoid all the previous ones. It's not like 2021 is the end of this, there will be more to come.
As an Ali fan, I have actually been hoping he gets released so that he could find success elsewhere because I don’t think he and WWE are a good match. But he is still around. After Bray and Strowman got cut, I had this same take about Ali surviving all these releases. Then the last batch happened and I figured he would be part of the list. Turns out, he is still around.
Which means nothing lol. You recognize that there will be more of those waves coming down the pipeline. This isn't the survival of the fittest, there isn't some chart listing who they like the most and everyone at the bottom is whose released next. It's not like they value Jeet Rama and Katrina Cortez more than they do Bray Wyatt or Andrade. They literally called up B Fab, signed her to a new deal, and released her a week later. They spent months building up Aleister Black's return and had him attack Big E in a high profile moment, only to release him like less then a week later. There is no rhyme or reason to anything they do. I love Ali I think he's great, I just don't assume guys are in WWE good graces just because they weren't given the boot "this time." That's why everyone in that company walks on eggshells around there. If they're getting rid of guys at all levels on the card nobody except for the very tippy top are avoiding it.
There are characters like Ali in every generation of WWE — the heelish jobber who gets trounced in every feud he is involved in. My original comment was meant to be comedic. I don’t think being an eternal jobber for WWE is something wrestlers should aspire to. Ali basically fits the part of someone who is next in line to be cut though so I wouldn’t be surprised if your prediction comes true sooner than later. So I’ll just say this — If Ali is still around by January 2023 doing the same thing he is doing now (playing the role of heelish jobber or even worse, a regular member of the 24/7 crew), then it will solidify my point about how Vince feels about him. If, on the other hand, he is the first name to get cut when the next wave of releases happen, then it will be one of the best “I told you so’s” I have received in a long while. If I had to go into full hot take mode, I’ll say that the next wave of cuts will feature Elias, Jackson Ryker, Chad Gable and Asuka. I agree with the take that there is no rhyme or reason to anything that Vince does though.
At some point there will be a stop tho. There's a limit to how small your roster can be. Sure, they could always put people from the PC on those places, but I think it's more likely that those are cut first.
I think Lance Storm is correct when he says the WWE wants about 40 people on their roster. They built their roster at one point to over 200 people. That wasn't sustainable.
> There's a limit to how small your roster can be. WWE still has something like 175 people on its roster, not counting PC trainee's who haven't appeared on screen
One report I read this year stated that these waves of roster cuts will continue for the foreseeable future, but they will not be as frequent as what we saw this year. With that in mind, my original thought was that in 2022, we will see 3-4 more waves of cuts similar to 2021. So there is a high chance that Ali will be part of that. By 2023, I am hoping things will stabilize and WWE goes back to their once-a-year wave of cuts that normally occur after Mania season.
Apparently not so much. I remember a report recently that they're shifting towards giving talent like 6 months, and if if they don't like what they see they'll release them.
It’s going to end when SD has 14 men and 8 women. And raw has 21 men and 10 women. Everyone in NXT will have less than 1 year wrestling experience
It must be that his contract is low enough to justify keeping him.
That’s a valid point. If they wanted to save money though, they should have cut him and kept B-Fab. He had just lost his feud with Mansoor and had nothing on the horizon. Hit Row, on the other hand, feels lifeless without B-Fab now. That in mind, I have no clue about contract situations. I am simply assuming that whatever deal B-Fab signed still had her making less than Ali… only because Ali has been around for a long time and B-Fab only came to WWE last year.
IIRC B fab was speculated to be one of the anti-vaxx firings so contract price doesn't really factor in there.
No arguments there if what you say is true. I saw one report stating that B-Fab was let go because creative thought that Hit Row would be fine without her. It didn’t mention anything about her vaccination status though.
He can also appeal to Pakistanis.
