Mustafa Ali is a very passionate guy.
During a new interview on WWE’s After The Bell, Mustafa Ali addressed asking for his WWE release and where he’d been during his absence from television. Ali asked for his release in January, but it was not granted and he remained off of WWE TV for several months. Ali returned in April, and he shared his thought process on the whole ordeal with Corey Graves and Vic Joseph.
“I’m very comfortable talking about it. I believe private conversations are meant to be private. The reason it went public is because that private conversation went nowhere. So anyone that truly knows me, and I know there’s a portion of the audience that was like how unprofessional. Anyone that’s ever worked with me, dealt with me as a human being, knows how much I love this place, how much I love sports entertainment, and how much I love wrestling. This is the only thing I ever wanted to do. For me to even get to that point, that’s the issue. Everyone’s judging the action, they’re not judging the intention behind the action. Imagine how much it would take for me to try to leave. So I think that’s the conversation, that’s the hot topic. And again there’s situations that I can’t publicly discuss, but that’s what I would want to say about that whole issue.
“The only reason it got to that point is because there was no other option. It’s incredible the things that you’ll do when you’re back’s against the wall and you’re fighting for survival. And I wouldn’t have done something unless I believed in it. And I still stand by that choice to this day. I did what I had to do. And for those of you that don’t know, I took a bit of a sabbatical. I was hanging out. But always gotta flip it, try to look at the positives. It wasn’t intentional, but the one huge positive out of the whole thing is my daughter, my youngest daughter Dua was born in November so I actually got to be home for the first couple of months, for the full process. My other two kids, I was there, but I wasn’t there every day. I was on the road, doing tours in London, the UK, whatever, coming back, seeing them for two days and back on the road. This time around, again it wasn’t the intention, but I’m trying to look at the positive out of that crazy time, was I was there for the whole deal.”
Asked if there was a moment where he realized what he had to do, Mustafa Ali said he just had to be honest.
“I wanna give you the right answer but it’s a new me and I just can’t be anything other than brutally honest. No, there wasn’t an aha moment. The reality of it is I just realized my problem was that I cared too much. I’m this super passionate guy and I remember one of the commentators, I’m not exactly sure who it was, but I remember I was giving them details about what the story was or what I’m trying to go for and I’m like hey you could get this. And it was Kevin Patrick, one of the newer commentators here in WWE and he said that he asked you about me and Corey says the one thing about Ali is he sees it all. So if he’s telling you something, he’s thought about it. So to go back to your question, the aha moment was you gotta control your passion. I’m a really passionate guy when it comes to this. And it’s not just about me. I’m the guy that goes oh, we can make this guy look even bigger if we shot it this way, and what about this, then he looks great. And then oh but we gotta give it some cushion for time. I’m the mad scientist sometimes and the majority of the guys I get to perform with are kinda like, ‘So what are we doing?’ Like that’s the trust level I have now with the performers and the producers. So when you have this super passionate guy that just feels like he’s running into wall after wall after wall, the sad reality is, and probably not something I should say, but I’ve just controlled my passion now. I just, ‘Okay. That’s what it is.’
“When I’m in there man, like autopilot hits and then I do care. You’ve seen the short matches that I’ve had. I’m still trying, I’m doing the job to the best of my ability and that’s something. But I realized the problem was, and I hate to use the word, but just caring too much about how it should be, at least in my mind.”
It was subsequently reported that Mustafa Ali’s WWE contract expires in mid-2024 and that the company did not add more time to the deal because of his absence.
Read More: Bandido Is A Big Fan Of Mustafa Ali, Calls Him An Amazing Person
If you use this transcript, credit WWE After The Bell and h/t WrestleZone and link back to this post.
