WWE Superstar Ali spoke with Talksport about why/how he made the jump to the main roster, how his injury affected his status, and more this week. Check out the high points of the conversation below and what Ali had to say:
On migrating from 205 Live to the SmackDown roster:
I showed up to TV one day and I was told ‘Hey, don’t get your hopes up, it’s a one time deal, but you’re working Daniel Bryan on SmackDown. It’s just to highlight you and the 205 Live division, it’s a one-time deal. It’s an opportunity, but don’t get any ideas! You’re not getting moved to SmackDown’. It wasn’t until the following week when I came back to TV that I was told ‘Hey, we’ve made the decision to move you over to SmackDown, you’re going to be a full-time member and you’re in the main event of the night’.
On his injury that potentially kept him from having a higher spot on the roster:
Unfortunately for Randy, a lot of people point the finger at him thinking the black eye was the cause of me missing the Elimination Chamber – that wasn’t the case. I had a series of injuries that were just piling up and unfortunately I had a pretty serious injury after that at a live event. I’m pleading with these doctors almost crying like ‘No, I’m good, don’t take this away from me. I’ve worked my entire life’.
On if he thinks there is potential for him as a heel:
I do believe, honestly, that turning heel would concern me in regards to what I would be saying. I’ve done that role tastefully before I came to WWE and obviously, I’m still a Muslim-American just giving people the truth and they don’t like it. But right now, I think it’s undeniable from my perspective the impact that I’m having by being this positive – I don’t want to call it Muslim role model – but positive figure that happens to be Muslim and that’s the key about it.
The complete interview can be read on their official website. Let us know below what you think about Ali’s above comments.