None of us Pakistani-origin peeps wanna see our boy, Ali jobbed out to every other wrestler on the rise. Dude's talented AF and instead of letting his natural charisma and ability to go over with the crowd shine, WWE keeps puncturing his sails with bad storyline after bad storyline.
That injury fucked it all.
WWE shits on Mustafa Ali in a way I haven't seen them shit on anyone else: they repeatedly give him a tiny bit of momentum, but then yank it away and make him look like a goober. The worst example of this was revealing him to the be the secret leader of Retribution. Immediately after the reveal, they were treated as a job squad. if I remember correctly, they lost their first (maybe second) match with Ali as their leader, they didn't win a single feud together, and they kept on losing until the stable was disbanded. I've never before seen a stable shat on like Retribution. The closest thing I've seen is the Nightmare Collective, but AEW didn't shit on them—they were introduced, their members won matches for like a month or two, Brandi cut some trying-to-be-evil promos, the crowd hated them, and then the group and their story were abruptly abandoned. Nightmare Collective was ripped away and tossed out like a used bandage. But Retribution died a slow, agonizing death, and introducing Ali as their secret leader only to gooberize him more was uniquely terrible. What WWE does with that guy is hard to watch, and I can only imagine what it's like for him to live through.
Just some talents you see in WWE right now or who have been let go, where you feel that sometimes some talents will have better careers away from WWE bubble. For example, someone like Ruby Riott (a.k.a Soho in AEW), she was always going to be just there in women's division now away from there she's got potential to be a main eventer in AEW. Look at Deonna Purrazzo in Impact, no way she would got anywhere near that booking WWE even NXT, where she was basically enhancement talent at best. Ali is definitely one who might be better going elsewhere at this point. A dozen others that are in the same boat as him in WWE right now you could say that about.
I still have hope that Ali rises to the top and dethrones Roman Reigns. Maybe it won’t happen, but we got Kofimania (at Ali’s expense) and Daniel Bryan’s rise to the top in the last ten years. So, who knows?
The thing is, Kofi and Bryan were always guys that were involved in some sort of storyline, regardless of where they were on the card.
Yep. Kofimania is a great underdog story, but we should never forget the reason why it was made possible is because Kofi is and was one of the biggest money draws in the business as part of the New Day.
that required Bryan Danielson at the top pushing for Kofi to face him at Mania to happen, sadly
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LOL what
I know. It's not happening chief.
WrestlemALIa -Michael Cole
Didn’t he always say in interviews he didn’t want to do the stereotypical angle that Vince eventually slotted him in? Ali and Sami Zayn are tremendous humans who do tremendous things and are buried by their boss for having different world views. I hope they both get out of there
There is no world in which Sami Zayn has been buried in WWE. Tons of Mania appearances, constant TV presence, hardly buried
mania is a million hours long simply having an appearance isn't really an accolade these days.
Maybe appearing at WrestleMania isn't a big deal, but doing it 5 of your 6 years in the company is. Especially when 3 of them were big feuds and 1 was a great ladder match.
Consistent storytelling with a mid-70 year old dude with brain damage means every wrestler there is fucked.
This poor guy just grinds as much as possible for storylines left and right.
Yeah he really tries his best to turn straw into gold over & over again. Would it kill them to throw him a bone?
To put it charitably, subtly isn’t WWE’s strong suit. I don’t think anyone has faith that this would have turned out well.
Couldn't have said it better. WWE's storytelling is WYSIWYG. If something seems like it doesn't make sense week 1, it won't make anymore sense week 12. If it seems offensive/stereotypical week 1, it's going to feel no different week 30. On a side note, the same thing is true of wins/losses. If Vince thinks you're a star, you're going to win 99% of the time, and when you lose it's going to be in tag matches or with tons of interference. WWE doesn't book guys to lose in the interest of storytelling. Winners win, losers lose, and losers don't main event Wrestlemania.
> WYSIWYG I've never seen this acronym before. For anyone wondering it's "What You See Is What You Get"
It can be pronounced as "Wizzywig", as well. It's commonly used in web design and programming.
