An Intense Argument Between Mustafa Ali And Vince McMahon May Have Been Reason For Absence From WWE
Shockwaves spread across the Internet Wrestling Community on Sunday morning as Adeel Alam, better known as Mustafa Ali in WWE took to Twitter to announce he requested his release from the company after six years. Throughout the afternoon and evening hours on Sunday, more information started coming out.
According to Fightful.com, Mustafa was not at SmackDown on Friday night which seemed odd given the show was in his hometown of Chicago. Ali had previously requested one show off for his paternity leave even though he has not been on WWE television in any capacity, nor on any show since November 2021. The ironic part to all this is the fact that Ali has been available for a return since the first week of December.
Furthermore, Ali was not backstage at Survivor Series or the SmackDown two days prior, which initially gave the appearance to many that the company had just extended his paternity leave of absence. Obviously now we are learning that was not the case and there is far more to this story.
Mustafa Ali would reveal a couple of weeks ago that the company had filmed a new vignette for a “New America” gimmick for him, which was to look especially promising for the young talent. According to people were are said to be in the know, the new gimmick was initially accepted before those in power apparently nixed the idea. Fightful.com would say:
“We’re told in its place there was a pitch from Vince McMahon for something that Mustafa Ali would NEVER have done” .
This led to what was reported as an intense argument between Ali and Vince McMahon. Ali had not been seen backstage since.
During an interview last fall, Ali said Vince McMahon told him “too polished, too clean, too nice! I don’t know if you even have it in you!” before Mustafa would be brought back to lead the failed Retribution stable.
The report also stated that a higher up in WWE had told Fightful that WWE has been granting release requests as of late because it would be hard to justify not granting the request after the company has had so many “budget cuts” recently.
An unnamed SmackDown told Fightful:
“for someone that works on their craft as much as Ali does, not having anything for him or featuring him at all was seen as punishment.”
Mustafa Ali was well liked within WWE. Fightful reports that they have been told by numerous talents how much they wanted to work with him since his SmackDown call up. Ali’s call up was initially only meant to be a one-off type of deal but it turned into a full-time thing. He was known for being very hands on with his character, constantly pitching ideas for his own creative. Fightful reached out to WWE to see if they granted the release but has not heard back yet.
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