Mustafa Ali spent several years in WWE before he was released back in 2023. Many felt he wasn’t able to live up to his potential and now Ali has admitted he turned down several pitches because he didn’t want to embarrass his children.
While speaking on The Wrestling Classic, Mustafa Ali was asked about how, even in 2025, wrestling still sometimes relies on very stereotypical characters based on a person’s nationality and how important it is for him to avoid falling into that trap.
“We still—it’s 2025—and we still sometimes fall into situations where we get very stereotypical characters if you have some sort of nationality or whatnot. How important is it for you to stay away from being such a stereotypical character?”
Ali explained that he didn’t want to sound like he was complaining, but admitted his career definitely faced several obstacles because he refused to do certain storylines or character ideas. He always turned them down professionally, never shouting or making a scene. Instead, he would calmly explain that he believed certain ideas could hurt the company, scare off advertisers, or create backlash.
“I mean, I don’t want to like cry a river about it, but I feel like my career definitely hit several roadblocks because I refused to do certain storylines or certain character pitches. I always declined it with the most professionalism—in the sense of, rather than yelling like, ‘I’m not effing doing that,’ it was more like, ‘Hey, I think this will hurt the company, I think this will pull advertisers, I think there’ll be backlash.’ I presented my note from that scenario from a professional standpoint.”
More than that Ali said he didn’t want to take on roles that he’d be embarrassed to show his kids. He pointed out how these days, a child could go to school and get bullied over something they saw on the news or because of what some random person said online.
Ali said that words are powerful and while he can’t control what people hear, he can control how they see and how he speaks, presents himself, and carries himself. Ali never wanted to do anything that might encourage someone to cause harm.
Because of this, he took a stand and while he wouldn’t necessarily say his career suffered, there were definitely moments where opportunities were taken away because he wouldn’t go along with certain plans.
“But at the same time, I didn’t want to do something that I’d be embarrassed to show my kids. We live in such troubled times right now where a kid can go to school and get beat up because of something they saw on the news or whatever crazy person said something online and whoever listened to what podcast. Words are influential, right? We can’t control what other people hear, but we can control what they see. I can control what you see, the way I talk, the way I present myself, the way I carry myself. I don’t want to do anything that would aid into you being influenced to harm.
So I took a hard stance on that. I don’t want to say my career suffered from it, but there were definitely several instances where opportunities were pulled because I wasn’t going to go with the plan.”
Mustafa Ali ultimately did what was right for his beliefs and he is now more than happy working in TNA Wrestling, somewhere where he feels he can be himself and that’s all that matters in the end.
Do you respect Mustafa Ali for turning down stereotypical roles, even if it cost him career opportunities? Sound off in the comments.
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