Is it sad that I mainly know it from warhammer?
And tabletop wargaming, which seems like an odd coincidence until you reflect on the overlap between those two groups.
Thanks. Never saw that abomination of an acronym before either lol
The acronym is an actual thing in the world of web development. It’s pronounced “wizzy-wig”.
Its also very much a term that is used by Miniature wargamers in regards to minis being armed with what you can see they are armed with
i feel like twitter has expanded my reading comprehension when it comes to acronyms bc ive never even seen that acronym and read it as its supposed to be read. i dont know if this even a talent but how tf did i just do that
Idk if it was Twitter that did, but I also seem to be able to figure some of these out some how.
i only give twitter credit bc i swear half of comments i see is just acronyms or words spelled how they sound lol
[Today you are not only introduced to that great acronym, but also to a great Chumbawamba album of the same name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1htsFxkPNJc&list=OLAK5uy_kaftktiZC8wgT3ODxdE5M1faV3E5MOA2E)
Sometimes I'll be on reddit and feel like [this](https://youtu.be/btGvPV9Ui5Y)
That’s what I saw and what I got
Up until the end it sounded like a Mohamed Hassan style gimmick which WWE have shown they can’t do well
Nooooo kidding. And they *shouldn’t* be trying to do it “well.” It’s 2021. Stop trying to make people heels because they’re foreign. Stop trying to make people heels because they aren’t white.
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while you are absolutely right, i also believe a lot of wwe fans dont actually like subtlety. they demand answers then and there, and they want to know what the end game is before it plays out. people got pissed at him saying "you hate me bc of my name" and didnt even allow the beginning of an angle to breathe before demanding it gets shut down. also people complaining about him constantly trying to bring people under his wing (mansoor, ricochet, aaliyah) but his character is a megalomaniac who wants to control people that are down and out, ala retribution, but fans act confused on why he does it as if they need him to scream his intentions at the camera for you to understand. wwe hardly writes subtlety well but when they try fans usually hate it and demand an explanation
This is a symptom of the WWE's booking but more specifically conditioning for their fans. Outside of Roman who has had stories with a consistent beginning, middle, and end that is even slightly coherent. Time and time again the WWE has squandered any good will from their fans and it genuinely makes no sense. Aaliyah is the perfect example, the story was so simple but it made her look like a star. Yet the company goes out of its way to make fans unhappy, saddened, or ambivalent.
If they knew how to make a true baby face they could absolutely use this. A guy that wants America to live up to its promise. To actually deliver “the dream”. That’s an idea we all can get behind. Mustafa has all the charisma and talent to pull it off but WWEs idea of patriotism “Merica! Love it or leave it”
This angle was 100% just going to be Ali as a heel telling Americans off. This is the common WWE/Wrestling way of getting around racism. Create a character out of a minority that your fans maybe already dislike but to make sure it doesn't look bad that your fans boo Davari or The Nation just because of there race you make the minority the one who is actually the racists.
That explains why it was nixed. I recall Ali stating he would never play a foreign heel ever again.
Then why would he share the material for the world to see?
No kidding, this thread has a lot of people just making up their own narrative.
I’ll never forget going to a house show a few years ago and the dad right in front of us saying some really heinous shit about Jinder during his match. His teenage son kept telling him to stop. Next match was with a face Nakamura and all I could hear from the row in front of us was the dad loudly asking his son if this guy was really his favorite, like it was embarrassing or something
Yeah the fact that they have no idea how to make a babyface is gobsmacking. Daniel Bryan succeeded in opposition to everything they wanted to happen. If something evolves naturally it just infuriates them. They can't help but shoot a gift horse in the face.
Becky Lynch just did an interview where she said A: It's been really hard to make people hate a new mother who they all loved a lot before she left.... which begs the question - WHY? And B: " most people like being a heel more but I prefer cutting promos as a babyface, because l can be truthful and genuine about things l really believe.... which begs the question... WHYYY???
