Mustafa Ali had creative plans in NXT into next year.
Ali has had a rough go of it over the last few years in WWE. While there have been attempts to bring him onto television, the ball has been always been fumbled for Ali’s big moment. This could be attributed to him requesting his release from the company in January of 2022.
Last week, Ali confirmed that he had been released by the company at long last. Prior to his release, Ali was scheduled to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the NXT North American Championship at No Mercy later this month.
Now, Fightful Select reports that NXT higher ups are not too pleased with Ali’s release, as he had been factored into plans well into 2024.
Sources that Fightful spoke to were frustrated with the lack of communication between WWE and NXT. Specifically, we were told that some of the frustration emanated from the fact that there’s been a renewed effort to stack NXT with familiar names. In addition to losing one of those names, a planned match with two main roster talent in Mustafa Ali and Dominik Mysterio is now off the table. Those that we heard from said there was no indication as of Tuesday that Mustafa Ali was going to be cut, and even no indication cuts would happen to anyone with a main roster contract. For those noting that Mustafa Ali asked for his release, he did, though that was over two years ago. Shawn Michaels spoke on Ali on NXT’s media call and admitted it did change plans on the brand, and that he liked Mustafa and enjoyed working with him.
Fightful Select
Trick Williams won a fatal four way match on this week’s NXT to decide a new challenger for Dominik’s North American Championship. That match is set for No Mercy over the weekend.
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