Home

WWE

Mustafa Ali Reveals Why He Almost Quit Wrestling

Published 11/06/2020, 9:27 AM EST

Follow Us

Mustafa Ali is currently the leader of RETRIBUTION. After years of being neglected by the company, he has come up with his own vengeance. But no matter how much he hates the company, Ali is grateful.

On his latest appearance in ‘After the Bell,‘ Ali spoke about how he became hopeless about wrestling. He debuted on WWE in 2016. But before that, he frequently wrestled in indie promotions all over the world since 2003. He initially wrestled during the day while working night shifts as a police officer.

“A lot of my friends were blowing up on the indie scene, and like you mentioned, I was a police officer at the time, so traveling all over the world, doing these tours in the UK and Japan just wasn’t feasible. The number one thing for me, at that time, was providing for my family as a man should, so my dream came second.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Maintaining a dual life was becoming a struggle for him. So, he ultimately chose to quit his passion. However, Cruiserweight classics were just around the corner, and it was a huge decision for him.

“It was that typical indie wrestler moment. Anyone that’s done this can understand. I thought this was the year that I’m going to hang up the boots or the kick pads or whatever you want to call them because I wasn’t getting any traction.”

But eventually, he didn’t and sent an email to WWE. William Regal got in touch and explained the process. However, Ali did not make the final cut of the 32 participants.

Read more – “Give Us Time To Tell A Story” – Mustafa Ali Defends The RETRIBUTION Storylines

Mustafa Ali is forever indebted to Lince Dorado

After he did not make the initial cut, Ali was again disappointed. He got to know he was a backup to the tournament, and there were 10 more guys ahead of him. However, he still went ahead in the hopes of an opening.

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest WWE stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

Eventually, Lince Dorado’s opponent could not make it, and Dorado chose Ali as his opponent. They have known each other since their indie days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

“I owe the world to him because he immediately stepped up and said, ‘give me Ali.’ They reminded him that the segment that our match was, the time slot was very, very small, and he like, ‘yeah, that’s why I want him because I know he can get it done,’ and we went out there, and I think we tore it up. I mean, obviously, I’m here now, but they cracked the door open a little bit, and I kicked the damn thing down.”

After that, he went up to Triple H for a job. Although he was initially sent away, WWE offered him a full-time deal to work on their cruiserweight division, 205 live.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Learn more about Ali’s interesting journey in the video below –

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Angana Roy

1,266Articles

One take at a time

Angana Roy is a WWE and AEW author for EssentiallySports, having published more than 800 professional wrestling articles. She is currently pursuing higher studies in English language and literature from the University of Calcutta and has over three years of experience in journalism. As a life-long fan of the sports entertainment brand of pro-wrestling, her work consists of live coverage of weekly shows, PPVs, speculating the future course of storylines and everything in between.
Show More>