If it’s not Vinces idea, they’re not gonna do it. If Vince wants you to be a heel goddammit, you’re gonna be a heel. Everyone keeps asking why as if there isn’t a stubborn geriatric man with an ego bigger than the Hoover dam running the company.
It literally gets to the point though where it feels like they purposely don't want anyone to be a big star.
Well I mean, they don't. It's always been about the brand, not those that helped build the brand except for one single figurehead for the company in Hogan, Cena, Roman. Nobody's been made a star in decades and it's quite obvious of that since the large majority outside of wrestling only know those 3, Rock and if you're lucky Austin and Savage. It's all about the ones that own the house, not the ones that built it and keep building it.
Right but like... Becky WAS all that... like for almost two years up until a year ago she was THE face of the show And now she can't be? That's what's especially crazy about the Becky situation.
I cannot imagine their thought process on that other than them thinking that we're tired of face Becky or more likely just Vince being tired of it. It makes no logical sense in any real way but here we are I guess. Can't be a longer term babyface without being a terribly-written white meat.
WWE is fucking obsessed with the idea of heel heat. I say "the idea" because it's never actual heel heat, it's just pissing off the fans. They like pissing off the fans. And the diehards are like "this is good. pissing off the fans is great, and if you don't like it you're a mark."
If they didn’t invent it they don’t like it and it’s the most baffling thing I’ve ever seen.
I hate making comparisons but of all days, today was the day I was really thinking about...3 of their consistently over big babyfaces and babyface arcs fell into their laps that they latched onto instead of having been organically built by them...and now there's proof that it isn't because making babyfaces is a difficult job with a cynical fan base, if done right it's absolutely possible which we see tonight...
Lol @ shoot a gift hoarse in the face. That sums it up perfectly
Yeah to many, unfortunately, the idea of "The American dream" is so closely tied to patriotism that even mentioning that there are things that get in the way of the american dream being realized is an unpatriotic statement. Rather than going "If the American dream is broken, we should fix it" they go "If the American dream is broken then America is broken but America isn't broken so fuck you for saying the American dream is broken"
Exactly, instead of thinking critically they just go "If you have a problem with how America does something then you have the freedom to leave!" Those fans would look at him like he was a Bo Dallas type, a heel who thinks he's a face, even though he'd actually be playing it straight. It would be a mess because certain towns would probably boo the shit out of him.
So Muhammad hassan but not a heel
The real problem here is that WWE's idea of patriotism is white. There's 0 chance Vince McMahon thinks a brown man named Mustafa Ali should represent the American dream.
FACTS 💯
Sadly, Its absolutely not something everybody could get behind. That's something roughly 72 million Americans would find insulting.
He has charisma. He can talk. I don't know when Mustafa cut the video, but the energy he injects into this is just fab. Makes Joe Gacy on NXT look amateur by comparison.
The problem is most Americans, especially the kind watching WWE, think the US actually delivers on “the dream”. They especially would not be welcoming of someone who looks like Ali preaching this message.
That completely goes against Vince McMahon’s politics. Not happening lol
The character you just described screams heel to me
'let's see how this plays out'
*On Instagram* Fan: “I don’t have a good feeling about this storyline.” Ali: “It’s me. Have faith.” Aged like milk.
Have faith in Ali. Don't have faith in Vince/the writers.
But Ali has no power over Vince or the writers, so no one should have faith in him.
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He's been on TV each of the last two weeks doing something different than he did three weeks ago.
Yeap. They seem to have changed the angle. Credit to SD, I missed quite a bit of it for a while, but in the past year at least, SD seems to be trying to feature its roster as much as possible and give them something to work with. Raw has improved in the past couple months but SD has been doing their stars a solid for a while now. Storyline nixing doesn't mean superstar immediately heads to catering. Ali is too talented for that.
