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WWE Following his WWE departure, TNA X-Division Champion Mustafa Ali has explained why his WWE character change got turned down.
Since leaving WWE, Mustafa Ali has been on a successful run, appearing for multiple promotions in addition to his work with TNA Wrestling where he is the current X-Division Champion.
After his non-compete clause was up following his WWE release, Ali pushed out a campaign video that announced his appearances for a handful of promotions.
Speaking to Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Mustafa Ali explained why his campaign character in WWE got turned down. He said:
“So the vision (for this current character) was brewing in my head since actually the cruiserweight division in the 205 Live days, and there was a couple of instances throughout WWE where you would see, kind of, you know, examples of this character or pitches to this character or maybe one promo would pop up.”
“But eventually, it would get shut down because the general logic with WWE was they don’t do anything political or religious, you know?”
“Now that the character’s kind of up and running, I think people can see that there’s nothing political about it. It’s just the nuances of a politician; campaigns, protests, being voted, etcetera, speeches.”
“I’m not saying anything political, and I feel that’s where the disconnect was with creative and myself so I have been thinking about this concept for years.”
Diving into the campaign video that he shared to announce his first independent wrestling dates, Ali said:
“The video you are talking about (post-WWE campaign video), I’m very, very, very, very proud of it because basically, it was a very well-thought-of marketing campaign.”
“I was a marketing coordinator initially before becoming a police officer, before becoming a WWE superstar.”
“But I’ve always had the sense of marketing and we all know what typically happens when someone leaves WWE. They have a prison break-style video…”
“Is your character a criminal? Why are you breaking out of prison? The world’s gonna be watching this. Invest in yourself so that you can hit the ground running…”
“I think now, I’ve set the bar. I remember everyone really praising (Jon) Moxley’s prison break promo and when he did it, his video and the same thing with the Cody Rhodes list so now, I feel like I’m in the discussion now with that.”
“Like, oh, if you wanna make a splash, Mustafa Ali’s Campaign video and the marketing campaign behind it, that’s the new measuring stick in the business.”
Mustafa Ali will defend the TNA X-Division Championship against Trent Seven on Friday, June 14 at TNA Against All Odds.
Transcription via POST Wrestling
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