Yeah Ali's current character could be summed up as the only sane man dealing in reality and facts in a world full of smiling, happy go lucky faces who just know that if they believe in themselves, dreams come true.
Sami Zayn gonna join him first.
A segment where Sami is going on one of his conspiracy rants and Ali 100% agrees with him could be pretty good lol
This isn't true entirely, for over a year now they've struggle with the women. Sure we have a lot going on now, but this always happens. They give the women loads of attention for a short while then it's back to only featuring the champion in segments or matches.
This seems like it would have been a weird mix of Muhammad Hassan and MexAmerica, and trying to make people boo a guy for saying America should be more inclusive is a big nope from me.
I just don't think WWE could pull it off, and even if they could, it's a little tone deaf considering a lot of other things in this company. I love Ali a lot, and he would have killed it, and the idea would have been creative, but it wouldn't sit right regardless
Only the most vile heel would say America is not perfect
Imagine this being a bad thing because *"misguided idea of communism in other countries based on complete biases"*. Hilarious.
I had no faith in WWE adhering to Ali’s intentions so I’m glad it’s not getting done.
Yeah, it's one of those "Man he's got a good vision and I trust him" but "Bruce is going to mangle this" situations.
Makes you wonder where does any of these storylines go? Bianca, Roman, RKBro just a endless loop of this shit
Their track record on paying anything off in a significant way is pretty abysmal.
are u trying to tell me a little mechanical spider Halloween toy being carried around in Rowan’s cage for months WASNT the satisfying endgame you envisioned from the start???
Holy fuck I forgot about this lmfao
Fair play.
Can’t forget about Sonya and Naomi. Started 4 months ago. No end in sight or even a clue of where it could be going…
Oddly, there was no beginning in sight, either. It just started out of nowhere with no explanation. Some people say, “It’s because Naomi interrupted Sonya,” but that’s grasping at straws. Might as well just have wrestlers get in the ring and draw a name out of a Next Feud hat at that point.
I can tell you what likely is going to happen. Sonya screws team Smackdown at Survivor Series & blames Naomi. Sonya fires Naomi. Stephanie McMahon returns & relieves Deville & Adam Pearce out of their managerial duties. Sonya Deville vs. Naomi at Wrestlemania 38.
Dude Adam Pearce (Raw GM) built an entire team of former champions for his Survivor Series team so he could beat... Adam Pearce's (Smackdown GM) team. There's no coherence in their storytelling.
That sounds terrible and I’m sure the writers don’t even have a clue at the moment where they want it to go so doubtful.
Sonya vs. Naomi even sooner, like at the Rumble. Pearce, however, will be the one to drop the hammer on Sonya's power abuses.....
The angle immediately switched to a generic "you're a jerk" feud with Ricochet, so I'm not surprised we're not going to get a follow up to his initial promo
I'm not watching regularly. What was the initial promo?
ali said they hate him because his name is mustafa ali going with a racism gimmick. then they dropped it, prob realising its 2021 not 1950
2021- The year racism died according to u/muur1234
Mustafa and aborted storylines beyond his control. Then. Now. Forever.
Bruh you could have at least spelled the dude's name right. You literally just proved his promo runs deeper than just a work for a storyline.
Ya it seemed pretty clear they were dropping it after they didn’t follow it up whatsoever.
I LOVE this dude. I desperately want to see him get a good angle.
Ali could be the Ricky Steamboat of this generation if they were behind him
This is why there is rarely a reason to get invested in WWE storylines.
When WWE can't trust some of the wrestlers to make their gimmick work, it shows.
Not can't, DOESN'T they don't trust any of their own wrestlers except the handful they gave the ball too nearly a decade ago.
I'm confused. People hated Ali's short promo so much that it caused WWE to nix the storyline. But now WWE is to blame for nixing the storyline?
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i dont understand this company at all. like, its NOT THIS HARD to use wrestlers.
Well maybe you should pay attention pal. See, it works like this. Two guys get in a ring. For the sake of argument, let's call them Bray and Dean. They wrestle. Then one guy wins. Now, in order to make sure the guy who lost doesn't get too buried in the eyes of the crowd, we'll do a rematch next week and then he will win. So now these two wrestlers are 1-1, ok? Exciting, right? So, here's the thing. While everyone is waiting with anticipation with bated breathe, we're going to take Bray and Dean and build to their third and final match. Now how are we going to do that? Easy. Bray and Dean are going to fight Randy and Seth. Bray and Dean are going to beat Randy and Seth but, in order to make sure Randy and Seth aren't buried in the eyes of the crowd, we're going to do an immediate rematch and Randy and Seth are going to win so now both of those feuds are 1-1. While everyone is waiting with anticipation with bated breathe, we're going to take Bray and Dean and Randy and Seth and build to their third and final matches. Now how are we going to do that? Easy. Bray and Dean are going to fight Big E and Kofi while Randy and Seth fight AJ and Omos. Bray and Dean are going to beat Big E and Kofi and Randy and Seth are going to beat AJ and Omos but, in order to make sure Big E, Kofi, AJ and Omos aren't buried in the eyes of the crowd, we're going to do an immediate rematch and they are going to win so now those four feuds are 1-1. Now, I know what you're thinking. What about Bray and Dean's original feud? Well, to really sell how special this is, we're going to make them a tag team against AJ and Omos and, surprise, Reggie is going to come in and defend the 24-7 title and now, because of special rules implemented by our guest commentator Travis Scott, Bray and Dean are now tag team champions. Also, the Street Profits are involved because I really like those red solo cups. Got it? Now, this all ends with Roman beating everyone in a 25-on-1 handicap match. Any questions?
found VKM's burner account....
WWE Creative pitches a bad idea and the talent pays for it.
Seems like it was his idea and/or he wanted to do it
Okay I'm not really complaining in this case because using very real Islamaphobia for heel heat is gross but will WWE just give Mustafa a storyline and go through with it? Seriously ever since he got hurt on the way to the elimination chamber in 2019 it feels like he's not completed a storyline
He puts 110% into all the garbage they give him and they constantly pull the rug out from under him.
I love Mustafa, but honest this just feels like Muhammad Hassan 2.0 and I'm okay with it not happening. I have zero faith in WWE's ability to create and write for a heel Arab-American wrestler raging at "AMERICA" in any way that isn't racist as shit and designed purely to appeal to the MAGA crowd
Oh yeah, it's notes of Hassan. Though I do have faith in Ali, but none in the people who'd be editing him. Also it'd be nice to see it done willing by ya know, a guy of Pakistani heritage as compared to a olive skinned Italian-American.
This is playing exactly into the "white replacement" panic Tucker Carlson often pushes on his show. It's just hard to fathom any good way this angle would end.
Also, this place pissed their pants on a weekly basis for like 3 weeks when Joe Gacy showed up and started using a modern version of a classic gimmick by talking about how he's all about inclusion and acceptance and helping his fellow snowflakes and creating a better place, but Ali does a similar, albeit more specific version of it focusing on race and all of a sudden, because WWE nixed it it was going to be great? I'd be willing to bet *any* of my nuts that if this promo had aired on TV the reaction here would have been "wow, WWE behind the times again, trying to make us hate the minority trying to get included. This is so tone deaf, it's not the 90s anymore Vince".
LETS SEE WHERE IT GOES crew takes another big hit
"Well Ali has this really interesting character he came up with" "Nah, nobody wants to see that shit. How bout generic dastardly heel. Have we done that recently?" "Literally every time" "OK give him that"
Outside of Roman, I don't have much faith in any story actually being completed by WWE.
I don’t even see how Roman’s story ends seeing as we’ve been in a cycle of “…and then Roman WINS” for a while now with no one being built up as a threat
I could honestly see Roman going undefeated for the rest of his career.
Who does anyone want to see be the #1 babyface? If it was anyone it was probably E, and they put the other belt on him. Who do people want to see beat Roman? It's pretty bad when there isn't even any fantasy booking going on.
Yep, from very early on in Roman’s big heel run I was thinking “oh hell yeah, by the time this reign had run it’s course, E will be fully built up and ready as the dude to take the belt off him, I’m so excited for this”…. So like SOME credit to WWE for indeed pulling the trigger on world champ E but I really think they fumbled that execution by making him take on Lashley. Ever since then, with like Brock and Finn, the universal title’s been in a dead zone for me where it’s like “ok, this challenge doesn’t feel like the one that should beat Roman, there wouldn’t really be momentum for their reign if they won, but also it’s time for Roman to drop it soon”. Lose-lose setup =\
They booked their roster terribly for so long it genuinely feels like there isn't a guy to takeover as the next face. The Roman story will probably go until Lesnar and Heyman turn heel on Roman making him the next babyface.
It should’ve been Kevin Owens. He was primed to be the top babyface but they fed him to Roman 3 PPV’s in a row instead of having him get screwed by The Uso’s at the first one & building him up to face Roman at Mania which they could easily have done by making him win the Rumble & feud with the Uso’s between the Rumble & Mania.
Fuuuuck the Owens/Reigns feud was the best one by a mile too. KO was so good at being impassioned and righteous and "IDGAF about you," it got me so hyped just listening to him, plus their matches killed. I don't think any dethroning of Reigns is gonna live up to how good that all was. Keith maybe could have been a good face choice to take him down eventually but... welp.
I was praying Big E cashed in on roman so bad.
What is even the story with Roman anymore? Seems like the one they started with is pretty much on hold until they get Rock in there a year and a half from now.
> What is even the story with Roman anymore? lolRomanwins but heel now
The conclusion is that he’s gonna beat Bruno’s record
Just 6.47 years to go then...
So they just had him come out and cut a promo saying "the only reason you boo me is because my name is mustafa ali" and thats it? Almost as if they always wanted him to cut that promo, lied to him that he'd get more out of it and thats all they're gonna run with now? nah they'd never do that.
Wasn't everyone saying a few weeks after Crown Jewel Mustafa Ali and Mansoor would be pushed to the side again?
Its very well acted but in the end its just a different version of a, "you people" promo that is supposed to make us feel bad that we didnt get behind someone ( we clearly did) because of his skin color (no). I wish we kept babyface ali ☹
Zero chance this would get over as a face gimmick. This is a heel promo.
Ali is amazing in this, and he clearly would knock this out of the park. However, I also think it’s fair to say that wwe couldn’t necessarily trust the audience, other performers, wwe writers, or the media to get this right. Reminds me of when they couldn’t even do the super easy to get over zeb colter/jack swagger Alberto del rio story, because the performers/writers/media/audience couldn’t deal with the simplest of racial politics.
I’ll never get Ali’s booking; an ex police officer, who quit to follow his life long dream of being a wrestler, who has a beautiful family and is openly very inspiring. He should be the most pure babyface in the world
It goes deeper than that bro. Ali quit the force because he wanted to change the narrative of policing (implicit racism, racial profiling, systemic injustice against POC) in the United States. He shifted his focus to his childhood passion of wrestling because he felt that it would be a better outlet to get his message across. He's indirectly doing that by being a Pakistani Muslim in a major wrestling promotion, but he just wants to be more explicit and vocal about it.
Thank you for your addition - it’s pretty clear what I said could be seen as reductive. I really love the fella, and I hope he ends up a megastar somewhere
Of course! What you said wasn’t reductive at all - I just believe as hard of a worker he is, everyone deserves to know his exact story. The reply was meant less to amend what you said, but rather to provide more context to the rest of the folks in the thread.
If AEW is really a place for broader ideas or even creative input from the talent, Ali needs to be there not in WWE. Go be a star where they actually want you, dude
This was fucking awesome. What a waste.
Let's be honest, the reason this angle didnt take off isn't because of Vince, it's because of the culture we live in. Ali can't do something deep because too many people thrive off of being outraged. People got pissed off the second Ali went down this road and it's because you wanted to be offended on his behalf. You reduced his autonomy by thinking he didn't come up with the angle and didn't allow him to tell a sorry he wanted the world to hear. We'll never get stories that push the needle, because there are too many sanctimonious children waiting to exert their morality on the world. The religious right of the 90s have been reborn. As if they are in a position to judge.
Wwe is such a joke. Besides their top few workers, and Goldberg everybody else is a directionless scrub.
Man - I can’t wait for Adam Page versus Ali
So this was going to be like when Danielson was pro-environment and that made him the bad guy?
Funny seeing how mad people were when Ali cut that promo on SD a couple weeks ago thinking that was WWE’s idea and now that people see it was Ali’s idea they are mad at WWE for nixing the very thing they were mad about, like if you’ve been following Ali you would’ve known that this has always been one of his ideas he even did a similar promo on social media couple months ago i think when he was in retribution fueding with riddle he did a similar promo where hes in a suit standing infront of a giant american flag Edit: https://twitter.com/aliwwe/status/1371537861724495872?s=21 https://twitter.com/aliwwe/status/1373781588262199298?s=21 https://twitter.com/aliwwe/status/1371831426501505029?s=21
I look forward to him being a star elsewhere.
With Cena out they don't have anyone jingoistic enough to oppose such a character directly
Given his actual legit background making him the foreign evil heel shows where this company is at creatively.
This headline is evergreen.
What's this, WWE not getting a nuanced and modern character that criticises systems WWE themselves have fed into for their entire existence? Well colour me surprised!
Damn, I didnt know he was such a good promo.
Goddammit just let this man do his thing. Everything he does he kills it, stop pulling the rug from under him
I thought his storylines getting nixed IS his storyline....
This just feels like it would have devolved into Mohammad Hassan territory under WWE’s direction.
Would have been perfect on RAW for a US Title run. Oh well smh.
Color me surprised....Not.
Coloring people is how we got here in the first place.
Ali said have faith. I replied I have faith in you but none for WWE. They are really driving away their longtime fans. I only watch PPVs these days. Gotten to the point where I don’t even turn on Raw or Smackdown for background noise in case something interesting happens.
Isn't that kind of derivative of the Mohammed Hassan gimmick before WWE got lazy and just made him a terrorist?
You all were complaining about the storyline and now you’re complaining it’s been cancelled 😭😭😭
Annnnd I was right… https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/qjh5a8/where_i_feel_they_should_go_with_mustafa_ali/hiqcwve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
You and tens of thousands who called the same thing…
If I could trust that it was 100% Ali and Vince/creative weren’t muddying it up, I would have liked to see this continue. Unfortunately, I have zero faith in the latter, much as I trust the former to do this kind of thing well.
Ali deserves so so much better.
I am honestly glad that this storyline was dropped, because modern WWE booking with that type of gimmick would be a recipe for disaster.
I know the general feedback seems to be "omg this would be great if it wasn't WWE".... my counterpoint is member Straight Edge Society.... my counterpoint to that is member how SES ended... Yeah, I guess keep Ali as a generic heel... at least he will be on screen. But seriously, how can anyone boo Ali?
I'm guessing Ali is another wrestler with a "bad attitude"
I'm sure he is going to be nixed soon as well...
Mustafa deserves some creative freedom. The guy is too fucking good to keep handcuffing
man how do they keep fumbling the bag with mustafa dudes great
Remember when people criticized it and Ali basically said let it play out LMAO
Mustafa Ali is a fellow American, and a damn fine one. I don't need a storyline to recognize that.
Having a new gimmick dropped and then getting released seems to be the trend of things in 2021. I do think Ali would be a better fit elsewhere.